Deus Ex - Boss Fights

[WabbitTwacks]

well, the bosses were actually pretty easy. the answer - frag mines. yep.

 

[unwesen]

There's a lot more wrong with Deus Ex than the boss fights. Some skills are useless. The game forces my character to be way dumber than I am in more situations than the boss fights. The plot twists are predictable from the very start scene of the game.

I'm of the opinion that the gameplay is extremely good, but the story framework in which they put the gameplay is rather shoddy.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

And no matter what you do you wind up fighting the boss because he haze the only key to the exist, while the game tries to allow for different play styles at least 3 times you have no choice but to fight, I find it reasonable.


Is it really that out of place? I do not think so, could they have done better yes but I find the AI(very deaf) and level design(lack of well polished level layouts) to be much more problematic than the boss fights. Hell the whole game could be better IMO.

 

[SoopaSte123]

Wooo Shamus! An article on an already covered topic, but good to see you back regardless.

The boss fights would have completely ruined the game for me if I hadn't discovered that 3 or 4 mines will kill any boss on any difficulty. Now its quick and easy. Still sucky, but in a less frustrating way.

 

[AbstractStream]

Hey Shamus! Great to see you back.
Awesome article

 

[WaysideMaze]

Daymn, that article comes across with an awful lot of resentful whine. Especially when really, we're not talking about the same experience for EVERY person. Just the unprepared ones.

Maybe the people are prepared. They're just prepared to hack security systems and bypass armed guards. Not go toe to toe with megaman.

I personally only had problems with the first boss, and that's cause I was unprepared. I died once, I didn't blame the game. I blamed myself for not thinking ahead. Reloaded, back tracked into a previous room and grabbed a machine gun, and went back. Didn't die again. Bam, easy. After that, I simply remained prepared for anything. It seems obvious that the game would throw curve balls, and I should be ready to adapt to those.

You blamed yourself for not guessing that you'd be locked in small rooms with super soldiers? Yes, we knew the game would throw bosses at us. We glimpsed them in the tutorial knowing we'd get to fight them. But on such shoddy terms?

So I maxed out damage resistance early and took a couple of flash/concussion grenades and a machine gun around with me: bosses never posed a problem again. It never hurts to be prepared, and what the hell else is a techno stealth/hacker going to carry around anyway? Mar bars and the two stun weapons don't take up that much space. Sinking all your skills into one kind of tree and expecting to breeze through the game without consequences is just laughable.

Unless you sink all your points into combat.
Every other part of the game allows for different approaches, be it sneaking past the guards, using the security systems against them or just straight up shooting everything with a pulse. The boss fights offered no alternative but to do as much damage as possible quickly.
There was no option for a stealth or hack approach.

Also, I'm not sure if people are aware but there are tricks to killing the bosses pretty easily. Like stun-gunning the chick when she's standing in water, or punching the guy when he's jumping over a wall. For every person who whined about dying cause they charged straight at the boss or cowered to long, there's someone else who thought outside the box and realised how easy they could be, it seems.

I wanted to play DX as a stealth operative. The game advertised it's options as such.
Why can't I take them out at a distance with my sniper rifle? Why can't I use my cunning to sneak up and decapitate them? Why can't I just sneak past and leave a damn bomb behind?

Nope, the game locks you in a room with metal gear junior and wishes you the best of luck.

I'm going to repeat myself again. The primary problem that myself, and many other gamers have with the boss fights in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is not the difficulty. Yes, I personally struggled but I finished it. The problem is with the poor design choice that seriously detracted from an otherwise brilliant game.

 

[kebab4you]

Thank god that I had stocked up on EMP grenades before the first boss fight, else I would most likely been stuck on him for another few hours T.T" But yeah, the boss fight really brought the game down.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

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?

I back up my opinion with reasoning, other why people like you will scream "Troll". An i do hope his previous posts are better because i liked his writing style and other people have said his really good at what he writes. I saw what you did there - i bow down to your incredible wit.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

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?

I back up my opinion with reasoning, other why people like you will scream "Troll". An i do hope his previous posts are better because i liked his writing style and other people have said his really good at what he writes. I saw what you did there - i bow down to your incredible wit.

Yeah but your point and reasoning were pretty flawed. Your list up there, with points 1 through 5, were 5 different things. He stated that he didn't like the Bosses, and then gave 5, balanced, well-thought out points elaborating why. I really don't see what the issue is here.

OT: Good to have you back, Shamus! Nice article, as ever.

 

[Quellist]

They outsourced bossfights? FFS could that say 'do not care' any louder?

Havnt finished the game yet but i have done the first two bossfights, my impressions...

1) got between boss and pillar, he just kept shooting the pillar and allowing me to chain-headshot him every time he reloaded. Bit of a nothing really

2) died over and over again (Why is her Claymore, supposedly a knock off of the typhoon, so much deadlier than said Typhoon?) finally she got stuck in a wall and i just shot her while she stood there. Would call that worse than a nothing.

