I was searching for a list of bosses from Half-Life 1, since I didn't remember them all, and I came across a thread like this. Instead of implanting myself into whatever commutinty that was to join a year old discussion, I thought I'd start it up here.
Half-Life 1 - spoilers from about halfway through:
This may be because I recently played through HL2 and got me thinking about HL1, but the tentacle boss from HL1 really stands out for me. The ability to move in and out of the room gave it a varied pacing, and the way you killed it. I think you shot it with a laser? It made it feel like it was something just so big and nasty that just shooting at it wouldn't be enough.
Half-Life 2 - the whole HL2 series, with emphasis on the end of Ep.2:
Where the hell are all the bosses? I really miss them. There's tough encounters with tough (and sometimes big) enemies, but it's not the same for me. Sure fighting off over a dozen striders in Episode 2 was a challenge and different from the rest of the game, but withou the spectacle of some unique/giant creature I'll remember. It was another helicopter, another gunship, or another strider. Instead of "holy shit, look at that thing!" it was more like "motherfucker, I have to fight 12 of them?!". I can't say the end of Ep. 2 wasn't fun, but I'll remember the frustration more than the spectacle of if it had been a boss with just as much challenge.
What about you guys? What bosses did you hate/love?
I really should give this more thought, but two instantly come to mind:
Bioshock - maybe not hate, but...
Last boss just really shouldn't have been there. I didn't think it was as bad as some people did, but they just could have done something much cooler and more off-kilter. It could have been really cool, but ended up just being somewhat average. It was fun enough, but nothing special, I guess.
God of War II - love, love, love...
The Fates. Not only was that giant fat chick a pretty neat fight, the one with the other 2 was fucking fantastic. How you had to fly around keeping off the floor and stuff. It's been long enough now that I don't remember all the specifics, but I just remember that it was truly one of my favorite boss fights ever. I probably talked about it in a thread here at some point.
I'll post more if I think of more.
I really should give this more thought, but two instantly come to mind:
Bioshock - maybe not hate, but...
Last boss just really shouldn't have been there. I didn't think it was as bad as some people did, but they just could have done something much cooler and more off-kilter. It could have been really cool, but ended up just being somewhat average. It was fun enough, but nothing special, I guess.
Bioshock - Final Battle
I thought this boss battle was awesome, myself -- especially since no saves were allowed to made during this battle, which I thought made it quite tough. Hardest battle in the game for me, by far -- especially since when I played Bioshock my 1st time through, there was no option to turn off Vita Chambers.
About the look of Atlas/Fontaine and everything -- I thought it fit the game very well, which to me is showing also how destroyed Rapture became b/c of the over-usage and over-consumption of those steroid-like Plasmids. Look at the ruins of Rapture, with how over-run it is and was with Splicers from overusing these Plasmids. It destroyed the place. Drug addiction. Of course, that wasn't the only thing -- as Fontaine was pretty much a mob boss down there, anyways -- and there was nothing nice about him and the way he treated others, anyways. Fontaine was by far the most corrupt figure there -- and well, it shows....as he looks like an overly beefed-up version of The Incredible Hulk. Fontaine was a product of his own undoing -- not only that, he basically destroyed Rapture.
Also, since the game has its references to Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and other stuff -- maybe if Fontaine had a last name instead like say Rodriquez (as in A-Rod), Manny (as in Ramirez), Canseco, or Clemens, gamers would've been a little more forgiving! :oP
Electric gel makes the final boss in Bioshock a cakewalk. Just come in loaded with the stuff. Use it on him, and recharge it as you run up to him after he does his recharge thing. Rinse, repeat, and ignore minions.
I'm not a big fan of bosses in general. I prefer intense sequences with more or better enemies as the climax to an action-game chapter. But the giant impossible creatures that can only be damaged in puzzling ways don't do it for me. If I hit something square in the face with a rocket, I expect it to take damage. The boss who's invulnerable unless you fit a green dart in a red hole that opens and closes based on a ream of rules has got to go. And don't get me started on GoW / Shadow of the Colossus button-sequence silliness.
