Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Terrible Boss Fights Were Outsourced

GR - "To say no one enjoyed the boss fights in Deus Ex: Human Revolution would be an honest assessment. They're abysmal experiences that manage to throw you out of your play style, forcing you to resort to spamming grenades, bullets, and in the case of the final boss, make no logical sense whatsoever."

[Karooo]

That sucks. Boss fights were the weakest link in the game. WTF Eidos how could you!

[BeOneWithTheGun]

Agreed. I enjoyed that part in the hangar with those 2 6-legged mech things more than any of the three boss fights.

[gaffyh]

Only the end boss fight was ok, but it was a little too easy imo. That said though, I'd rather it have crappy fights than have impossible ones like in Alpha Protocol

[JellyJelly]

@gaffyh - I only got to the 80's boss who halway through the fight snorts coke and becomes invincible. Lol! Loved AP though.

[Maester07]

So it WASN'T just me who felt this. I haven't read any reviews since I'm still finishing this game but the boss fights are a joke. I played non-lethal the whole way up to Barett with only non lethal weapons and one pistol for emergencies.

It's like Eidos said "Quick! Forget EVERYTHING we just taught you about stealth and now pick up what you can and FIRE!" It felt like a disappointing cop out - I play this for stealth which is why I chose stealth over firepower.

The fact that this was outsourced doesn't suprise me. When I first played it it felt like I was playing a different game - more in the vain of Gears of War (much as I like it) and its generic boss fights. I don't doubt that Eidos will build upon this franchise a lot further, and I hope they sort their boss design out.

Sorry for mini-rant, I just felt I needed it off my chest.

[Drac]

I was similar, had good hacking and stealth, was pure luck that I got through the 1st boss fight.

Was better prepared for the 2nd boss, but still felt ripped off that my stealth no kill style was completely thrown out for fighting bosses.

[consolez_FTW]

Exactly dude, I was playing pure stealth and I got to the first boss totally unprepared. The combat aspect of the boss fights didn't even feel like they fit into the game. I leveled all my stuff to do with stealth and they throw a boss where stealth basically doesn't count for sh1t. Fighting him was frustrating :(
No more outsourcing Boss fights developers.

[cogniveritas]

@Maester07- I completely agree with you. And while I don't like the execution, I think a scenario where a stealth guy is suddenly faced with a fight or die situation in which he is totally unprepared for is fairly believable. There were conveniently placed weapons and on "Give me Deus Ex" mode during the first boss fight of my "no kills/no alarms" run, I found enough emp grenades and shotgun/machine pistols to get the job done but in a few tries. In the context of the story, a kill or be killed moment made sense even if we didn't like it.

[Kurylo3d]

the problem was the boss fights were boring... theres nothing special about them.. u just keep shooting them. Theres no secret approach to make it easier... it just was lame. Not to mention that you expected them to be major characters with great dialogue... and in the end they each speak like 2 sentences and die. Thought it was going to be metal gear from the trailer, and ended up being quake (without the control of movement in a typical fps).

[MariaHelFutura]

And still is one of the goty's.

[firelogic]

lol, who cares if it was outsourced. Eidos had full control over the entire game. If they didn't like the boss fights, they should have done something about it. Just brushing it off saying it wasn't them but another developer that did the bosses is ludicrous. It's still your fault!

[saladthieves]

Agreed. Everything else about this game was stunning...the boss fights were the only things that I didn't like in the game.

When I first got the game I started playing it completely stealthy. Basically going around, sneaking through air vents silently taking down guys, looking for alternative ways, going through each and every drawer of every room, hacking everything in sight, looting unconscious bodies for secret door codes and passwords.

I loved for example the challenge of getting in a room full of bad guys, sneaking my way through without raising a single suspicion...very hard but it was darn rewarding!

Now the first boss fight arrives and I suddenly find myself forced to play in a style that is the complete opposite of what I had been doing. I now have to attack and stuff - and I find myself massively underpowered with stuff like stunt guns and tranquilizer darts - useless at the boss.

