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Best First-Person-Shooter boss battles?

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Bedameister

Member
If I think about it, there are a lot of great epic boss battles in many other genres. But FPS? I can't really come up with very many. Is it really that hard to make good boss battles in FPS games?
Most boss battles in FPS I can think of are rather bad (Bioshock anyone?)

Are there any good ones that you remember?
 
The Resistance series has some great boss battles. The Leviathan in Resistance 2 and the creature in the mine in Resistance 3 were stand-outs.
 
Bedameister said:
If I think about it, there are a lot of great epic boss battles in many other genres. But FPS? I can't really come up with very many. Is it really that hard to make good boss battles in FPS games?
Most boss battles in FPS I can think of are rather bad (Bioshock anyone?)

Are there any good ones that you remember?
Click to expand...

Metroid Prime: the topic

Off the top of my head: Thardus, Omega Pirate, Meta Ridley, Metroid Prime, Chykka, Quad-fucking-raxis, Emperor Ing, Meta Ridley 2, Rundas, Gandrayda, Omega Ridley, Dark Samus

Shame more fps devs don't go for it. First person perspective can be amazing for boss fights, emphasizing scale and such.
 
FPS seem better suited to a tough climatic section then a fight against a single overpowered foe. So something like the end of HL2 Episode 2 with the strider battle section which I loved.

I can't think of a single traditional boss in a FPS that I liked. Unless you count Metroid Prime as a shooter.
 
protip.jpg


Always funny to remember.
 
If it counts as one, then Blast Pit is still my favorite. Up to that point most FPS boss fights were 'shoot it till it dies', Quake tried some different things iirc, but when it came to presentation and level design Blast Pit totally blew my mind. It was like 'hey, you need to get past this huge thing, but you alone with your weapons won't do, find the solution, which is a bunch of interconnected puzzles'.
 
Dictator93 said:
Fps has trouble with boss fights, but a lot of the stuff from Pain Killer firts in the category of being great boss fights.
Click to expand...

Probably because most fps mechanics are pretty restrictive. I mean, a lot of shooters allow the player to do little more than run around and shoot. Meanwhile, something like Metroid Prime gives the player a strafe dodge to avoid projectiles, a double jump to avoid shockwave attacks, and a host of other tools which can be used to interact with bosses (grapple beam, visors). The behaviors of enemies and bosses are dependant on what the player is capable of. If the player can't do a whole lot, then enemies have to be neutered to compensate. An enemy with a fast projectile attack wouldn't work in Halo or Half-Life, for example, because the player has no mechanic with which to respond. In Metroid Prime, a well-timed strafe dodge would get the job done.

So basically, shooters need more diverse mechanics to enable more interesting enemies and bosses.
 
This guy blew my mind back in the day, but nowadays I admit the fight is ridiculously easy.

e0sr36S.jpg


Btw, I remeber Undying had some memorable boss fights but I'm not sure how they'd hold up these days. Man, I havent't played that game in so long.
 
SmartWaffles said:
London Monitor from Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Bunk3r and later Angel from Borderlands 2.
Click to expand...

Bunk3r was pretty good. The final Boss was ok (at least way better than the one from Borderlands 1)
The Borderlands series had some nice bosses but nothing that really stands out I would say.
 
Bending and twisting the definition of "FPS" to suit my needs, Portal 2. The boss itself is very much in line with the rest of the game, i.e. a big puzzle. But then you get to the very last section of the boss and you remember what seemed like a tiny, insignificant and irrelevant bit of trivia about how the "portable" surfaces are made and...
you shoot a portal at the moon
.

And then
SPAAAAAAAAACE
.

Markitron said:
I would agree with that, but I don't really consider Metroid a shooter.
Click to expand...

Well, it is and it isn't, at the same time. You can argue that Metroid Prime is first and foremost and adventure game, just like the rest of the Metroid series. It focuses heavily on exploration, upgrading and backtracking. But your main way to interact with the world around is by shooting things: enemies, doors, switches. You have different types of beams (which are, effectively, different types of ammo) that affect your enemies in different ways. So, yeah, Metroid Prime could be considered a first-person shooter adventure (FPSA) rather than stricly either an FPS or an adventure game.
 
I like boss fights that shake things up, by providing options, or making frontal assault not the most viable strategy.

The final Wolfenstein New Order battle kind of did this. And definitely the Director's Cut versions of the Deus Ex HR boss battles.
 
But srsly, I don't know if it counts, but the Patriarch is a preeeeetty badass boss in Killing Floor. The team REALLY needs to have a strategy to beat him, or else you'll be wiped in seconds.
 
Bedameister said:
(anyone got the achievement? It sounds extremely hard)
Click to expand...

I had to try like 15 times so I exactly knew when and where the next Strider would appear. It was hard but I felt good afterwards. It was a fun achievment. Unlike that stupid garden gnome where I just felt stupid after doing it.
 
