Old-school video game logic dictates that the further you progress in the game, the harder it becomes. This isn’t exactly true anymore with modern games, as difficulty tends to fluctuate throughout. That said, there is still a general thought that the most epic and challenging battle in any game should be the final boss fight.
However, that isn’t always the case. Some developers actually make the final boss quite easy to beat. This allows you to finish the game on a high note, instead of spending your final moments in a fit of rage as you try to beat the last boss. Here are some examples of final boss battles that are more about spectacle than challenge.
Throughout Resident Evil 7, you must deal with the mutated Baker family that is being controlled by a supernatural girl named Eveline. She is a powerful little foe that you face head-on at the end of the game. The battle begins when she transforms into a giant and gruesome monster. Her body is mostly made up of gooey tentacle-like limbs and a large face.
To beat her, all you have to do is keep shooting her in the face. There are a few phases to the battle, but they all involve just shooting her. The sequence is more about her transformation, and the fact that you’re putting her down for good. The real battles are earlier in the game against members of the Baker family.
In the final stretch of Gears of War 2, you have gained control of a Brumak, which is a giant, destructive beast. You use it to blow a hole in the ceiling of the underground cave system you’re in to allow rescue choppers to arrive. Once you get onto the helicopter, the Brumak starts to transform into a Lambent Brumak, which effectively makes it an oversized explosive device.
You need to trigger it to blow, so it takes out the cave system and kills many of your enemies. To accomplish this, you gain access to one of gaming’smost powerful temporary weapons, the Hammer of Dawn. With this, you fire a powerful laser from the sky. For the battle against the Brumak, you just need to keep firing your laser at it for a few minutes to make it explode.
There isn’t any traditional combat in Portal 2, as it’s a pure puzzle game where you shoot portals, pick things up, and jump your way to victory. Therefore, it’s hard to envision a boss fight in a game like this. Yet, there is one at the end of the story where you take on the wisecracking AI known as Wheatley.
Since he’s an AI, he doesn’t have a humanoid body. Instead, he has a mechanical one, which can shoot explosives and make its own shields. With smart portal placement, you may have those explosives fire right back at him, which is the way you hurt the boss. So, the boss fight is like a puzzle in itself, albeit an easy one.
Uncharted 3 is one ofthe greatest action-adventure games ever, but it isn’t known for its boss fights. However, it does have one at the end that pits protagonist Nathan Drake in a fist fight with the sharp-dressed villain, Talbot.
It’s an epic boss fight because they’re having this scrap in a place that’s falling apart, so the terrain is breaking around them. It would make for a great movie fight. Mechanically, though, the battle is fairly simple. You mainly just punch the villain and press the button on screen to counter when the situation calls for it.
The final fight at the end of Assassin’s Creed 2 isn’t the most complicated, but it does make for one ofthe most memorable moments in the series. This is because you’re fist-fighting the Pope inside a hidden vault in the Vatican Palace.
The reason you’re in this situation is that the main antagonist, Rodrigo Borgia, has manipulated his way into the position of Pope to gain access to the secret vault. You can’t allow him to gain incredible power, so you follow him in there and attempt to stop him. This leads to a fairly straightforward hand-to-hand battle that’s as much a conversation as a fight.
The second Last of Us game is unique because it pits the two main playable characters against one another. Ellie and Abby are going at it throughout the game, losing several friends in the process. In the final stages of the story, Ellie actually saves Abby, who has been captured.
Yet, she isn’t ready to let her go, as she still holds a lot of resentment toward her. So, this rescue mission turns into a final boss fight where you control Ellie and have to take down Abby. You’re equipped with a knife, while she uses her fists. It’s a bloody and brutal brawl between the two women that makes for a cinematic end to the adventure. It isn’t very tough to win, though.
In the final moments of Metal Gear Solid 4, you face the main villain, Liquid Ocelot, in hand-to-hand combat. The fight is a very cinematic one that aims to pay tribute to the entire series. As such, the color and look of your health bars keep changing, as the game cycles through the designs from previous games. On top of this, music from previous titles also features in this battle. So, the whole fight gives you a trip down memory lane.
This concept wouldn’t work as well if you died over and over. That isn’t to say the duel is super easy, but it’s a lot less challenging than many other boss fights in the series, and it’s undoubtedly a spectacle.
In the final moments of Batman: Arkham Knight, the titular hero is being held by Scarecrow. However, the real villain of the Arkham series is stuck in Batman’s head, and that is The Joker. The now-dead maniacal clown has infected the hero and is slowly taking over his mind. This is Batman’s biggest fear, and it’s becoming reality with the help of Scarecrow’s fear toxin.
In the process, Batman is hallucinating that The Joker is taking over his body and causing chaos. Yet, due to the hero’s incredible mental strength, he is able to fight back against Joker within his own mind. For a while, this is figurative, but it becomes literal at the end of the sequence when you have to beat up a pretty much defenseless Joker and lock him in a container.
