I Digress... Boss Battles

Yup.

So yesterday I was reading articles and watching videos and decided - as always - to make some notes and NOT publish them. This, I think, was mainly due to the consistent stream of information being fed to me through these sources, and that yesterday I just felt like I was in the right mind state to study.

Even though video games, and the study there of, is one of my major passions, some days it's hard to focus, especially when you know you have to be doing something productive in a specific field. 

It's often that when I'm away from the computer, and not thinking about working, that my brain starts to function properly; imagination starts to replenish, and ideas, concepts and questions begin dominating my thought processes again.

YouTube has an endless supply of 'Top Lists', a lot of which - statistics; unknown - portray a user's input on their top favourite video games, their top least favourite, their top underrated and overrated games... the list goes on and on. It was only when I continued playing Quake II - of which I'd recently been replaying for the God-only-knows-th time - that I then began to realize elements of this, and many over video games, that I'd always loved and appreciated, but had never really explored before; intricate, game-pace inducing design aspects that either added great value to a video game, served as a change of pace, or halted the game entirely into non-escapable encounters - namely; boss battles. So I began taking notes during game play and started discovering considerably relevant video game trademarks and niches to potentially analyze and discuss.

Upon my play through of Quake's boss encounters, I discovered that - in my opinion - although considered a classic, critically - and of course; I agree - the boss battles leave very little to the imagination, and literally place the player in a large, pillar-friendly room to battle it out with a specific end-of-chapter boss.

The style of this mirrors id Software's previous franchise Doom's boss encounters, as the player would also have specific arenas in which they'd duke it out with a demon, with a rocket launcher for an arm, or a minigun for a stomach.

To me, however, this style reflected Doom's gameplay perfectly, and added to the absurdity and genuine intimidation the encounters gave off - as one rocket to the face and BOOM; dead. The tension was, specifically with the Cyber Demon (rocket launcher for an arm), raised in most encounters as the threat level and health of the creature was so high that it would need 20+ rockets to take it down. This boss, however, has balance, in which it's slow movement makes up for it's deadly arsenal and ridiculous amount of health.

If anything, just facing the Cyber Demon is an event, and one which can be played over and over again; dodging rockets can become an art form, making mincemeat of the terrifyingly intimidating creature with quick movement and good aim, yet one or two foul steps and you're player explodes into a virtual array of body parts.

The game's first use of the Cyber Demon. The player is pitted against this rocket-launching creature, in a large arena with hidden ammunition, small amounts of health and fast-paced flamed skull creatures that serve as a juxtaposition to the main boss' slow, heavy movement.

I think what worked for Doom, doesn't necessarily work for Quake II, nor Doom's 2003 sequel; Doom 3, and the reason for this initially was perplexing to me. All the same set-up was there, essentially the same scenario - player's placed in an area with only the boss to face and defeat - yet it all doesn't appear to have the same emotional impact. While Doom's encounters were, for the most part, challenging and rewarding, Quake II's feel tedious and somewhat, dare I say, easy. It was essentially; 'here's a boss, all the weapons you have at the ready, shoot the shit out of it and dodge behind conveniently placed pillars when it slowly strikes back, then re-appear and shoot the shit out of it again - repeat until enemy's dead'.

It's hard to explain, on the face of it Doom's encounters also appear like that, but I think the fast paced action - and the fact that in Doom your player ran at 100mph - made it more intense and satisfying.

The build up to the boss battles in Quake II and Doom 3, however, have the edge of build up - often having the player explore desolate areas, hearing subtle demonic laughs and groans drawing the player closer to their imminent doom (pun).

And to me that's what I've often discovered with a boss battle; a lack of innovation, something to act as a bookend for the world the player had come to the end of. The concept of the boss battle finale, especially when built up, can be a very satisfying experience, of which can then serve as a purposeful event, or a highly disappointing pace-halting encounter.

Sometimes it's not even that the boss lacks originality, it's that it can be so crushingly hard that it either has you shouting with victory after finally defeating, or turning off in a fit of rage, vowing to never play again. Until the next day.

Some classic, yet highly easy boss encounters have come from the original Sonic The Hedgehog and Super Mario games - albeit, the former having more imagination and initial challenge, aesthetically - and some exceedingly difficult from the maturer late 80's, early 90's period such as Contra, Metroid, Gradius, to name but a few.

Within the Sega Megadrive days, Sonic's boss battles with Dr. Robotnik (now Dr. Eggman) where varied and often matched the surrounding levels the player had just explored; requiring, in this screenshot, Sonic to use his spindash move to gain momentum from side to side, or his bumpers to bounce on top of Robotnik's head. Around 6 hits would often defeat the boss.

With Sonic, getting damaged means any rings stored fly out from all angles, as the player desperately panics to get some back to survive another possible hit. Yet with Metroid - in this case, Super Metroid - the player's character, Samus, often acts as a sponge for enemy attacks, as encounters such as this one require intense accuracy and skill in order to perfectly hit the enemy or dodge one of it's many projectiles, environmental hazards - spikes - and erratic body movement.

A boss battle isn't an essential part of a video game but has served as a traditional segment throughout the years and can be an inviting and memorable experience, if done right. Of course, some awful boss encounters are also remembered for being so, yet a dynamically engaging, or simple yet ingenious scenario can provide reason and relevance for the boss to be present in the first place, often adding to the story and plot development. Otherwise it's there, just because it's there.

I enjoy a boss battle with puzzle-solving elements, something that's highly rewarding in that you're really having solve problems in order to eventually discover the weak point(s) and satisfyingly attack.

I also enjoy dramatic battles that serve as a somewhat large occasion, namely those present in God of War - of which you're often against a creature that's height matches skyscrapers, and it's battle marries that with the challenge of having to actually scale it's body and attack perfectly intricate damageable features: