10 Terrible Boss Fights That Almost Ruined Video Games

8. Lawrence Barrett - Deus Ex: Human Revolution

In fairness, you could list any of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss fights here, and though there are only four of them in the entire game, they're so antithetical to the core Deus Ex experience that they nearly derail the entire game.

The boss encounters, all of which were widely panned by fans and critics for their difficulty spikes and lack of stealth options, were actually outsourced to an outside developer due to time constraints, as is painfully evident in the end product.

And not one of these fights proves more jarringly infuriating than the first one, if only because it has the element of surprise on players fully expecting to stealth their way through the entire game.

But no, the first boss, Lawrence Barrett, shows up and forces the player into an action-centric, arena-style boss fight.

Given that most players weren't expecting such a game-y showdown in Deus Ex of all games, many were left ill-equipped and near-unable to actually take the minigun-wielding bullet sponge down.

Eidos did eventually "fix" the bosses for the Director's Cut, nerfing their difficulty significantly and giving players other options to take them down.

Furthermore, the backlash was significant enough that the developer near enough ditched boss fights entirely for the sequel, Mankind Divided.