Pet Peeve: Boss fights that force you to change the way you play - by Poetic thief
Poetic thief on 5/2/2013 at 02:36
GRRRRR...I'm pissed at the moment. :mad:
So I've been playing through and enjoying Deus Ex Human Revolution, as a stealthy, charismatic non-lethal hacker. I spent hours fine-tuning my playstyle to perfection and really enjoyed the game. Until I met Barret in the FEMA facility.
It seems I have lost patience over the years, for now I am tempted to uninstall the game on account of this one rather large fly in the soup.
This is not the first game where I am forced to radically change my playstyle for a boss fight. This kind of crap is just as unforgivable as "press spacebar three times in a row!" QTE boss fights.
Why do developers do this? Why, tell me why ?
Yakoob on 5/2/2013 at 03:43
One reason I never actually liked boss fights in games. Vast majority aren't powerful enemies that require you to use your best strategies, but rather, simple puzzles where you need to find the proper sequence of events to beat. Most (S)NES era bosses fall into this, as well as many modern action or RPG games (witcher2, dxhr).
Strangely that is one thing I always liked about JRPGS and Diablo clones - while the bosses had weaknesses and even best win strategies, they genuinely challenged you and forced to use your best manouvers and resources.
EvaUnit02 on 5/2/2013 at 05:10
Barrett is easy even on a non-lethal stealthy build. Just stun him with the taser and then chuck the exploding barrels at him.
The best advice I received prior to playing DX:HR was to carry around a pistol in reserve and steadily keep upgrading it throughout the game, specifically for the boss fights.
DDL on 5/2/2013 at 09:07
Or just grab the rocket launcher in that level? You can always throw it away afterwards.
faetal on 5/2/2013 at 12:00
*Looks at thread title*
*Looks at OP username*
Exploding barrels and rocket launchers. Nice.
Poetic thief on 5/2/2013 at 12:31
^Yeah, there was no way I would have thought to pick up rocket launchers, or upgrade any attack weapons based on my play style up to that point.
I finally managed to take him down by pelting him with fire extinguishers and that poison gas canister, then throwing a few remote explosives that I fortuitously earned from the preorder bonus.
The thing that really irked me was how the game just forced me to fight him without offering any alternative choices that aligned with my character. The game was an awesome stealth game, and the conversation/persuasion system kept me on my toes and was a refreshing challenge from the usual dialog system in games. Yet all of that went out the window to turn the game into a regular fps for the boss fight. Not cool.
faetal on 5/2/2013 at 12:36
The boss fights are the most frequently levelled criticism.
Briareos H on 5/2/2013 at 12:40
Yeah in Human Revolution they are notoriously bad. Since I got the game late and had been warned in advance, I upgraded my typhoon whenever I could just to spam the bosses and shorten the fights. It works quite well.
DDL on 5/2/2013 at 12:40
And only two more to go! :D:D:D
If it helps, they're both slightly more interesting fights.
I (along with most DX fans) knew DXHR was going to have boss fights substantially before it was released, and it was the most frequently levelled criticism even then, but the devs ploughed on regardless and then (subsequently) admitted that it was a dumb idea.
Just scrape through them as best you can, then forget them completely.
Poetic thief on 5/2/2013 at 13:02
Quote Posted by DDL
I (along with most DX fans) knew DXHR was going to have boss fights substantially before it was released, and it was the most frequently levelled criticism even
then, but the devs ploughed on regardless and then (subsequently) admitted that it was a dumb idea..
So the plot thickens! On my google hunt during my initial moment of rage, I read that the devs outsourced the boss fights and they were actually made by some company whose president was into shooters and never heard of Deus Ex.
That would explain the crazy disconnect that happened there. Pretty inexplicable and I wonder what Eidos were smoking at the time.
