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Oxygen Meter: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
Somewhere inbetween [[Super Drowning Skills]] and [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]] lies the
In [[Down the Drain|water levels]], there will often be designated stops that allow for the oxygen meter to be refilled, such as ceiling vents that allow you to resurface and breathe or bubbles that pop up in certain places to automatically refill the meter.
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Frustratingly, your oxygen meter is sometimes invisible yet still just as real and waiting to bite you; this is most likely to happen in a first person shooter. This is probably just because the interface is already full and they don't want to waste space on something not even used in most levels... and nobody came up with the idea of making it only visible when in use.
An occasional alternative to the Oxygen Meter is to allow only for a finite amount of time underwater before the player character automatically floats back to the surface
A third way, of course, is to just prohibit underwater travel
Characters with [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]], by definition, rarely have need of an
{{examples}}
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** The ''[[Ty the Tasmanian Tiger]]'' games use the Mario 64 variant, with exactly the same consequences.
** The oxygen meters in [[Super Mario Sunshine]], [[Super Mario Galaxy]] and [[Super Mario Galaxy 2]] can be apparently refilled by collecting coins. More interestingly, the Bee Mario form in the latter can fly longer by collecting coins in mid air to refill the flight meter. How that works is mentioned, but not quite explained.
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]''. This was a departure from the rest of the series, as previous games gave the player [[Super Drowning Skills]].
** The game after this, ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'', kept the ability to swim but restricts it to the surface, so there's no meter.
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories]]'' also restricted it to the surface, but added a stamina meter which works exactly as an Oxygen Meter; when it runs out, you're screwed.
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** Complete with [[Video Games/Nightmare Fuel|the dreaded countdown music]].
*** To be fair though, it did take 2-3 real world seconds for each tick of the countdown, and most underwater sections had those mysteriously convenient sources of Sonic-sized (presumably so you could also get your torso inside and equalize pressure) breathable-air bubbles about every 30 seconds of distance... just far enough for a skilled player to collect all the rings and powerups and catch a breath from them.
** This is the same case for the first ''Sonic Adventure'' game, but in its sequel, two-thirds of the cast dies upon falling into water (save the small patch in the Chao Gardens). This eventually became the case for everyone over the course of the 3D series while the 2D games retained the classic countdown.
*** The underwater Knuckles level "Aquatic Mine", which can be quite dangerous until you find the infinite oxygen item.
** It is all rather selective, too - on some levels, Sonic displays exquisite [[Super Drowning Skills]], dying if he so much as touches the rippling water at the very bottom of the game world (if you're lucky, he may only lose rings, and bounce back onto land). On others, water is a relatively benign substance, merely reducing your running speed and jump height (swimming is out of the question), and in ''some'' cases (where it takes up a significant portion or even all of the level) requiring you to find air to breathe. Worse, there are even some places where the two are mixed; go too deep on, say, the ([[Game Gear]], Sonic 1) Jungle zone or the Aquatic boss fight, and you'll instantly pop your clogs. Maybe Hedgehogs are really sensitive to pressure?
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** In Tales of Monkey Island, Guybrush can intentionally go underwater, and if you spend a little less than ten minutes of gameplay underwater, Guybrush will remember his limit and go back to dry land. Thankfully, there's only really one or two areas where you need to be underwater, they're incredibly straightforward to navigate, and like it's been said before, ten minutes is a generous amount of time.
* The remake of ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' has one of this, but it ceases to be an issue once Ryu acquires an oxygen tank and draws on it from his [[Hyperspace Arsenal]].
* In ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'', when the
** It's not really needed in ''Banjo-Tooie'', either, seeing as the major underwater level gives you unlimited oxygen.
*** However, it does have another use in ''Banjo-Tooie'': not only does it affect Banjo's ability to hold his breath under water, it also affects his ability to hold his breath in the presence of poisonous gas which Gruntilda uses against him in the final battle.
