Board 8 > Top 20 Metal Gear Solid bosses

(+) Yeah! (+)

the game gets even better from The End fight all the way to the end but it's pretty great before then

"menu hopping" is pretty overblown and I don't care about it
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SantaRPidgey posted...

I hate you

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Well Ulti has a pretty short attention span, so anything that requires extra effort or thought is automatically trash in his eyes
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MGS1 and 2 are better than 3 by a lot, but 3 is a good game too. 4 was solid but a step below 3.
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3 > 1 > 4 > 2

All pretty great games though.
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Chiming in to say that the RAY fight is all skill

When I was playing on Euro Extreme, due to misuse of rations, I had to fight the Harrier, Vamp, and the RAYs without being allowed to take a single hit in any fight. It was insanity. Every fight can be completed with pure skill but good lord was it hard at the time.
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2. The Boss

I'm not really sure what I can say about The Boss. She's essentially perfect. Fun, challenging, and extreme emotion that carries all the way throughout the end of the game. Still one of my absolute favorite video game endings.

My first time fighting her was definitely no cakewalk. For one thing I was taken aback by the beautiful battlefield. Couldn't even see my opponent, until she appeared out of nowhere and slammed my face into the pretty flowers. Didn't know I could counter her grapples, so I didn't try. My original method involved hiding, like always, and trying to snipe her. Which I think worked for me.

Even when I did learn you could counter her CQC with your own, I never thought I'd actually get the timing down. Took a few years, but I eventually got the hang of it. Now I feel like the real boss when I fight her, because her moves got nothin' on me now.

Regardless, still an intense fight. The lack of music (for seven minutes) really improves the atmosphere. No tunes necessary, this is just a fight between two people with an immensely powerful bond. They don't wanna kill each other, but they have to.

Then you get pulled in as well, oh yes. Snake points a gun at his mentor's head, and instead of making you watch, you're the one that has to pull the damn trigger. Ugh. So heavy. Such a great design choice.

Oh and Way to Fall is the best credits song of the forevers
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Honorable Mention: The Sorrow

Obviously not a literal boss fight, but it can be dangerous. Especially if you went on some killing sprees prior to this encounter. That's why you should always play non-lethally.

Just wanted to include this because I love MGS3 a ridiculous amount, and I seem to be drawn to tragic characters. This game has a few of them. I'm also a fan of the somber surreal nature of wading up an endless river with ghosts of the folks you've killed returning to haunt you for your bloodlust. Stop killing other people, you fools! It tears your soul apart until nothing is left but pieces that can never be put back together!

Or you can just kill yourself right off the bat and all of your problems fade away.

*Provided you have a revival pill
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Man the boss is so great
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1. The End

Ha! Gotcha! No chance anyone foresaw this, y'all expected it to be some scrub like Screaming Mantis or Fatman but no way, those two suck.

I mean, we all know why this fight is amazing. It personifies the entire series. This is a pure stealth encounter, no giant robots, no crazy ass super powers (well, not as crazy), no loud noises or explosions. Just wandering around, hunting your prey while you are also being stalked.

The thing I love about The End is he's a pure sniper. So are the others, sure, but they still talk a lot and make plenty of noise, and Quiet has super skull abilities to help her aim. The End just has patience... and photosynthesis.

He'll just lay in the grass for days until he spots you, or just literally dies of old age. It's nice the game put those little tricks in to skip this fight just in case you're concerned for time, but why you'd want to skip one of the best boss battles ever is beyond me.

What's more, he doesn't use lethal ammo, just sleep darts. So even if you do get tagged, you just gotta rest off the drugs for a bit. Wastes more time, but it's a far better decision than letting him kill you since this altercation can take well over an hour to complete, especially since he can heal himself if he's low on health and you can't find him fast enough. Restarting this fight after all of that would be agony, and terribly frustrating. Smart design choices, I dig 'em.

My only problem here is that you can't snipe him non-lethally. He's the one with the Mosin Nagant and the only way to get it is to deplete his stamina, and the only way you have of doing that is your little tranq pistol or flash bangs or whatevs. Even in NG+ you don't get to keep your weapons, so you always have to decide between two different methods. Either having a flat-out sniper duel which just yields satisfaction as a reward, or sneak up on his bitch ass and hold him up. This path will get you some awesome camo, and stamina killing him will get you that sweet sweet tranq rifle.

First time through this game, The End definitely did take me over an hour to beat. I loved every minute of it too. Trying to find him without being spotted myself, noticing the glare of his scope lens and then carefully sniping him before he could see me first (because let's be honest his trigger finger is way quicker than mine). Then he fucking healed himself, bullshit.

It ended in a silly but cool way. I literally stepped on him without even realizing he was there until he popped up right from under me and started running away. I managed to scope him out as he was fleeing and hastily sent a bullet through his back. Not the most honorable, but I was proud of my reflexes at the time since I wasn't yet much of a shooter.

Also directly after this fight you get to experience that fateful, intimate relationship with The Ladder
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I've never been able to beat The End as a sniper. I've always had to sneak up behind him and use a shotgun. I'm terrible at sniping in games.
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My skill at sniping is sporadic. I try my best, and sometimes I pull off some cool shots, but other times I miss every shot and get frustrated and throw my tv out the window
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There are plenty of safe zones for any given attack with the Harrier, you just have to get there fast. I could have sworn that machine gun fire did less damage than the recoverable portion of your health in damage, though. Maybe that's just for the RAYs.

I also didn't know that guards could drop them so I went through most of Euro Extreme without any rations.
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LeonhartFour posted...

3 > 1 > 4 > 2

All pretty great games though.

If it wasn't obvious, I like 3 the most as well. It was my favorite game for several years after finishing it.
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I guess I'll keep this bumped through the weekend at least
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3 is the best game ever. I'm so sad that the direction of the series slowly became more and more outlandish and less Infiltration and Espionage. The 4th game practically kicks you in the balls by teasing a return to form in the first quarter of the game only to turn into a splurge-fest.

As awesome as the Rex Ray battle was, I felt like Kojima was literally dancing on the grave of a once great game. Like, really? You had to defile Shadow Moses for your 1 on 1 robot fight?
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Shadow Moses was the best part of MGS4 though
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AquaArcane posted...

Shadow Moses was the best part of MGS4 though

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I shall bump ye

One last time
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I think the most disappointing thing in PW is that all of the bosses are robots.
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