I just cant frigging wait for the 3rd Bossfight /sarcasm off

 

[Booze Zombie]

Poor boss guys, they would've had a backstory but all of the funding went into Adam's sunglasses.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

The boss fights aren't that hard if you think about it properly. They are the weakest part of arguably the best game to come out this year and on the whole aren't really that detrimental.

Also the game takes alot of pointers from the Metal Gear Solid (foxiest of the hounds achievement anyone?) series not only with its stealth mechanics but also in its forced boss fights. I have no problem with this being a big fan of MGS.

Furthermore, it's good to see there are no health bars it gives the fights a sense of panic and tension much like you found in alot of older games like resident evil for example.

And do you actually remember the original Deus Ex having good boss fights?

 

[Irridium]

The boss fights aren't that hard if you think about it properly. They are the weakest part of arguably the best game to come out this year and on the whole aren't really that detrimental.

Also the game takes alot of pointers from the Metal Gear Solid (foxiest of the hounds achievement anyone?) series not only with its stealth mechanics but also in its forced boss fights. I have no problem with this being a big fan of MGS.

Indeed it does, however the bosses in Deus Ex are only inspired by the "fighting" part, and nothing else. None of the characterization is there, they're just stronger enemies you're forced to fight.

Going to use MGS3 as an example, since it's my favorite.

Would you're showdown with The Boss be as amazing as it was if you were told nothing about who she is or the history she has? Would the revolver duel with Ocelot be as tense if you didn't know anything about him? The same with Volgin, Fear, Fury, Sorrow, End, and Pain.

I'm pretty sure most people would have been just fine with forced boss fights if the bosses were actually characterized, and made it feel like you're fighting a person instead of just another boss for good reasons other than "just fight because it's a boss".

 

[Mr Companion]

Fair enough, except that the combat character can just stroll by those locked safes and secure doors and find some other way through. The hacker doesn't have that option.

Of course he does, what are you talking about. Anyone can take any augs, it's not like you can't have points in both hacking AND wall-punching/lifting. A hacker who prefers stealth will likely get the Ghost and Smooth Operator bonuses, thus enabling him to get more augs than someone who goes in guns blazing and gets a measly 10 xp per kill.
Also, the combat character can't always stroll past. The game has some forced hacking sections.

The boss fights are one-dimensional, obvious, and boring. You do a tiny bit of damage to the bad guy. He does massive damage to you. Chip away at his health bar without taking more than one consecutive hit, or its game over.

Chuck a gas, emp or concussion grenade at him to stun him. Use the enviroment against him (explosive barrels, electrified floors and so forth). Activate your invisibility and/or Typhoon. Position yourself so he has to jump over cover to get to you. These aren't all the same thing.

I disagree, as somebody who focused on stealth/hacking I say invisibility helps in no way during the boss encounters, furthermore EMP/gas/electroshiz is not that helpful against a lady with infinite invisibility/ammo/typhoon and enough health to survive three clips of Armour peirceing pistol rounds to the noggin. You seem to only be remembering the first encounter and assuming you possess typhoon or electrical defense which is a bit of a leap considering at least half the players wont have such things by the first two boss encounters.

 

[Mr Companion]

and the typhoon is... well, cheating.

So true so true . My friend had a heavy machine gun and drilled a hole in her skull after typhooning her, 2 typhoons and some head drilling later and she dropped like a fly .

 

[LastDarkness]

I agree on the statement "Its a great game, except for all the boss fights"

 

[TheDooD]

You really don't need those augs. At no point in the game are you ever forced to get augs unless you REALLY want to restrict yourself somehow.

I disagree. The rediculous boss fights forced me to drop points into combat because my stealth setup was woefully inadequate to deal with them.

Combat was the only way to deal with the bosses. At no other point in the game was this the case, there was always another route, you just had to find it.

You can run a stealth setup all you need is the Typhoon and abuse the shit out of it. It stuns bosses long enough to so you can spam it, it rips through walls, robots, and goons like they wasn't their in the first place.

 

[WaysideMaze]

You really don't need those augs. At no point in the game are you ever forced to get augs unless you REALLY want to restrict yourself somehow.

I disagree. The rediculous boss fights forced me to drop points into combat because my stealth setup was woefully inadequate to deal with them.

Combat was the only way to deal with the bosses. At no other point in the game was this the case, there was always another route, you just had to find it.

You can run a stealth setup all you need is the Typhoon and abuse the shit out of it. It stuns bosses long enough to so you can spam it, it rips through walls, robots, and goons like they wasn't their in the first place.

OK....the typhoon, an explosive device that blows up everything around you, is hardly part of a stealth setup is it?

Besides that, you're missing the problem. The problem isn't with the difficulty, but with the nature of the boss fights themselves.

The only approach to the boss fights was combat. There was no hack, stealth or social completion mechanic. Only combat. Considering the rest of the game offered you multiple ways to complete your path, offering solely combat was a major issue.