* In ''[[Deus Ex]]'', your health would also start decreasing when you run out of oxygen and start gulping water. While there are [[Instant Expert|skills]], items and [[Upgrade Artifact
* Bungie's ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' series feature an especially heinous, literal Oxygen Meter: Your armored suit's [[HUD]] doesn't indicate how much oxygen remains in your lungs and blood, but in ITS compressed oxygen tanks! Since your suit lacks any way of refilling it with ambient oxygen, you must locate compressed oxygen dispenser panels or tanks of compressed oxygen to refill it. Worse yet, the player character apparently refuses to hold his breath, as if his suit's tank is empty he will [[Critical Existence Failure|instantly faint from even momentary immersion]].
** It's rare to have trouble with Oxygen underwater (or sewage, or lava), but the back-to-back vacuum levels (three in a row, if you visit a secret level) in ''Marathon Infinity'' have a nasty reputation. The one vacuum level in ''Marathon'' was also infamous.
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* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' uses a couple of variations on this; while most of the games use a standard oxygen meter, ''[[Tomb Raider]]: Chronicles'' used a special diving suit on one level that had confusing ([[Guide Dang It|since they never told you]]) additional mechanics: the suit had near infinite air, but as you bumped into walls and rocks Lara audibly becomes stressed and begins breathing heavily, at which point you begin to lose oxygen quickly, meaning you had to avoid hitting things. ''[[Tomb Raider]] 3'' also has an underwater propulsion vehicle that makes you move faster, but it's argubly less useful than just swimming as it decreases your general mobility and must be got off of to use switches and other items. Water in arctic levels also had a hypothermia bar that went down faster than the oxygen bar, but functioned much the same way. In ''Legend'' and ''Anniversary'', oddly, Lara is much slower underwater and has a much shorter air meter. ''Underworld'' changes things up again, with Lara going back to being almost as fast as in the original games, and having such a long oxygen bar it borders on [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]] (that is in the rare instances where she swims without scuba gear, where it is that trope).
** Decrease in health also functions differently depending on the game. Prior to ''[[Tomb Raider]] Legend'', health usually decreases at a fixed steady rate. During and after ''Legend'', the decrease in health rate is usually a slash of a quarter of the health bar every two seconds, or an eighth, depending on the difficulty level setting.
* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'' has an invisible one just for swimming. In the Subspace Emissary, some stickers can increase the length, but there really isn't any need for it.
* ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'' has a fairly unremarkable one, although you'd kind of expect a muscled-up warrior like him to be able to hold his breath a bit longer.
* ''[[Cave Story]]'' has an oxygen meter which appears when the protagonist is underwater, although one might wonder why, since he's a robot. Players trying for the [[Multiple Endings|secret ending]] will eventually discover while saving Curly that surface robots are programmed to shut down if their systems get flooded with water, but this leads one to ask how carrying an oxygen tank enables one to survive underwater indefinitely.
** Well, it is a bubble around the player, so the systems don't get flooded with water.
* Swimming underwater in ''[[Gothic]]'' adds an oxygen meter in addition to the player's health and mana meters. When the Nameless Hero runs out of oxygen, the health starts draining instead, until he runs out of health and drowns. Notable because surfacing will make the meter invisible again, but will ''not'' instantly refill
* ''[[The New Zealand Story]]'' did this, with the added implication that it may have actually been water in Tiki's
* ''[[
* ''Radical Rex'' plays this entirely straight. Not only do you get a bar, but you have to either surface to refill it, or (ugh) lock lips with a big fat fish that is somehow able to maintain neutral buoyancy despite apparently being full of air. Oh, and if you touch the un-inflated fish (which this type will become upon giving up its payload), you'll lose a big chunk of air. There are also "bubble" powerups good for about half a deep breath. And if you get caught in the anemone's tentacles, the meter drains almost immediately to zero (though whether it's this or some kind of poison in them that kills you is debatable).
* The ''[[Thief]]'' games have an oxygen meter that looks like a line of bubbles across the bottom of the screen. If you knock someone unconscious and dump him in water, he will die in about the same span of time you would (so don't dump unconscious guards in swimming pools if you're running a no-kill mission).
