Does anyone else HATE most "Boss Fights"

Don't remember that. I remember the Reaper attacking the Citadel in ME1. The fight with Saren Cyborg - not so much. A mere boss fight doesn't make it memorable. I only remember Saren as antagonist because he was a memorable character. No idea who Sarevok is. There is exactly 1 fight I remember from Shadows of Amn: A Lich I whacked with my anti-magic dwarf. That's pretty much it. The hamster Bo also - and Minsc.
There's been a fight in a dungeon in Gothic 1 - it involved Orks I think. I don't remember. Some monster I guess. I remember wildlife fights more than the end fight. There was a very memorable wolf. The first wolf I encountered. A real challenge. I only remember that end dungeon tanked my computer performance-wise.
Space Marine I remember. It was a QTE fest. Not the actual fight (again, not memorable) - the final "duel" was QTE. I loathed it.
Most games I remember for their journey - not their ending. Fallout 3 was some water purifier conclusion. Peaceful iirc. Fallout Las Vegas was showdown at the Legion camp. That was proper buildup. But I think it wasn't Caesar I fought, just minion. Fallout 4 was loads of mooks and robos. Never saw Liberty Prime - picked the Brotherhood. Can't say I missed it. The Mirelurk Queens were pretty spongy already despite chucking loads of missiles at them - game was kinda poorly balanced in the mid-game. In end-game no problem.
Vampire Masquerade: I don't remember. I tried to replay it not too long ago and stopped replay when meeting some ugly boss in Nosferatu quest line. Remembered how I hated it the first time.
So yeah, the bosses I usually just forget about. They're either annoying to fight or pretty much unmemorable. In turn, I remember swathes of gameplay mid-way through, because it was simply more engaging than the generally lackluster endings.

I can relate with all that. I too enjoy the journeys far more than the destinations. Not just in games, movies as well, my favorite parts are always the beginning and the middle, the conclusions / showdowns I find far less interesting and boring. Maybe because in both games and movies I use them as a form of escapism, and what truly fascinates me is the worlds, the universes, the settings, the journeys.
 
I can relate with all that. I too enjoy the journeys far more than the destinations. Not just in games, movies as well, my favorite parts are always the beginning and the middle, the conclusions / showdowns I find far less interesting and boring. Maybe because in both games and movies I use them as a form of escapism, and what truly fascinates me is the worlds, the universes, the settings, the journeys.
Thats where a well written book by a decent author is still the best form of entertainment....TV shows/Movies/games all modern media for story telling and most fail at endings. Look at Game of Thrones, starts off following the books and is awsome, ends up being written my TV scriptwriters and goes a bit crap. The Matrix, awesome first film, next two and finale a bit crap (I needed to read a wiki page about the Matrix ending and how it's all about "love" and that's why Neo helped the machines).
 
Look at Game of Thrones, starts off following the books and is awsome, ends up being written my TV scriptwriters and goes a bit crap. The Matrix, awesome first film, next two and finale a bit crap (I needed to read a wiki page about the Matrix ending and how it's all about "love" and that's why Neo helped the machines).
That has a lot to do with genre tropes though. There's numerous "serious" movies and TV series that have perfectly decent endings, I'm guessing mainly because they aren't tied to age old conventions of science fiction or fantasy (like a friend of mine said, "maybe you should stop watching TV series written for children").

It's interesting in the case of computer games though, they seldomly seem to transcend genre limitations and the greatest of computer game story lines would be rather mediocre if they were books (take Mass Effect for example, which is basically just all space opera cliches smashed together).
 
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It's interesting in the case of computer games though, they seldomly seem to transcend genre limitations and the greatest of computer game story lines would be rather mediocre if they were books (take Mass Effect for example, which is basically just all space opera cliches smashed together).
Ye, it comes down to how you absorb the media. Game is very different from book. If I think rationally about ME, I feel urge to facepalm sometimes, but it is / was a very good game and story experience in general. There had been very few space operas at its time though. And I rather have scifi instead of ork fangs or elf ears.
 
Ye, it comes down to how you absorb the media. Game is very different from book. If I think rationally about ME, I feel urge to facepalm sometimes, but it is / was a very good game and story experience in general. There had been very few space operas at its time though. And I rather have scifi instead of ork fangs or elf ears.
I want an up to date remake of KOTR...
 
I agree with the general message of the OP, few games have memorable endings, and a lot, lot fewer among those have memorable boss fights. As someone else said earlier, in the end for me the journey is the destination, so I'll forgive a lackluster ending/boss if the rest of the game was worth the time spent to get there.

There are very, very few that come to my mind at a glance. I remember Mafia ending as a very good one (great story, even greater telling, a hard fight but not a lazy and dumb one, a meaningful ending, rare stuff for the early 2000's), Max Payne 3 wasn't half bad (there was some sort of a boss fight but not a frustrating one, and in general the last airport level was exceptional), there were others surely but sifting through a quarter of a century of memories could take some time. Most ending were rubbish though. Rage, I'm looking at you with a angry stare.

As for bosses, two that I love are FTL mothership and Into The Breach last stage defense. Rogue-like, semi random, but almost always a compelling ending and a great fight, except when you really have some though luck.

A special mention for Hellblade, that for me must be the best ending to a game I remember in decades: stunning setting, exceptional music, surprisingly clever application of a very simplistic fight mechanic to convey a final message in the greater scheme of the story. Endings like these really are rainbow unicorns.
 
