Does anyone else HATE most "Boss Fights"

[Noddie]

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?

 

[Steve]

I don't play games like that, but it reminds me of blockbuster Hollywood movies where the Good Guy™ dispatches every other enemy with a single gunshot, often without looking and whilst running, until we get to the Big Bad Boss Enemy™, where you just know there's going to be a tedious 30-minute showdown, often in a deserted warehouse or factory, before the film finally reaches its conclusion. Drives me mad, it does!

 

[EUS]

Yup, outdated game mechanics from the early 80's whose only function was to soak as many quarters from you before suppertime.
When you're no longer a child, and have as many chances to replay for free, it becomes useless as a game feature.

 

[Caramel Clown]

There are some games that do boss fights exceptionally well. Like many bosses from DS series for example. But there are many bad ones because people go the lazy route. They just give boss tons of health and say "here, fight that".

 

[Asp Explorer]

I'm not sure there my dear EUS

80's boss fights were pretty boss Meeting that other dragon in Thanatos was really quite something as a kid.

 

[wrmiller]

Got burned out on that stuff when playing Doom when it first came out. Love Crysis (and the sequels), but when I get to the boss scene I just shut the game down. Some really stupid game design there, but it was likely done by kids...

 

[Leper Messiah]

Yup, outdated game mechanics from the early 80's whose only function was to soak as many quarters from you before suppertime.
When you're no longer a child, and have as many chances to replay for free, it becomes useless as a game feature.

Spot on, it's an 80's game mechanic that has for some bizarre reason become synonymous with gaming in general.. I HATE boss fights with a passion, worst has got to be Deus Ex Human Revolution though, those boss fights jarred you right out of how you were playing the game, apart from that DEHR was an excellent game. Personally I think the whole modern ethos behind them is laziness.

I love the Borderlands games, I play them solo, I HATE the boss fights.....thankfully the games allow a large degree of freedom in killing them, but it usually the same routine as the OP outlines.

 

[Red Anders]

worst has got to be Deus Ex Human Revolution though, those boss fights jarred you right out of how you were playing the game, apart from that DEHR was an excellent game.

Exactly the example I was going to cite. Take a game that got the ethos of the original spot on, giving you multiple ways to do virtually everything, then funnel you to a slugfest with an obvious boss. To be fair they did address it in the Director's Cut.

 

[Noddie]

[QUOTE="Asp Explorer, post: 8411399, member: 29383]

80's boss fights were pretty boss Meeting that other dragon in Thanatos was really quite something as a kid.
[/QUOTE]

Ahhhh, Thanatos. one of Durrell's finest.

Check this out;

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ3GibZTgRM


I do sometimes wonder if some game designers think that the idea of a game is to be something other than entertaining. RPGs that seem to think it's "gameplay" to have to grind at something that isn't fun for ages would be an example of this. Shooters that have the frustratingly virtually-unbeatable boss would be another. Puzzles that have solutions that require something that appears unimportant earlier in the game, and you simply can't progress without it - only they don't tell you any of this, so... You eventually google it and find out it wasn't explained unless you call the company's "tip line". Saying that, some players don't help themselves by deciding they need to pursue a particular "thing" in game, and then complaining that doing the "thing" is boring or repetitive. I will never grind for materials unless I'm very nearly there, anyway. It's boring.

I have a few times got to bosses and just thought "is this here for ANY other reason than to waste hours of the gamer's time to turn a nominally 8-hour game into a 12 hour game? The one thing - the single and only thing - a game absolutely MUST be is fun. That's literally the only reason to exist and the only reason to play it. If it stops being fun it doesn't matter how wizzy the graphics are or anything else - they stuffed up, it's rubbish, and you couldn't give it any more of your time. I'm fine with a game I can complete in a week of evening play sessions - provided it's a good, fun game. I don't need to feel like I played for 20 hours and "got my money's worth". I'm happy to play for 10 and actually enjoy it.

Still. I'd like to finish Crysis. Which would be a lot easier if the final level even RAN properly. And it doesn't. Frankly not only is the difficulty level pretty jarring, it's not even well written. After the rest of the game it feels as if someone realised with a week left before closing the project that it needed a boss scene for.........no reason....... but all the good developers had either moved to other projects or left at the end of their contracts and they got a couple of interns to knock something up.

 

[askavir]

I play games mostly for escapism, to forget about the real world, and "live" elsewhere for a while, so I don't really value much things like boss fights as I don't really care for "testing my mettle" on videogames lol.

 

[Mole HD]

The Division...say no more

 

[Rick6549]

Youd hate furi. Whole game is boss fights. Really good and tons of fun.


Also, Dark Souls

 

[PiLhEaD]

Seconded. I don't even like on-rails sections, such as the enforced linear fights in far Cry 5 - which are pretty much boss battles - along with the hugely tedious cut-scenes. At least allow us to skip them after the first play-through.

I always like to have different ways to achieve an outcome. Some games manage this better than other - I seem to recall the original Deus Ex was pretty good at open-design - but perhaps it was just the first such game I played and so have rose-tinted glasses!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Stopped playing Witcher 2 because of it. The QTEs were already too much. Boss fight in 3x3 m room was just too much. Also re-played Deus Ex until I entered 1st boss fight and suddenly remembered how unbelievably crappy they were. Uninstalled for good and buried the franchise in my memory. They also rereleased the game, so if I wanted to play with the changed boss fights I'd need to repurchase it. What a sheet practice. No more buy from me.
ED now spawns all these bullet sponged mini bosses for me. Stopped playing that too.
Since I can recall I've mostly detested boss battles. Top down scrolling shooters I hated with a passion for that.

 

[Linnunrata]

I guess it depends.
Boss fights often seem forced and boring, but especially many RPG games need a climactic ending with a tough fight storywise. Hard to imagine Baldur's Gate not ending to a showdown with Sarevok for example.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I guess it depends.
Boss fights often seem forced and boring, but especially many RPG games need a climactic ending with a tough fight storywise. Hard to imagine Baldur's Gate not ending to a showdown with Sarevok for example.

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.

 

[Linnunrata]

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.

Your memory or lack of it wasn't really my point, rather than how do you finish an RPG where you have an antagonist that you need to write off the story. Obviously it'd be pretty memorable anticlimax if BG1 ended with a cutscene where Sarevok is stabbed to death.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

TW3, too. Imlerith is one of the guys, I believe. But the Cold thing was the true menace. Actually those boss fights weren't so bad. I liked the story line witches. The Baron questline. Actually TW3 was full of boss fights? All the contracts. I take it back - I do like boss fights - if I can prepare for it and they fit into the world. They weren't overpowered either. OK, Detlaff was a bit hard in the end. But again - that was proper build up. I wasn't a fan of the end fight but it wouldn't have felt properly concluded without doing it.

 

[askavir]

Stopped playing Witcher 2 because of it. The QTEs were already too much.

The worse part is that the boss fights in W2 feel so much out of place. Like they were ripped off another game and planted there. QTE's were awful.

Witcher 3 on the other hand, while being full of what can technically be considered "boss fights", they're so well integrated into the rest of the game that you never feel like you're in a "boss fight", just fighting a harder opponent.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

The worse part is that the boss fights in W2 feel so much out of place. Like they were ripped off another game and planted there. QTE's were awful.

Witcher 3 on the other hand, while being full of what can technically be considered "boss fights", they're so well integrated into the rest of the game that you never feel like you're in a "boss fight", just fighting a harder opponent.

Ye, I concluded in a later post just the same. I think if done right is asked for then TW3 is good example.