Radec in Killzone 2 is an excellent boss battle and it doesn't completely change up the mechanics on you. The ATAC boss battle and electro heavy boss battle are pretty good too.
 
Markitron said:
I would agree with that, but I don't really consider Metroid a shooter.
Click to expand...

As a game it's not. But for the purposes of this thread, it has boss fights consisting of first person shooting. The rest of the game's structure is irrelevant here.

Design wise, I loved the Half Life 2: Episode 2 finale. But I found it also incredibly and annoyingly hard for some reason.

godelsmetric said:
0CGPnQ9.jpg


so incredibly tense
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Ah yes, someone mentioned it already of course :D
 
Fantastapotamus said:
I had to try like 15 times so I exactly knew when and where the next Strider would appear. It was hard but I felt good afterwards. It was a fun achievment. Unlike that stupid garden gnome where I just felt stupid after doing it.
Click to expand...

I actually felt pretty good after doing it. Even a little sad to let the little guy go.
But I felt extremely stupid while doing it
 
TheMoon said:
As a game it's not. But for the purposes of this thread, it has boss fights consisting of first person shooting. The rest of the game's structure is irrelevant here.
Click to expand...

I agree, I have no problem with it being discussed in this thread. I was just stating why It wouldn't have been my first thought, especially as Metroid Prime is easily one of the best games of all time.
 
mikeebi3 said:
wolfenstein-3d.jpg
Click to expand...
Yes!

ichtyander said:
This guy blew my mind back in the day, but nowadays I admit the fight is ridiculously easy.

e0sr36S.jpg


Btw, I remeber Undying had some memorable boss fights but I'm not sure how they'd hold up these days. Man, I havent't played that game in so long.
Click to expand...

Quake also had an interesting final level, particularly the final boss "fight." I loved it.

Malio said:
17n0qmhvovibsjpg.jpg


Football, half-naked cheerleaders, Duke. Yes.
Click to expand...
I concur. I also liked the final boss in Duke Forever. I tend to enjoy bullet-sponge, pattern based fights if the setting is fun and it doesn't wear out its welcome.
 
The only FPS games I have ever played are the Half-life games. I disliked most boss battles in these games, except for the chopper battle at the end of the airboat section, which was pretty cool.
 
The Xtortionist said:
Probably because most fps mechanics are pretty restrictive. I mean, a lot of shooters allow the player to do little more than run around and shoot. Meanwhile, something like Metroid Prime gives the player a strafe dodge to avoid projectiles, a double jump to avoid shockwave attacks, and a host of other tools which can be used to interact with bosses (grapple beam, visors). The behaviors of enemies and bosses are dependant on what the player is capable of. If the player can't do a whole lot, then enemies have to be neutered to compensate. An enemy with a fast projectile attack wouldn't work in Halo or Half-Life, for example, because the player has no mechanic with which to respond. In Metroid Prime, a well-timed strafe dodge would get the job done.

So basically, shooters need more diverse mechanics to enable more interesting enemies and bosses.
Click to expand...

Metroid Prime (2, haven't played 3) works due to the Zelda esque bosses and lock-on system. One big target, usually not too fast/erratic in movement in an arena. The lockon/control scheme allows for dodging and nice fights against these types of bosses, but it also has drawbacks. Without a lock-on, you are quite limited in movement. It don't think it is well suited for large number of enemies/lots of projectiles, sustained enemy fire etc. Prime's system wouldn't work for other ( pure) FPS. That said I wouldn't mind having the side jump mechanic in FPS where appropriate. Especially if the game has charging enemies.

I also don't think that traditional boss battles are appropriate for every game. The two games you mentioned, Halo and Half Life, have good (and less so) boss battle, and they don't limit it to to 'fight big guy in arena'. Halo has rare and though encounters, I'd say a pack of hunters can be considered a boss or miniboss. The Scarab fights in 3 were great imo, where you have to destroy a walker. On the other hand 2 had more traditional boss battles and I really disliked them, because they looked like regular enemies but didn't follow the same rules.
Half Life has puzzle bosses, Blast Pit as mentioned and the big blue guy you have to electrocute/airbomb, as well as the big guy in a room like the Xen bosses (less fun imo). 2 and the episodes have the strider, hunter and episode 2 finale which were great.
 
Dictator93 said:
Was the driving back and forth intense? Or the combat?

I think the constraints are tense, but the fighting itself is completely mundane.
Click to expand...

Why separate the two? "Boss battle" can mean the entire context of the scenario, not simply the mechanical interaction between the player and the "boss" NPC.

Also, the fighting involved throwing that device into the right place and shooting it, right? That's was tense and not mundane compared to typical FPS gameplay of "shoot thing until it dies."
 
The final boss fight in Dark Forces was great, no way to save your game during the long level leading up to him, very intense.
 
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