Can you imagine those poor henchmen you killed? their life flashing upon their eyes when you drive that sword right into their sternum. A moment later they will be revived, those henchmen will be cheering and happy about being alive again. But a couple minutes later the hero is back in that room again and you decided to separate half of their brain with a big hammer, violently. When they are revived again they no longer cheer. They dread the moment when the hero need to pass that room again.....

It's not that bad, really. The level is still excellent and arguably it's easier to avoid the witches than kill them anyway. The only reason it annoyed me is because I like to clear rooms in stealth games.

QFT - that was the worst aspect of the game for me

I don't get it when people complain about the respawns in System Shock 2 - in my playthroughs of the game they were few/far between and usually not the types of enemies worth using ammo on.

Oh, yes. Respawning enemies is almost always horrible. I didn't mind it much in System Shock 2, but I do mind it in other games. Septerra Core suffers from respawning enemies because the combat is really slow. I remember the Ryder White DLC (or whatever it was called) for Dead Island also suffered badly from this, but in the worst possible way. Not only did enemies respawn, but they constantly charged to your location to murder you. So basically, if you stayed still for more than five seconds (sometimes, not even that long), you had better be ready to fight. It was so bad I gave up on the DLC, despite being somewhat interested in the story and liking the base game quite a bit.

Also, Dark Souls. Okay, I know it's part of the game, and, to be honest, I probably wouldn't have gotten through the game if I hadn't been able to farm the respawning Silver Knights in Anor Londo. But the respawning enemies can get extremely annoying when you have to go through them every time you get wasted by a boss.

Far Cry 2 suffers from this, too, though I personally don't think it as bad as some people make it out to be.

So yeah, most of the time, respawning enemies = horribleness.

But that's the challenge of it! Also someone actually done a speed run from a fresh character and they only need around an hour to finish the game...

You are not wrong

I 'unno, if the combat's enjoyable, then I can appreciate it. In contrast, I like respawning in enclose areas a la Bioshock; true it becomes irritating when the health, hard-to-kill enemies show up all the time and are a drain on your resources, but it adds to the challenge, for me.

Far Cry 2, and other GTA-like games I guess.

The enemies in checkpoints and bases seem to respawn whenever you finish a mission, and start another (so they don't respawn while you are on a mission, only afterwards). I've seen some complaints about that, and at first I was annoyed as well... until I realized that if they didn't respawn, quite soon I'd be driving on a vast barren area without any enemies or encounters at all. That probably wouldn't be so much fun either. So after awhile I didn't mind the respawning at all, especially since usually it was quite simple to avoid the "random encounters" (just drive through the checkpoints at full speed, or avoid the checkpoints altogether by driving off-road).

Also in Far Cry 2 you have to take into account that the checkpoints usually had some goodies for you, like more ammo and health. So if the enemies on those checkpoints wouldn't respawn, I presume neither would those goodies? So it kinda made sense that if you wanted to get the respawning goodies from the checkpoints, first you'd always have to get rid of the enemies at that checkpoint (or try to sneak in without them noticing you).

And I guess in some CRPGs they make sense too from the leveling and loot gathering point of view, at least the random encounters. Diablo 2?

But, if we are strictly talking about only linear games where you don't mostly backtrack but move on to new levels, I can't think of cases where I'd prefer respawning enemies on one spot (ie. I can't simply kill them all before advancing, but have to run through them or something).

Oh yeah, that annoyed me in that one GTA: Vice City mission where you were supposed to storm the enemy ship and kill certain person on it. First I stayed put trying to kill all the incoming security guards and such, but quite soon I realized they would just keep coming through those doors. Weak! So the only way to pass that was try to run past the enemy guards to your objective when there were not too many around, timing it right.

As for the respawning police in GTA games, it is easier to accept that they just won't stop coming by shooting them all. That seems kinda realistic, I'd think they will always just call more and more police forces on the spot, if you start killing them. (At least I don't believe GTA games ever run out of angry policemen, do they?)

yeah hate them too especially in shooters: you just don't expect them or they shoot you in the back. Currently playing chaser and it destroys the game...

LOL, I just mentioned it as an example of respawning making sense from the gameplay point of view. :)

If the checkpoint enemies wouldn't respawn after you finish a Far Cry 2 mission (or start a new mission), the gaming area would be barren and empty in no time. Also, as most checkpoints also provided you (respawning) ammo and health, it kinda made sense from the gameplay point of view that also the baddies "protecting" those goodies would respawn. If you didn't care for the goodies, you could usually simply drive through the checkpoints, or avoid them altogether.

In the end, I don't consider it that different from other GTA-like games. When you go to a hostile gang areas in those games, it is not like they ever run out of angry gang members, especially if you visit the area later. Same for the cops, if you make them angry, there will be just more and more of them, the more you shoot them.

Far Cry 2 is basically a GTA-like shooter, and I look at those differently than level-based FPS games and such.

And CPRGs are another genre where I don't necessarily mind respawning random encounters, in fact I may sometimes even prefer them. Depends how they are implemented.

I think that in open world games, if an area repopulates after a suitable length of time then that's fine. But what you're describing sounds like it doesn't meet the 'suitable length of time' qualifier.

Another pet hate: bullet sponges. A good example of shit balancing if ever there was one.

As for the more linear level based shooters... If some level has respawning enemies, the least I expect is that the level also offers you limitless supply of ammo and health, to encounter the never-ending supply of enemies. Otherwise it is total rageage for me.

I recall some cases where I had to fight a never-ending stream of enemies with a limited ammo and health, and yeah that sucked big time. Maybe it makes sense in some cases (like police have pinned you down to one place), but from a gameplay point of view it would still be very irritating.

And to be clear: I can't think of a case where the enemies respawning at one spot would have been good.

Unless its an XP driven game, I just find it annoying tbh.

Respawning enemies drove me away from System Shock 2, at least for time being. I gave away more than I gained from an encounter and it discouraged me from exploring. It also safely broke my immersion.

The only time it works for me are certain RPGs. I like to be prepared for upcoming boss fights and welcome grinding as long as it isn't excessive and can be avoided later on.
For example, Septerra Core is full of respawning enemies but I didn't mind because my characters actually displayed improved stats (you weren't a weakling after 10+ hours like in Baldur's Gate and older enemies had been less and less of hassle) and there was usually an alternative road without encounters.

My tactics for that level were stop time, blink, drink mana pot, blink to safety or stop time, dart the ladies watch them fall. Still managed to find granny's recipe and get the bonus rune. I was sooo OP :)

I did get annoyed in the previous DLC though, in the barrister's house. After getting him in trouble with the military, I decided to go back and take some goodies that were locked in chests. Just up some stairs two bozos materialized out of now where. I was like WTF?! They should have been behind me right? Right game? Apparently, not :)