What Makes a good Boss Rooom?

[AJOgames]

I've been wondering for awhile now, what makes a good boss room?

 

More specifically, what should be done when making a map to make the fight more engaging?

 

It depends on whether or not the boss has hitscan or projectile-based attacks, 

 

I do know of some bad examples of Boss Rooms.

 

!. Battlelord (From DN3D) since his main attack is hitscan-based, you'd expect to at least hide behind, but all you get is a big empty room with no wall to sheild yourself from his attacks, leaving you out in the open, unable to avoid taking sure there;s a health pickup there, but that won't help out that much on higher difficulties, and the only thing you can dodge is his pipebomb attack, the Battlelord itself isn't the problem, the problem is the room you fight him in at the end of episode 1.

 

Don't know if any of the Quake games have terrible boss rooms,  though, 

 

Now what do I mean by "Good" and "Bad" Boss Rooms?

 

Well the Bad Boss Room would have a good boss monster concept, but the way the room  is layed out results in a rather lackluster or at times unfair fight.

 

Like in Ultimate Doom, E4M8, the rematch with the Spider Mastermind...kinda sucks,

 

The Mastermind doesn't have a lot of mobility because the cylinder wall covering the exit is in its way, allowing you to easily cheese the AI and constantly fire your weapons at him until he dies.

 

A good boss room would be designed in a way that makes good use of whatever boss monster is placed in there, therefore making the overall fight more fun and engaging.

 

The first boss of Powerslave/Exhumed, for example, jumps around a lot and also attacks you head on, and there's enough room for both you and the boss!

 

You can discuss both good and bad boss rooms if you want

 

 

 

 

[Kore]

A good boss fight has to have synergy with his mooks. Some good examples of this are Heretic's E2M8 (especially in multiplayer) and D'Sparil's fight in nightmare.

A single high damage sponge is no fun.

[AJOgames]

Agreed! 

 

there is this video series on YouTube called ""350 FPS Final Boss Fights

There is a boss that perfectly fits the "high damage sponge" you described in your reply, 

 

To see the boss in question, skip to 50:40 in this video,