The internet’s already covered what Human Revolution does wrong in great detail. To wit, locks you in a room with a guy who can take multiple rockets to the head. Despite that, Human Revolution has one boss encounter that it pulls off perfectly. Spoilers ahead, folks.
You’re jetting to a new level with your pilot when the chopper is suddenly shot down. You bail out and the helicopter crashes in front of you; masses of enemies emerge and start shooting at it as the pilot urges you to run. If you manage to kill them all before time runs out, she lives. If you run or fail, she dies.
Here’s why this is Right:
1. It forces you to use all the skills you’ve learnt so far to the best of your ability. Human Revolution is (at least partially) about taking out multiple enemies with maximum efficiency; this fight forces you to take out a large amount of enemies in a small amount of time.
2. You don’t have to engage with it. You can avoid the fight, or continue the game after failing. The difficulty of the fight feels self-inflicted; you’re doing this because you want to, not because you’ve been forced to.
3. There is a compelling reason to engage with the fight. If you avoid it, or fail, something bad happens to something you care about. Here, a character that the game has been spending the past 15 or so hours trying to make you care about can die.
Honestly, I think every boss fight should do these three things. When you fight the other bosses in HR- or most bosses in any videogame – there’s no tension. You’re not fighting for anything you care about, and there’s nothing at stake but your life (The most worthless thing you own). The fact that failure has a consequence beyond a reload makes it meaningful; You are genuinely fighting for something other than yourself.
