Deus Ex - Boss Fights

[Fumofu]

Yay, Shamus is back! And a triumphant return too, great article.

 

[DustyDrB]

Why isn't there a similar asterisk after Batman Arkham Asylum?
Play the same boss fight like SIX times? Pretty much convinced me to lay off Arkham City until it hits bargin bin prices

There is a disclaimer. This is pretty much mentioned in nearly every discussion of Arkham Asylum I've ever seen.

 

[Rednog]

Pretty much agree except for point 2, I honestly found all the bosses to be a joke. The 10mm pistol upgraded is the most silly overpowered gun in the game. Seriously, I used every upgrade I found on it and only pulled it out for boss fights, and I didn't spend a single point in any of the related praxis abilities (in fact I usually ran around the game with 6-8 available praxis points because I filled out hacking off the bad and really wasn't interested in anything else and only really invested in things when the game semi forced me to (ie leaving the Tower after meeting a certain lady and her guards filling the room).
But I digress, first boss I just threw every barrel at him, then a few shots with the pistol while he was in the gas and he was dead, second boss stun and unloaded the pistol into her head...dead within like 10 seconds; and I was playing on Give Me Deus Ex.

 

[octafish]

I winced every time there was a poorly rendered muddy cutscene showing Jensen doing something outstandingly stupid. Not only is stupidity immersion breaking, but the cutscenes are of such low quality it boggles the mind.

I love how most people seem to be taking a stealthy/non-violent approach to the game rather than wading in guns blazing. Is that because the game favours it? Because the gunplay is bad? (I haven't really fired a gun yet, even on the bosses) Or because people have been crying out for a stealthy game with a lot to explore? I really hope it is the latter and we get a few more like that, with clever ways to work around bosses that actually have some characterisation.

 

[XDravond]

I recognize all of the points. And it got me really confused when I in the hubs could toy around and test my abilities chat or ignore people as I wanted. But boss fights bam shot them and thats it... wait what just happened.. I sneaked around everyone and could easily hid from this one but no not gonna happen...

I got down to my most boring and unreal way of dealing with the first bosses "run-and-gun" really I ran around fired a shot whenever I saw the boss and then just kept on running, by doing that I kept on healing. I think this is a waaay to boring way to deal with hard enemies works in to many games, you-fire-then-duck and repeat.. why do they not lay out a mine or two to stop me?

PS. first time I just lazed the last one (did not want to kill "it" because I had some guns saved for the final big bang,,,) when testing how the laser worked and went: Wait I'm done..? where is the real final? I hadn't realized how you could use the laser before.. It felt like a "glitch" or bug more than anything else..

Oh well I should really stop repeating what everyone else says "good game but the boss fights..."
O well using the ahem "burger-menu" I can replay what I really liked..

 

[Raideh]

Cleaned.

 

[rainbowunicorns]

I love how most people seem to be taking a stealthy/non-violent approach to the game rather than wading in guns blazing. Is that because the game favours it? Because the gunplay is bad? (I haven't really fired a gun yet, even on the bosses) Or because people have been crying out for a stealthy game with a lot to explore? I really hope it is the latter and we get a few more like that, with clever ways to work around bosses that actually have some characterisation.

Melee knockouts give the most experience of all interventions (50 vs 20 for an instant kill, or just 10 for a non-instant kill). Not being seen/heard gives a large bonus. Exploration/traveler bonuses add up, and are natural when seeking stealthy ways to approach enemies for melee, or avoid fights. I don't doubt that the game can be completed while firing a non-silenced gun all the way through, but the mechanics clearly favour a different approach. It could be argued that such a character simply requires fewer augmentations, so less experience isn't a hardship.

Personally, I prefer to play it stealthy anyway, and think that makes more sense from a role playing perspective. A lot of what you're doing is gathering data and meeting people, if it becomes clear to the antagonists that you are approaching an obvious goal, they could delete the data or relocate/kill the person. Mechanically, I can't survive a lot of bullets, so sneaking makes sense that way.

So I would say it's probably both.

 

[Jorias]

The boss fights were cheesy, but not hard (I played on Hard and earned the Pacifist achievement. I was very stealthy). I'd say the boss fights are actually probably easier for nonlethal players. Why? We're more likely to have the Stun Gun in our inventory, and that weapon makes bosses trivial.

Not to mention that the last boss is pretty much instant win if you got the electric guard powerup thingy

 

[Leonbelmont64]

I'm confused at why people had soo much problems with bosses... I played the hardest difficulty getting Foxiest of the Hounds and Pacifist with only 2 weapons in my inventory (The Tranquilizer Rifle and Shotgun) and EMP grenades. all except the 3rd boss never hit me once... It's not impossible to have a full out Stealth/hacker character from the get go and own every boss in the game. Never Bothered with Typhon or Stealth enhancer either. Honestly if your going to have a cloak and tons of energy bars for bosses why not? shotgun does insane damage point blank with the burst round system and can level any boss in around 5-6 shots.