** Averted in ''Thief: Deadly Shadows'', where Garrett has learnt [[Super Drowning Skills]]
* In ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 5'', there is a water dungeon which you have to guide your current Navi through. While they are underwater they are perfectly fine until they run out of "cyber-air" (really?), at which point their HP starts dropping rapidly until you either hit a cyber-air pocket or exit the water. Oh, [[Fake Difficulty|and there's random encounters the whole way, including while you're attempting to fight the currents that push you back and drain your air, and while you're trying to avoid the whirlpools that drain your air.]] There's also three areas of this, each one progressively more frustrating. This is one instance Capcom cut something out of the English release for a good
** By the DS version, it was back up to four, which made for a rather annoying playthrough using a FAQ from [[
* When travelling on the ocean floor to Tane-Tane Island in ''[[Mother 3]]'', the way you refuel your characters' collective oxygen bar is... interesting, to say the least. The amount of time you're able to survive without the aide of these machines is fairly realistic compared to most examples,
** You get them [[Ho Yay|kissed by big-lipped mermen]].
* Non-underwater example: the ''[[Mr. Driller]]'' series has an Oxygen meter that slowly depletes as you play, with the oxygen loss accelerating once you make it deeper underground. To stay alive, you need to pick up air capsules scattered throughout the mine.
* ''[[Jungle Hunt|Jungle King / Jungle Hunt]]'' uses this during the swimming levels.
* ''[[Alpha Prime]]'' uses an
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', the party has twenty minutes to defeat [[Bonus Boss|Emerald]] [[Underwater Boss Battle|WEAPON]], unless a party member is carrying the "Underwater" Materia, which replaces the timer with [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]].
* In ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'', this becomes visible once you enter a vacuum. As it depletes, Isaac begins to choke and gasp, which is just wonderful for your concentration. Thankfully your time limit can be extended with upgrades to your RIG and restored with air canisters.
* There's an optional underwater dungeon in ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' that gives you a timer. The boss is a [[Puzzle Boss]], just to make things more "fun". (It's Gogo the Mimic. How do you win? {{spoiler|Do nothing. He's testing to see if you can be a good mimic - so mimic him mimicking you doing nothing.}} The faster you catch on, the more time you have to get out.)
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* A Variation, from ''Metro2033'': Your wristwatch tells you how much time you have left on your gas mask before you need to switch filter canisters. Spend too long in areas with toxic atmosphere and you die. And you need to take off your gas mask as soon as it's safe to breathe, or it might get damaged the next time you get attacked in melee.
** And since there's no HUD, you have to check your wristwatch constantly to see how much time you have before you have to change filters. And just because you're required to wear the gas mask doesn't mean it can't be damaged either, making any surface expedition a tense journey to avoid any serious conflict.
* All three ''[[
* In ''[[Jabless Adventure]]'', your oxygen counts down from 100. It happens so quickly that you really can't accomplish ''anything'' underwater prior to receiving the SCUBA gear (which allows you to stay underwater indefinitely).
* While you don't get a visible oxygen meter in [[Team Fortress 2]], stay underwater long enough and your character will make drowning-type noises and take damage, eventually drowning. As with the ''Half-Life'' series above, health lost from drowning is restored by coming up for air.
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** Amusingly, if you attempt to equip a Fish Bowl as a helmet, you start drowning as if you were underwater. Which you kind of are, as far as breathing is concerned.
* ''[[Endless Ocean]]'' essentially averts; it *does* have an oxygen meter for your air tanks, but it's a rather long one and most tasks get completed without running out of air ever being a factor. When it does run out, you get warped back to the boat. The sequel does tweak things a bit; dangerous fish attacking you knock your air out faster. Certain equipment upgrades up your air supply in both games.
* ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' uses a meter like this, but not for
* Naturally enough, ''[[Subnautica]]'' -- a game where you spend most of your time under water -- has one that initially reflects your ability to hold your breath, then as you build better and better air tanks for yourself, their capacity.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Stat Meters]]
[[Category:Video Game Interface Elements]]
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