10 Early Game Enemies That Came As A Nasty Surprise
Getting your ass kicked within minute of starting the game.
As the old saw goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.Whether it’s learning to ride a bicycle, do Mathematics, or speak in public, taking a slow and measured approach to acquiring a new skill is always preferable to going for broke on the first try (unless you want to go head first over the handlebars).
Gaming is no different, with the traditional difficulty curve starting slow and ramping up, allowing players to enjoy the challenge without feeling frustrated, and creating a sense of accomplishment once the game is completed.
But then there are cases where the expected smooth rise to the top is rudely interrupted by an opponent, be it a regular mook or a boss, which came late to the briefing and decided to kick your butt instead. Sometimes the developers are trolling, and other times it is a brilliant bit of creative thinking, but either way, when it happens it comes as a rude shock.
Still, overcoming an unexpected challenge makes for a great war story, and games, more than any other entertainment medium, are built on great war stories. Here are just a few of the enemies that have laid new players low, and been all the more memorable for it.
10. Killer Croc – Batman: Arkham Origins
Killer Croc brilliantly proves the saying that you should never make assumptions. Fought at the end of the tutorial level, you would expect him to be a nice, easy test of the skills you’ve learned thus far. Not so much.
Defeating Croc requires a specific skill – well-timed dodging – that new players would not have utilised a great deal, simply because it is not needed to beat the enemies in the rest of the level. And, it is this need to dodge that makes Croc such a surprisingly tricky prospect
Croc will charge, but rather than a simple headlong rush Croc will home in on Batman, meaning that the timing of the dodge must be precise. Worse still, Croc will jump, terminating in an area-of-effect of effect ground slam that damages Batman and leaves him staggered.
Even should this first jump be dodged, a second equally well-timed dodge is needed because Croc will jump again. And again. And again. If the player does not string together a series of impeccably timed dodges they can be left stun-locked and will go down shockingly fast.
Croc is a rude awakening and a brilliant foretaste of just how challenging Origins’ bosses will be.