Summary
Alongside the creepy environments, cheesy dialogue, and lovable characters,Resident Evilhas also become renowned for its bosses. Considering this series is based in a world that is always on the brink of a new bio-terror attack, Capcom has been able to include sometruly terrifying monstersin the gamesto act as major bosses for the players to overcome throughout their journey.
Unfortunately, though, not every boss has lived up to the hype, with some even being considered a bit of a letdown once they show up. This is especially noticeable when a particular enemy has been emphasized by other characters or through documents scattered across the game, only for them to be a pushover in terms of actual challenge. It’s time to reflect on theResident Evilbosses who really could have benefited from being just a little harder to beat, especially when taking into account how strong they are supposed to be in the context of the story itself.
Resident Evil 4is separated into three large sections; the village, castle, and the island. Every area has its major villain who Leon will be forced to defeat before progressing to the next section of the game, and for the village, the man standing in his way is none other than the “Big Cheese” village chief himself, Mendez. At first, it seems as though his fight is going to be a pretty brutal one considering how large Mendez appears to be once he mutates.
The truth is, though, Leon can dismember Mendez and even kill him for good with nothing more than a few incendiary grenades, which just so happen to be liberally scattered around the barn for players to pick up. Despite incendiary grenades being removed from theResident Evil 4 Remake, this fight still feels a little too easy since all players need to do is stay on the top floor,press the QTEs on time to avoid taking damage, and pelt Mendez with as many bullets as possible until it’s over.
Resident Evil 5kicks off with series icon Chris Redfield arriving in the African nation of Kijuju to investigate rumors of bioweapons being sold on the black market. However, it’s not long before the locales start talking aboutUroboros, a “doomsday project"that is said to be capable of wiping out most of humanity if it’s ever unleashed onto the population at large. Needless to say, it’s a pretty scary virus which is mentioned time and time again throughout the game, but it doesn’t exactly appear all that intimidating when it shows itself in the flesh for the first time.
Chris and Sheva will encounter the Uroboros while making their way through the shanty town at the start of the game. The good news though, is that there’s a convenient fire chamber right next to where the creature appears, so if one player lures it into the room and the other pulls the lever to unleash the flames two to three times, they’ll end the fight in barely any time at all. The terrifying capabilities of Uroboros do become more apparent later in the game, but this introduction definitely could have been a little more challenging to demonstrate how dangerous this virus really is.
When Jill, Chris, and the other S.T.A.R.S members first enterthe Spencer Mansionin the original game, it doesn’t take long before they run into plenty of mindless zombies and even a few zombified dogs. As the game goes on though, the true monstrosities which lie in the depths of the mansion start to reveal themselves, one such example of this being a giant venomous snake known as Yawn.
Yawn’s design alone is more than enough to send a chill down the spine of even the most seasoned horror fans, so it’s a shame that once the battle starts, he ends up being a pretty easy obstacle to overcome, primarily because of how slow he is. Players can effectively kite Yawn around the room and take potshots at him every now and again to whittle down his health bar, making for one of the game’s easier boss fights overall.
Each of the Four Lords inResident Evil Villagehas something unique they bring to the table for their specific boss encounters. Dimitrescu’s giant vampiric bat mutation makes her a tricky target to hit, while also allowing her to pack one hell of a punch. Beneviento, on the other hand, uses other horrific monsters to do her dirty work for her, before then playing a sadistic game of hide and seek in an attempt to drive Ethan insane.
Moreau’s fight, though, consists of a fairly lightplatforming section, and a battle which is little more than a run and gun section. Moreau’s gigantic frame means he’s pretty slow when moving around, and because of the level design, it means players always have a corner that they can navigate around which will immediately allow them to escape Moreau’s grasp if he ever gets too close. Even his ace-in-the-hole move, the acid rain, can easily be avoided because of its lengthy startup animation, and the fact there’s plenty of shelter to hide under when it’s set off.
TheResident Evil 2 Remakedid an excellent job at replicating the core components of the original game while also appealing to modern audiences, but there were still a few areas that die-hard fans noticed were radically changed, and not always for the better. One of the most infamous examples of this is the giant crocodile encounter, which was turned into little more than a glorified chase sequence.
As long as players switch from left to right while running away, they can easily avoid the crocodile’s large mouth attacks, before then killing it for good by firing at the explosive pipe he will eventually bite into. Considering how iconic the enemy is in the original, many fans feel that it deserved a much bigger and more memorable battle rather than this brief cameo which only lasts for roughly 2 minutes.
In terms of size, the U-8 is one of the largest enemies, not only inResident Evil 5, but in the entire series. In fact, this spider-like B.O.W manages to hold itself up on a giant elevator while also slashing away at Chris and Sheva in an attempt to stop them in their tracks, but while it looks scary from a visual standpoint, one noticeable part of the U-8’s design which stands out a bit too much is the big fleshy sacks hanging from its legs.
These are the boss' weak spots, and they’re incredibly hard to miss because of how big and bright they are. Once players take out one of these points with a few shots, they’ll have the chance to toss a grenade into the U-8’s mouth, instantly removing a large section of its health bar in one go. Considering how powerful the “U” experiments have always been known to be in the series, it’s surprising U-8 didn’t end up being nearly as strong as the likes ofU-3 fromResident Evil 4for example.
Ada’s campaign is the shortest of four that are featured inResident Evil 6, but it’s still worth a playthrough since it sheds a lot of light on the game’stwo major villains; Derek Simmons and Carla Radames, the latter of who is a clone of Ada who was created by Simmons before the story begins. Once Ada comes face to face with her doppleganger, Carla begins mutating into a gigantic creature which seems like it would take an entire arsenal of firearms and weapons to defeat.
What instead happens is that Ada tries her best to escape Carla’s grasp, resulting in a QTE-heavy chase sequence that can be completed without needing to fire anything more than a magazine of bullets. Having a big and exciting boss fight really could have made Carla more of a memorable villain, but if anything, it ended up making her even more forgettable due to how quick and easy it was.
