10 Boss Fights That Play TOTALLY Different To Their Games

2. Higgs - Death Stranding

Death Stranding Higgs Boss
Kojima Productions

After that epic Metal Gear Solid 4 battle, that admittedly had very little mechanically to do with the rest of the game, Hideo Kojima delivers yet again in Death Stranding.

While a whole lot more divisive than the Metal Gear series, Kojima proves yet again with Death Stranding that he still knows how to make a video game moment stand out. And that sometimes he does that by switching genres entirely.

Toward the end of the game, after offing the biggest BT you’ll ever see, you come up against Higgs himself. The start of the fight has you running around the pesky regularly cloaking antagonist while Higgs attempts to put a bullet in your head, but by the end the fight takes a generous page out of MGS4’s book and goes full classic fighter on you.

Complete with health bars and dramatic injury close ups, the genre swap is definitely unexpected, but again, it’s classic Kojima in the best way.

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Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.