If they could've changed the style of gameplay or allowed a stealth system or something (don't know how it would work at a boss battle), it would've been appreciated.

[himdeel]

If I were Eidos Montreal I would've incorporated missions that would've allowed players a variety of ways (5 max) to assassinate/sabotage the bosses. Likewise I would have had a series of cut scenes to progress the story accordingly to receive any story or dialog they might have missed by not engaging the bosses directly.

[GTRrocker]

I didn't think they were that bad. They were basically just like the enemies in the game, but over powered.

[Canary]

Not really, no. Bosses could only be engaged in certain ways, due to the small environments. Every other enemy--or group of enemies--could be taken on a variety of different ways. Or even multiple ways.

The "main" game of HR was stealth combat, but none of the boss fights were built to use stealth mechanics. At all.

[clarkjudo]

But there are weapons with in the area of the boss fight to replace "less effective weapons".

[GTRrocker]

Ok, I don't see how not having the boss battles as stealth means they were bad. I thought it was a good break from the gameplay. Also, how and the hell can you have a stealth boss battle? Even the boss battles in MGS4 weren't stealth.

[Canary]

^--Which is a big mark AGAINST the Metal Gear games.

Being too lazy to design stealth-based bosses doesn't mean it's impossible to design stealth-based bosses. Imagine a normal battle, but with more-active enemies--enemies who have better senses, shoot through walls/cover, toss grenades into air-ducts--or better yet, enemies who use stealth against YOU. There are plenty of ways to make boss battles that utilize stealth mechanics. It's the height of foolishness to assume a thing cannot exist simply because it does not exist.

[MysticStrummer]

To say no one enjoyed the boss fights is a dishonest assumption actually. If you think they require spamming grenades and bullets... LOL. The first boss can be defeated without firing a shot, the second is a cakewalk if you have the correct augmentation leveled up and requires very little shooting, the third requires some shooting... I know... controversial for a boss fight, and the fourth wasn't tough at all. Actually the second, third, and fourth boss fights are all easy if you have leveled up your augs in an intelligent way, and the first can be easily defeated regardless of augs. Man... what passes for a "gamer" these days is just sad, and what passes for a "gaming journalist" is even sadder.

[Ducky]

I don't think the problem is with the actual difficulty.
The first and third bosses can be defeated without firing a shot... and the last one can be laughably easy if you're prepared.

It's just... compared to the rest of the game, the boss fights don't fit in. They just aren't designed as meticulously as the rest of the game is.
In a game like MGS, I'd look forward to the next boss fight... in HumanRev, I dreaded it because most of them just weren't fun.

EDIT: @Sage
You can also sneak a turret with you for the third fight. ;)

[PirateThom]

The fact you need to "level up in an intelligent" way is the problem.

You should NEVER be put into a situation where you can go through the game with barely any confrontation, focusing on stealth only to enter into these fights where it completely changes how you're playing.

I got stuck on the first boss fight for ages because, simply, I was going for clean, one hit, kills and then I have to fight a guy with a minigun with only silenced weapons and no grenades of any kind left? It's nonsense. You can't offer choice and then punish people who make the choice differently. If they introduced a timed, stealth segment and someone had focused entirely on hacking and weapons it would be the same problem. The game needs to be balanced for all playthroughs.

[SH0CKW4VE]

I found that in the first boss fight there was plenty of equipment dotted around the place e.g. emp grenades etc which was handy for taking him down because I only had a crossbow, stun gun/ tranq gun.

im playing on "medium" could be different on hard.

[ryhanon]

@shockwave

It was the same on hard. It was not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be.

[clarkjudo]

Three are other weapons with in the Boss area to replace the "less effective weapons".

[PirateThom]

I was dying too quickly to even get the other weapons due to placement, eventually I just took him out with a silenced handgun and lots of running around hiding and topping up my health when I needed to.

As I said, it's irrelevent to difficulty or what was lying in the area it was a complete change of playstyle. Same with the second boss fight, it's not as outright run and gun, but it's a similar problem.

It's stupid and, if they were outsourced, they're not even part of the game.

