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Dishonored ducked boss fights, calling them “dogmatic” tropes of video games

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Seeing the fuss kicked up surrounding Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s boss fights must have gladdened Harvey Smith’s heart, not because he’s one to revel in schadenfreude – he may be for all we know, but he’s not said words to that effect – but because Arkane Studios had decided to ditch the boss fight trope that’s been embedded in games for eons.

What did he say exactly on the matter? Well, for that, you’ll have look below.

“We’re very conscious of tropes in video games that are kind of lazy, frankly,” Harvey told Kotaku.”Dogmatic is the better word perhaps. You know: here’s a boss, he reveals his weak spot, you gotta hit it three times and then three times again, whatever.

“We never really felt the need for boss monsters. And it seems like a dogmatic feature. And sometimes it’s brilliant, right? One of my favorite games of all time wasShadow of the Colossus. If you count those as boss monsters, then wow—way to take that whole feature and make it your whole game and do something utterly brilliant. And it’s one of the best 100 games of all time in my opinion.

“But in our case it wasn’t the focus, and we are kind of careful about avoiding those kind of dogmatic tropes that video games are built on.”

Wise man, Harvey. Personally, I’m not a fan of boss fights. As Harvey says, they can seem a lazy addition to a game. Included without thought because it’s the done thing. So, I’ll be happy to play the boss-less Dishonored.

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