A great video game has a natural flow to it. Players will find themselves sucked into not only the gameplay, but the world itself, and will be carried to the game’s conclusion glued to the screen in anticipation. Many of the best games end with a climactic bang in the form of a final boss, the culmination of the player’s efforts.
While many of these fights leave players happy and satisfied, some games that are otherwise considered classics flub this last encounter. Disrupting the pace and style of the game at the last second is a recipe for disaster, and while these games stood the test of time, their poor conclusions will always leave a mark on their legacy.
10 BioShock – Frank Fontaine Dumbs Down Gameplay
After alternating between sneaking and fighting through BioShock‘s Rapture, the game makes the disappointing decision to throw the player into an all-out brawl with the primary antagonist, Frank Fontaine. Granted, he is a hulking behemoth of a man, charged with the power of far too much ADAM, but until that point in the game, BioShock had allowed the player to approach combat however they wanted. Sneak attacks, full-on assaults, or a mixture of the two was always on the table until the very end, when brawling was forced on the player.
In the end, the player doesn’t even get to finish the job themselves; the Little Sisters take out Fontaine in a cutscene. It’s an unfortunate ending to one of the all-time best video games out there.
9 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Eredin Is Too Easy
After tracking Ciri down, Geralt finally comes face to face with the terror that is the Wild Hunt. His battle with the General of the Hunt, Imlerith, was a two-phase fight, with solid difficulty and a satisfying conclusion. In comparison, fighting Eredin, the main antagonist, held no challenge whatsoever. Eredin’s damage output was too low for the endgame, and his attacks were easy to evade or parry. This resulted in a stilted and awkward final fight that granted no sense of closure after the player’s victory.
8 Borderlands – The Destroyer Is An Immobile Bullet Sponge
After hearing about the Vault for so long, most players of the original Borderlands were surprised to find that the supposed treasure trove contains a monstrous boss creature dubbed The Destroyer.
Unfortunately, instead of following the rest of the game’s run-and-gun formula by having the enemy move around and fire off attacks, The Destroyer is basically a giant blob that sits there and swings halfheartedly at the players while they bombard its bullet-sponge body. It felt out-of-place and clunky in a game previously focused on fast-paced action.
7 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back – Neo Cortex Just Runs Away
While the original Crash Bandicoot‘s Cortex fight was no real masterpiece, the last battle with Dr. Neo Cortex in the second game is quite possibly the worst boss fight not only of the game, but of the entire series. The entire sequence consists of jet-packing close to the boss as he flies away slowly, finally smacking him three times. That’s it. Seeing the credits roll after such a lackluster and anticlimactic finish almost doesn’t seem real.
6 Final Fantasy X – Yu Yevon Can’t Beat The Player
JRPGs are notoriously difficult at times, but Final Fantasy X‘s final boss shatters that trope in spectacularly boring fashion. Players will tilt their heads in confusion when they realize that they’re taking basically no damage from the boss’s final form, a tick-like creature.
The symbolism behind this fight is powerful — Yu Yevon is simply a parasite, much smaller and weaker than his bluster would suggest — but the unexpected weakness was handled improperly and messed with the satisfying gameplay.
5 Fallout 3 – Colonel Autumn Doesn’t Have Any Armor
After journeying through the wastes of the metro D.C. area, defeating titanic mutants, and siding with the faction of their choice, players will find the final fight of Fallout 3 laughable. After confronting Colonel Autumn outside the Purifier, most Lone Wanderers were shocked to see Autumn drop after a single shot.
This is due to him wearing literally no armor, meaning a late game weapon was more than capable of one-shotting him. His bodyguards will no doubt pose more trouble, as they at least have higher level gear, but the sight of the game’s main antagonist crumpling like a flea after so much buildup is saddening to say the least.
4 Assassin’s Creed II – The Pope Is A Boring Slugfest
For the majority of Assassin’s Creed II, the name of the game is stealth. Ezio is an assassin, after all, and finding the opportune moment to strike is something that’ll bring a tear of joy to any series veteran’s eye. Despite the majority of Assassin’s Creed II being a great example of how to do this properly, the final boss is a five-minute fistfight with the pope. There’s no stealth, no sneaky weapons, and no agile combat maneuvers, just two dudes swinging like they’re in a drunken bar fight.
To add icing on the cake, Ezio doesn’t even kill him after the fight, declining the chance for revenge since it wouldn’t bring his family back. If he hadn’t just killed everybody else involved audiences might have taken him seriously, but as it stands Pope Rodrigo is easily one of the worst boss fights ever.
3 Uncharted – Navarro Is Needlessly Difficult
After playing through the entirety of the first Uncharted, audiences got used to the cover shooting mechanics that made the series famous. The final battle with Navarro throws that normal strategy out the window. While the villain takes potshots at Nathan Drake with a sniper rifle, Drake has to inch his way closer to his nemesis by dodging from cover to cover. Realistically he could just shoot the guy, but the game prevents the player from doing so, which is frustrating. Add a quick time event at the very end of the sequence, and Uncharted ends with a sputter instead of a bang.
2 Far Cry 3 – Hoyt Is An Anti-Climactic QTE
Far Cry 3 has arguably one of the best villains in gaming, but that title belongs to Montenegro, not Hoyt. After Montenegro bites the dust, Brody is left with the task of killing the drug kingpin, but the battle is barely even a cutscene. After a brutally violent card game, Hoyt stabs Brody’s companion, at which point the scene fades from the colorful card room to some ambiguous black space.
After knife fight comprised of a few quick time events, mediocre dialogue ensues. At the end, Hoyt lies dead on the ground, and the player is left wondering why they played through the game for it to end in such a lackluster fashion.
1 Batman: Arkham Asylum – The Joker’s Personality Is Shattered
Throughout Batman’s journey through the asylum turned to Joker’s playground, Batman is constantly living under the clown’s shadow. His tricks, his craftiness, and his evil genius ooze out of every crack in the wall, causing the player to experience some real stress. After battling a motley crew of villains, the final showdown with the Joker himself should be a puzzle of a fight, right? Wrong.
Instead, audiences witness Batman’s nemesis take some of Bane’s serum to become a jacked-up ogre of a final boss. For departing from the essence of such an iconic character for no apparent reason, this fight is considered one of the most egregious failures in gaming history.
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