[GTRrocker]

I chose all stealth weapons and I killed Barrett in like 3 minutes on my second time. I died once.I don't see a mild challenge as punishment.

[Saladfax]

The issue is not difficulty, so remove those arrogant-pants. Someone said, "What passes for a gamer," but maybe it should be, "What passes for a discerning individual." It's not hard; it's poorly designed and tedious.

The design of the boss fights was not very good because they provided no means to fully utilize *your* character against them. Sure, you can run around, grab up weapons, and turn yourself into Rambo for 5 minutes. Sure, you could optimize your aug build specifically for the boss fights.

But the entire game was marketed as "Choose your way," be it mass murder, stealth, or anything else. Even having just a couple of sections which go against that is contradictory, silly, and begs criticism.

The rest of the game seems so meticulously designed. I guess it's okay if a few parts are a little less so, but that doesn't mean we don't say, "Hey, this isn't so hot," in the hopes that they and other devs improve it in the future.

I get really tired of seeing, "OMG PURFECKT UR ALL WRONG TO SAY BAD STUF BOUT DIS GAM!"

[SageHonor]

Correct

> I defeated the first boss by throwing barrels at him

> I defeated the second boss by shooting those electric things. I had the right augmentations :)

> I defeated the third boss by punching him as he jumped over the wall.. Lol

> and the last boss i shot with the laser rifle.. Beat her in about 10 seconds

[Bimkoblerutso]

I don't think some of you are understanding. It's not the difficulty per se. It's the fact that they are completely uninspired compared to the rest of the game and (whether you want to admit it or not) cater to a very specific play-style. Still beatable regardless, yes, but they were obviously designed with straightforward shooting in mind.

[ryhanon]

I agree with the assessment that the boss fights seemed somewhat restrictive in terms of how the player was required to approach them, especially in contrast to the rest of the game. That is definitely a bit disappointing.

However, I really don't understand the outcry over them. I played the game through stealthy, on the hardest difficulty, and I died no more than three times on each boss fight. These were not difficult at all. Disappointing? Yeah, a bit. Difficult to the point of frustration as so many people appear to feel? meh... I don't think so.

A few EMP/gas grenades/mines is all you need to make short work of all of the bosses.

The first boss was the most difficult for me because I really wasn't prepared for it, luckily they anticipated players might be caught off guard so they filled the arena with all sorts of weapons to use.

People are blowing this out of proportion.

[clarkjudo]

I agree, it seems for a thinking and strategy game like DE: HR throws off those who are use to being handed everything from the get go or being led by the hand. If I did not have the "right" stuff, like you said each Boss arena has weapons to use. *SPOILERS*. This came in handy when my Augs were turned off before fighting the 3rd Boss by a kill switch. (This after going to the LIMB Clinic earlier for the "repair job"). First game through I ended up skipping it and the side mission that followed. But I had my Augs and my hub was not scrambled. So, going to the LIMB Clinic made it a "better" Boss fight experience. *End of SPOILERS*. This is a great 30 - 40 hour game, nip picking about Boss fights is not really necessary especially if they are not the "main event" for the story driven game experience as a whole. LOL

[grailly]

there's no "leveling up in an intelligent way" when you don't know what's ahead, I guess you could just keed 5-6 praxis points for the next boss fight, but was that really the point of those fights?

[Basjohn]

Precisely. If you went for stealth there's about an 80% chance you didn't have the EMP shielding upgrade because you didn't need Armour if no one was ever shooting at you.

Boy did that suddenly change in a boss fight.

[MysticStrummer]

I'm not saying these boss fights were amazing or anything, just that they aren't as horrific as articles like this imply. I played the game in stealth mode and in aggressive mode, and didn't have a problem with the bosses either way. They were just average bosses.

[firelogic]

Every boss battle sucked. Especially the last one.

[saladthieves]

All bosses, 1, 2, and 3 can be killed without having to shoot at them.

1 - Just grenade spam him. A couple will just do the trick.

2 - Just shoot all the power stations that are around the room. If you have the correct augmentation to become immune from electricity, then you'll be fine.

