Why Insomniac's Spider-Man Is Short Of Amazing
3. The Boss Fights Suck
Although there were lacklustre boss fights in the Arkham franchise with roided-out Joker and wrecking ball Clayface, each of the series’ individual titles – forgetting Arkham Knight – had at least one truly great boss fight - Scarecrow, Mister Freeze, and Deathstroke.
Aside from a neat homage to the unforgettable train sequence in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac’s PS4 exclusive has zero boss fights that surpass anything above "meh".
From Martin Li and his army of negative nancies to the dynamic duo of Electro and Vulture, the boss fights in Spider-Man sorely lack innovation and challenge. In each of the boss encounters you simply dodge easily avoidable attacks and button mash square to assault the big baddie while they take their sweet time recuperating.
If the lack of innovation, challenge, and the necessity for different strategies isn’t bad enough, Spidey’s opening and final boss fights both conclude with quick-time-events. Sure, not all QTEs are bad, but overall, the game relies on them way too much, and they result in said fights ending with a whimper rather than a bang.
Good boss battles being a dead art is no secret, and it’s a shame that a game with colourful rogues like Rhino, Vulture and Electro couldn't be more than a sad embodiment of this tragic state of modern games.