10 All Time Greatest Boss Battles From Metal Gear Franchise

10. The End (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)

Where other games might have you up against an enemy, whittling down its health bar, MGS prides itself on mixing up the formula. An amazing example of this is the boss fight against The End during Metal Gear Solid 3.

The whole boss fight is a game of cat-and-mouse between two expert combatants. On one hand, you've got Naked Snake, expert in CQC and firearms combat, and then you've got The End, a master of camouflage and sniping.

Taking place over a huge, sprawling area with multiple connecting sections, the game cleverly brings stealth and camouflage to the forefront, tasking the player with locating The End in this massive environment and attacking him before he can scurry away (or blow your head off with his sniper rifle).

It's a multi-layered, dynamic fight which is different pretty much every time you play it. It's full of nuances too; you can, for example, capture the end's pet parrot and use it to locate his position. Alternatively, you can even set your game clock to several years ahead of the current date. When you next boot up MGS3, The End will have died of old age!

This boss fight doesn't have to take place, either. After an earlier cutscene, there's a tiny window where The End can be sniped from afar. He'll explode and when you get to his boss area, he won't show up at all.