 

[mexicola]

That really was a stupid list.

1. Forced to talk to bosses, even when playing game stealthfully.
2. Forced to fight bosses with guns only.
3. Damage your gun inflicts against bosses is weak.
4. Bosses lack intelligence nor reacts to your actions.
5. Bosses are flat, bland characters.

You had one opinion which was "i dont like the bosses or boss fights" which is fine. I hate the bosses, hate the way you have to fight them with guns, fact your cant sneak attack them or bypass them. Why you needed to make 5 points is beyond me. Hope your previous posts are better than this because this really wasnt good at all because no one liked the boss fights.

You could have just said "I don't like this article", why you spent so many words is beyond me. I hope your previous posts were better than this. CWUTIDIDTHAR?

 

[Funkysandwich]

I didn't have too much trouble with the bosses. I used Grenades on the first one, a heavy rifle on the second one and the grenade launcher on the thrid one... I should get around to actually finishing the game though...

Also, I don't have any combat augs, all my points are in hacking and movement stuff.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

From the article...

Boss fights have been like this for years [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/7733-Stolen-Pixels-205-The-Bullet-Massage]

And from the link...

This could have been the next Deus Ex, but it feels Serious Sam.

Dude, you're like a fucking prophet! You should start a religion or something. BTW, great to have you back - please rite moar Experienced Points!

 

[rsvp42]

They weren't that much of a hassle. I spent almost the whole game sneaking around and I redid the first fight maybe 5 times before I got it, the second only two, and the third maybe 4 (though to be fair, on that one the dude kind of stopped up in a corner and let me shoot him from cover). It changed the pace a little, brought me out of hiding, shook up my routine. I agree that they're the weakest part of the experience, but that's kind of like complaining about back seat leg room in a Lamborghini. They weren't impossible and since there's some nice achievement you can get on subsequent playthroughs, you can just go again and be better prepared. I'm not saying we shouldn't be critical, but let's not overdo it just to sound like we have refined tastes.

 

[ScrubberDucky]

I think this horse has been beaten enough. I mean, he does raise good points, and I'm not saying he's wrong, it's just that EVERY SINGLE reviewer, critic, fan, gamer, and newborn child has listed the boss fights as being one of the scarce bad parts of Human Revolution. Maybe it's just me, having paid attention to most Deus Ex news since it came out, but I can't help but feel we're beating a pile of giblets with these same criticisms anymore.

 

[WanderingFool]

I wish to know why boos fights like this exist. I remember back in the day (around the early 90's for me) when boss fights meant something, and had a vital role. Now, they are just one dimensional baddies with lots of health and cheap, high-damage attacks.

God... GOD WHY!? WHY DO DEVELOPERS MAKE THESE POINTLESS BOSS FIGHTS!?

I think many games could have been 98% better if they didnt have some arbitrary boss fight.

 

[Zom-B]

It's interesting. I, of course, heard about the boss fights before I purchased the game, but I figured they couldn't be all that bad, and they aren't. However! That being said, I did initially build my character as most seem to have done as a hacker/stealth guy. The problem was that when I got to Yelena, I hadn't taken enough dermal upgrades and didn't have the EMP protection (or the jump augs). Result? Even when I was able to avoid her attacks, when she whalloped the power nodes and sent the electricity arcing through the coolant fluid on the floor, even with hypostims, painkillers and leaping around like an idiot I couldn't mitigate the damage enough to survive. Consequence? I had to return to a much earlier save and use my aug points to get the dermal upgrade. After that, it was a breeze. That scenario was pretty akin to having, as Shamus says, a combat character that can't pass a locked door because he can't hack it.

Overall the game is pretty darn good, but yes indeedy, the boss fights are poorly designed, shoehorned in and unbalanced. It's a pretty terrible oversight and it's pretty strange that the designers, play testers and anyone else that had a shot at the game before it went gold didn't pick up on that enough to say "Hey, wait a second here, maybe we should do something about these boss fights".

That would mean you're forced to take a certain aug before doing something, which simply isn't true with bosses.
edit: to elaborate, all the bosses require by way of augs is having a certain item in your inventory. I.e. something that can kill things. If you don't, one will be lying around the place you fight. I checked.

Hmm... okay, so I've not quite finished my first playthrough yet, but two things:

1. I did not see one single weapon/item in the Yelena fight location.
2. Without the EMP protection upgrade, or possibly the leg aug for jumping, I could find no way to avoid the electricity in the floor when she hit the power nodes. Yes, I could have missed something, but as noted in my previous comments, when that electricity was going, I was cooked. I must have tried the fight two dozen times before I went back and got the EMP protection. After that, the fight was almost a joke. I did die twice through poor play, but as I was completely invulnerable to electricity, Yelena was pretty useless unless she got a direct hit on me.

So tell me what I was doing wrong, without the leg and dermal upgrades.

 

[TitanAura]

Yay! I thought this feature was dead!