Hmmm, I don't remember button sequences in Shadow of the Collosus. You just had to climb up and hit the weak spot, that "weak spots" in general seem like something we'd move past with better graphics and especially in games that attempt realism, even if in their own imaginary world's rules. (was gonna say GoW too, then I realised you didn't mean Gears of War)
I see what you mean with only being able to kill a boss by solving a puzzle. Though I do think it can be done in a way that's much more tolerable. If you can't kill it with your normal arsenal, at least show that it hurts when you try, and make sure the player knows that they're doing a puzzle. Liek have an NPC yell at them "that's not gonna work, you have to hit it with something bigger", or something like that.
Gears of War 2 - midway-ish
The fish boss. First it grabs your raft with a tentacle/flipper/whatever and you have to chainsaw it to get him to stop. That pisses him off and he rushes at the boat with his mouth open and you run in. Then he shooted shit at you from spots in the back of his mouth. You shoot those down so they don't kill you, and I think shoot down his throat at the right time to actually damage him. It's all unbelievable over-scripted. It's fun, but would be more fun (and more believable) if you could just shoot him to death from the outside, but make him take more damage when shot in the mouth or something. That way he'd have the same weakness, but it would feel less scripted. Gears is one of those games that tries for a certain level of realism, and finding the weak spot on a giant fish breaks the immersion.
Now I hate myself for starting this. Everyone's talking about Bioshock and I just started playing it, so I can't read all these spoiler tags, haha.
I'm the opposite of Cobra; a good boss sequence can make a game for me, especially one's that are like a puzzle. That said, some of the best boss fights are the ones that are just like flat out brawls. When you use the same tactics as with regular enemies, but the boss is several times tougher turning the fight into a slug fest it's a great thing.
Given Metroid's history of great boss fights, it shouldn't be surprising that one of my favorites comes from the series. I guess this a spoiler, but I imagine everyone who's going to see this one has and it's obvious that this will be a fight that will happen as soon as you see the title of the game.
Probably my favorite fight in the series is with the first phase of Metroid Prime, where it sorta looks like a spider. It really made use of the skills you picked up throughout the game in terms of switching weapons on the fly while choosing the proper target. By the last moments of the fight, you're switching weapons as fast as your firing all while dodging a ton of attacks coming your way. To top it off, the fight last a good chunk of time so when you finally beat it, you're spent. It's a satisfying fight that makes the beating it feel like an accomplishment.
Doubt I really need this spoiler tag, but just in case.
Every Big daddy I run into seems to run me dry on ammo/first aid/EVE hypos, then kill me. Then I rush from the nearest chamber thingy (hitting a health station on my way), and hope I still have the ammo to finish him off. I just reached Neptune's Bounty and fought a Big Daddy right near the beginning. I'm not sure if the previous ones had all this guyu's abilities, but he was charging and periodically shooting greanades at me. The charge is tough to dodge, with no sprint (I need to re-check the keybinds to make sure on that one). The grenades can be caught and flung back, but ONLY before they land. So since I've been shoking him and shooting him. I have to right click to change to plasmids, select the telekenesis plasmid, and fire, all within the flight time of the grenade. (I guess I need to master using F-keys to switch to specific plasmids, or maybe use the numbers for them and stick with scrolling for weapons) I can appreciate the Big Daddies being an exhausting fight, but having to run back from the vita-chamber (sometimes 2-3 times) just makes me feel like I'm at more of a disadvantage than I should be, or I'm doing something wrong. (this is on normal difficulty btw, I didn't want to be a wuss and play it on easy).
I don't want to be a dick here, but I totally don't remember it. Refresher?
Final Battle
You fight The Grand Master. It's epic b/c (like Bioshock) no saves are allowed period during any boss battles.
He also does a few summons and you have to fight those in this battle too, as well.
Who You Fight In The Final Battle
Given by what is said by The GM, it's kind of implied that Grand Master is a version of Alvin that is from the future.
Epilogue Chapter
Actually, that whole entire Epilogue chapter in the game is quite memorable -- b/c just about every important action in the game decides how this entire chapter turns out.