First blog. I'm not usually vocal enough to voice my concerns about the industry in blog format, but a reoccurring trend in video games has been worrying me. It feels to me as if boss fights are slowly but surely being eliminated from the "standard protocol" of video games.

In the early beginnings of action/adventure/platforming/beat-em-ups/rpgs, a boss fight is what predictably loomed at the end of a level. These were usually a larger enemy that flickered red on some part of their body when struck, or required some sort of unique pattern of movement or strategy to defeat. The fun of those early boss fights was figuring out the pattern, weaving in and out of it and ultimately, defeating the boss. From this early model rose what seemed to be boundless innovation in the way of bosses. Psycho Mantis, Dark Force from PSO, Ganon, 7 Force from gun star heroes, various incarnations of sigma, The colossi of Shadow of the Colossus, The Sorrow, are all examples of great bosses.

However, it feels like in this generation, developers have kind of slacked off.


There's a reason why he's go the blade arm on the cover

Exhibit A: Prototype, a game where the developers throw a myriad of crazy super powers at you, falls short due to the fact that it struggles to keep the player feeling powerful. The boss fights in this game feel lazy and rushed, as they consist of A) Several helicopters B) A super powerful version of a generic enemy C)A unique giant glob made of invincibility D) a unique bounty hunter dude and E) That same powered up generic enemy from earlier with more health. If you haven't played prototype, over-the-top doesn't begin to describe it. You can throw anything from innocent people to airplanes at enemies, run up the sides of buildings and elbow drop old ladies from 500ft in the air. However, the boss fights, and even the generic enemies suffer from what I call artificial difficulty. "Tougher" enemies just have bullshit "I don't get stunned while doing this" attack-back animations that do massive damage causing the player to opt ALWAYS for the instant kill blade arm attack. With all the flashy attacks you get, none of them really mean anything because there's no incentive to use them over the blade arm. In any event, I think the game could've been made a lot more interesting with some decent boss battles. Maybe a giant creature that shapeshifts but is only vulnerable to a certain 2-3 powers in different forms, or has a hard to hit/discover weakspot. Or one that'd grab you, take you for a ride and slam you through some buildings



Hope you like these guys because you're going to see a lot of them.

Exhibit B : Infamous. To me, Infamous had a few fun boss fights with interesting mechanics. The problem is that there were literally only three of them. You can only slaughter so many homeless-man-turned-sharpshooter generic enemies before the fun of being a lightning powered superhero kind of dies down.




Exhibit C: Bioshock. One of my favorite games this generation for its awesome story and great gameplay, suffers from one of the biggest let downs of a final boss. Keeping the spoilers light, the final boss is this giant ADAM infused juggernaut with what appears to be the powers of a GOD. What he actually turns out to be, is a bigger push over than most of the generic enemies in the game. Its kind of a let down to be led through this wonderful setting, experience one of the most shocking twists video games have ever seen, and then promptly beat the final boss like he's a little girl. Another thing, after a while the Big Daddies got a teensy bit stale. Maybe adding a couple of different archtypes for the sake of variety wouldn't have hurt.


BEHOLD! THE ULTIMATE POWER!

Exhibit D: Fable 2. This is a huge huge HUGE example of an ending ruined by the lack of a real final confrontation. The last "boss" (There's not really anything that resembles a boss in the game, besides the trolls who are just the 3d equivalent of pallet swaps of each other) is this crystal tower thing that floats around and is easily destroyed. After its destruction you approach Lucien, the man who killed your sister, who predictably starts monologuing. I let him talk just because I was so eager for him to transform, shoot lightning at me, force push me into a wall, or do something dramatic to trigger the final showdown. Sadly, no such showdown occurred, as he was promptly shot and killed by the most annoying character in the game, bringing us to the ending and robbing me of my vengeance. This is a prime example of a game that desperately needed an epic final boss to wrap up, but left early instead.

Don't get me wrong, not every game needs a good boss fight to stay entertaining. Most first person shooters these days manage to keep the pace intense without ever using a single climactic enemy (Although, that "The helicopter is late or about to run out of fuel" excuse is getting old, Modern warfare.) And to their credit(which I don't feel like I give enough credit to), a lot of action games still have really exciting boss battles. I just feel like a lot of games that could have benefited greatly from the inclusion of an interesting, climactic fight here and there deliberately chose to omit them for the same of meeting a deadline or out of sheer laziness.