You have a brand new game that you can’t seem to tear yourself away from and you were having an absolute blast… until you became stuck on a frustrating boss battle that’s preventing you from moving on to the next level or completing the campaign. It’s driving you insane and you want to break your controller in half, but damn it, you’re not putting it down until you finally get past the bugger, even if takes you all night.
We’ve all been there. Here are a couple of examples of irritating boss battles I have encountered during this generation; ones that really stick out in my mind where the controller nearly wound up going through my television screen.
Mezner: Final Boss, Dark Sector
Digital Extremes’ Dark Sector was a respectable game in my opinion, but the final battle against Mezner will unfortunately leave most with a bad taste in their mouth. It was a weak finish to what I found to be an otherwise enjoyable campaign.
Mezner, perched on a throne, relies on tentacles (of sorts) to defend himself against you. The goal is to charge your glaive with the electricity that’s conveniently (and unwisely) placed above him and use it to electrocute said tentacles to put them out of commission. Once all are eliminated, you have a short opening to nail Mezner with a power throw of the glaive before he kills you telepathically. You’ll have to repeat this strategy over three phases, and the third time you strike Mezner with a power throw will result in his demise.
The repetitive nature of this battle will grate on your nerves. You’ll be tossing your glaive over and over at the electricity portal since it needs to be continually charged to disable the numerous tentacles you’ll have to deal with throughout the fight.
What’s perhaps most frustrating is when you’re unsuccessful at nailing Mezner with a power throw during the window of opportunity, because it will be lights out for you. This is especially bothersome if you happen to screw up on the final throw since you’ll have to start everything over from the beginning.
Prescott: Final Boss, Damnation
After dealing with this maddening finish to the game, it’s understandable why many reviewers angrily started pounding away on their keyboards cutting up this game to shreds.
Similar to the Mezner battle, this fight consists of three sections. Your first task is to take a lengthy trip down an elevator and you’ll then have to flank Prescott’s mech to destroy the tank on its back. Next, you need to climb up to higher ground to release the crates that so happen to be situated above Prescott for mech-crushing purposes. Finally, you’ll face a serum-enhanced Prescott who attacks from all angles and will kill you within seconds if he gets close.
This boss battle can be infuriating. Why? For starters, as you navigate upwards to reach the crates, there will be moments where you have no protection from the heavy fire you’ll be showered with by Prescott’s mech. You need to move extremely fast and there is no room for error or you’ll be mowed down by gunfire. This wouldn’t be quite as annoying if you didn’t have to start from the bloody beginning each time you croak.
Remember when I mentioned the elevator ride you take before facing Prescott? I hope you enjoyed that, because you’ll be doing it again after you kick the bucket.
Why didn’t the game auto-save after this? Nothing is worse than being in the final stage of this battle and dying after you get smacked from behind by Prescott, to find yourself taking that damn elevator again and being forced to experience each of the painful cut scenes all over between each phase of the battle.
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For the ten or so other folks out there that also played through Dark Sector and Damnation, did you find these bosses to be as annoying as I did? What are some examples of boss battles that have frustrated you?