Exploration games - Camera System and Health

Camera and Health
Having the two interlinked could be very effective.

A 3rd person camera would allow the player to keep an eye on the character's condition and thus allow the game to give the player feed back in a digetic way.

Left 4 Dead 2

Although the game is 1st person, Left 4 Dead 2 allows you to see the status of your teammates via digetic means. The characters cramp forwards, limping and labouring to their destination.

Rochelle is healing the player.

Resident Evil 5

The player has an over the shoulder 3rd person veiw of Chris Redfield in RE5. This allows the player to see the damage which is inflicted upon Chris.

Chris nurses his near fatal wound.

A digetic display of health mixed with some other elements such as screen effects will help illustrate to the player what state of health the character is in.

 

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Vertigo~

Damage appears on the avatar in the pause menu. 

Although a FPS, the character's damage that was focusd on each limb would affect gameplay via movement, camera view and health from all manner of injuries. The character will limp bleed and black out. The damage shows here but is more visible in the pause menu where it shows your avatar.
If the character got too scared the camera would act as if in vertigo, the colour from the screen would sap into monochrome and you could feel his heartbeat in the vibration of the pad and hear it on-screen with his heavy breathing.