3 - If you stand in the middle of the room where the large glass wall is, and you stand on the opposite side of that glass so that it is separating both of you, he'll jump to your side. Throw a grenade just as he's about to jump so that he can land on it. It blows him up while you go to the opposite side. Do the same there as well.

4 - Probably one of the easiest bosses??

[Human Analog]

That interview had to have happened before the game shipped. Dr. Paul A. Kruszewski has no idea how much the bosses changed the texture of the game. It is kind of like the ending boss fight in the original Bioshock. It was unnecessary. Even Ken Levine said so. He though that coming from PC games to consoles, that we 'needed' boss fights. He said that it was a bad decision, and if he could, he would have ended the game differently.

I feel that If Eidos/Square gave it more thought they would think the same about Deus Ex, and the bosses they shoehorned in. It really felt more like a corporate decision, then a creative one.

[Anti-Fanboyer]

I knew there was some kind of explanation for this. The boss battles just seemed so different from the rest of the game. If you played stealth most of the time, you were suddenly thrust into this mode were you now had no choice but frantically run, shoot, hide, and repeat.

[clarkjudo]

Three are other weapons with in the Boss area to replace the "less effective weapons". :)

[Basjohn]

Man you're like a broken record saying that everywhere.

It's not about weapons, it's about PLAYSTYLE. Try the second boss with stealth and no, armour augs or emp shielding and you'll be crying like I did. I had to bunny hop and painkiller pop just to stay alive.

There needed to be multiple dispatch options for each style. There weren't.

[saladthieves]

Yes, but the difference between the boss battles and every other element in the game is the boss will constantly be looking for you.

You have no choice but to fight. It's not like you can hide so that the alarm level goes down and he/she stops looking for you - like the rest of the game allows you to.

[-Gespenst-]

It was annoying that as a non-lethal, stealthy player, I had to kill the bosses. And not only that, but it was difficult for a character of my build to survive during the fights.

On the plus-side, I collected and modified a few lethal weapons just for the sake of the boss fights, and it was kind of fun to get to use them.

Still, they should have been like the bosses in the previous games insofar as you should have been able to handle the fight in numerous ways. Oh well, still GOTY.

[clarkjudo]

There is always the option to use the weapons offered in the Boss arena. :).... GOTY, agree so far. Gotta see what comes with Batman: AC. :)

[-Gespenst-]

Yeah but they're not upgraded are they??... I'm thinking of the Revolver with exploding rounds, lots of damage and lots of ammo capacity hehe.

For me it'll be Deus Ex or Skyrim for GOTY I think.

[chazjamie]

i actually enjoyed the boss fights, just as must i enjoyed the boss fights in mgs4. In both cases i was thrown in a situation i did not want to be in, nevertheless i fought with what I had. It wasnt such a big issue, that i needed to write an essay about it. I hope the dlc and future sequels will have boss fights (hopefully it wont be as claustrophobic).

[Reborn]

Clarkjudo, I'm happy you ran out of bubbles. You're obviously missing the point here.

If throughout the whole game, you could pick which way you decided to go through it. Then suddenly thrown into a situation where the only way to pass through is to start firing like hell, and use painkillers and crap, whats the point?

I noticed how stupid it was when I saw that Fox trophy. It doesn't even include boss fights.. If they offered multiple paths to fight bosses, it would have been more awesome.

[YodaCracker]

Christ, that guy in the video just rambled on and ON, especially toward the end there. It started to not even make sense anymore.

[B_Rian89]

You can beat 3 out of the 4 bosses without firing a single gun shot

[Droid Control]

I really enjoyed the game, but boss fights are so inappropriate for Deus Ex.

I put all my perks and upgrades on stealth - and then when the first boos turns up I was totally fraked!

No cool.

I got through it, but it was not a pleasant experience./

[SITH]

I agree. The game could have done fine without the boss fights. But, they didn't diminish my experience with the game. Maybe an unpredicatable boss fight like the random dragon encounters in Skyrim would be nice for the next deus ex game.