TW2, what a mess.
Happily playing, then, * poof *, my immersive 3d world is gone, replaced by the 'I'm stuck in console 2D left/right mode', trying to beat the 1st boss, that tentacled monster, using KB+M, when obviously the game insists you should be using a controller.
Beat it, turned it off in disgust, never went back.
Boss fights is one reason my game library is much less cluttered than most gamers.
 
Some boss fights are more memorable than others.
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As for bosses, two that I love are FTL mothership and Into The Breach last stage defense. Rogue-like, semi random, but almost always a compelling ending and a great fight, except when you really have some though luck.

A special mention for Hellblade, that for me must be the best ending to a game I remember in decades: stunning setting, exceptional music, surprisingly clever application of a very simplistic fight mechanic to convey a final message in the greater scheme of the story. Endings like these really are rainbow unicorns.
Well, both FTL and Into the Breach are pretty much designed around the little journey to the end boss. Played to fail and try again until you prevail. But we get a lot of tools on the way too. They are little gems in that regard. FTL more appealing to me I'd say. Been looking for more of this kind.

Hellblade was pretty much a journey, too. The end boss not really antagonist, but artistically speaking, it was the best interpretation of Hel I ever saw - whether in painting, writing or any other artistic form.
 
TW2, what a mess.
Happily playing, then, * poof *, my immersive 3d world is gone, replaced by the 'I'm stuck in console 2D left/right mode', trying to beat the 1st boss, that tentacled monster, using KB+M, when obviously the game insists you should be using a controller.
Beat it, turned it off in disgust, never went back.
Boss fights is one reason my game library is much less cluttered than most gamers.
Lol, I tried to chop all the tentacles, like suggested for the quest. So then comes that tentacle sweep (where you get prompted to jump onto) and I'm like evading it. Figuring out spots to evade it I continue to chop at tentacles, but now they are invulnerable and I go WTH this is totally bugged until I finally go down with no indication what to do. So I google it up how to do it after dozen of tries and never saw the bloody prompt. That's what happens if console ppl design stuff for PC.
Needless to say my tolerance level was already way down when I got tossed into littel arena with assassin of King. Tried about 4 times and noped out of the game.
 

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Z'maja in Cloudrest, ESO. Hardest difficulty.

Good luck.

No, I haven't cleared it.
 
OP here. Well I finally managed to get the final level to run right. I moved it to the primary drive (an SSD) in my PC and successfully completed it because it ran a lot better and didn't crash. Quite why a game from 2007 (when SSDs were rate and expensive) would require an SSD is anybody's guess. Or maybe just moving it helped by refreshing some files - Who knows?

Still hate the final scene of Crysis. A boss basically spawning multiple low-level enemies whilst doing pattern attacks, followed by a cut scene. They even modified the player characters abilities to stop them from sprinting too much and it wasn't done with the care of the rest of the game, being glitchy and feeling very "forced" to play. But the cinematic cut scene when you're done is quite good.

My favourite "boss fight" - the Gigantua from half-life 1. It's mid-game, but awesome!
 
Does anyone else find most boss fights just an exercise in frustration, that feels like it was tacked on as punctuation to let you know you'd finished a level?

I'm currently re-playing Crysis and after the superlative experience that is the rest of the game (especially the ascension level) the big final scene is a buggy, unoriginal mess. Basically you've just got this massive bullet-sponge of a boss who is only vulnerable at a certain point. So you strafe-around (stop me if this is familiar) and pick up ammo and avoid their special attack and shoot and rinse-and-repeat over and over. Until they die and then - wowsers - another one pops up. I wouldn't mind so much, but the rest of the game is the picture of stability and this thing just glitches and crashes constantly and - for some weird reason - nomad suddenly has the walking speed of a drunken, arthritic snail.

It's the same at the end of Doom 2016. Massive Boss fight. Special attacks. Learn the Patterns. Ammo Drops. But it's a scene you only get once, so they don't spend any real development resources on it and just turns into this jarring peak in difficulty with a poorly-made level and boring, frustrating, naff boss. WHY DO GAMES DO THIS? It's like getting to the end of a nice meal in a good gastro-pub and finding the Chef leaves deserts to his soux Chef who just pulls a McFlurry out the freezer, plops it on a hot plate, squirts it with Ice-Magic, crumbles a magic mushroom over it and calls it a "Chocolate Supreme Dream". It's such a disappointing end to something enjoyable I'd actually prefer they didn't bother at all if they're not going to do it properly. Just a simple pop-up "You Winner" would be better.

GOOD boss fights are well-made, dramatic climactic mini-games that bring in new things (new weapons) and give the game a great send-off. Why are so many so terrible?


I hate, HATE boss fights in general. I hate them with a vengeance.
I especially hate them when you are playing a wonderful open world game in which you can use many different approaches in taking out your opponents... and then suddenly they lock you in a room with some ridiculously overpowered and armored boss and you have to jump and run in special pre programmed ways to defeat the boss and give him a thousand headshots to kill him.
I have stopped playing several games because of this kind of nonsense.
 
I hate, HATE boss fights in general. I hate them with a vengeance.
I especially hate them when you are playing a wonderful open world game in which you can use many different approaches in taking out your opponents... and then suddenly they lock you in a room with some ridiculously overpowered and armored boss and you have to jump and run in special pre programmed ways to defeat the boss and give him a thousand headshots to kill him.
I have stopped playing several games because of this kind of nonsense.
Same.
What I hate even more than breaking immersion and freedom is the artificial "difficulty" which usually means learning its attacks and grinding down its ridiculous health bar. They are simply a gaming equivalent of a speed bump.
 
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