Back in the day we used to call them “End Of Level Guardians”; nowadays, they’re known as “Bosses”. Why “Boss” though? It doesn’t seem to have any real meaning anymore.

The function of a Guardian or a Boss in the games was to guard or be in charge of a particular level in a game: sometimes you would encounter them briefly during the level as they made your life a misery from afar, then when you arrived at their lair it was up to you to defeat them in order to conquer and complete the level. Their job, of course, was to be generally very big and quite impressive and near-unbeatable until you learned their pattern of attacks or found the “sweet spot” where you could hide and not be hit. One way or another, you knew that you were one step away from victory and it was they you had to beat. A Guardian was an important marking point, a test of your skills, the ultimate obstacle in your path to triumph.

In games these days, however, it doesn’t appear that this is any longer the case. ‘Bosses’ – and frankly I prefer the term ‘Guardians’ - block your path every step of the way, they only provide an accurate marker of your progress insofar as you have to beat them: they no longer represent the pinnacle of achievement in your adventure. Instead they are peppered liberally throughout the game world, appearing at odd moments in the form of a set-piece that challenges you briefly while you are on the way to somewhere else.

It is true that some of these ‘Bosses’ form the last gateway to the end of a section, this mostly appears rare, and some encounters are even quite anti-climactic. Let’s take Resident Evil 4 as our example –the finest game on the Gamecube, in my opinion, yet it features a scattering of set pieces that really only represent achievements in themselves, they do not represent a significant step forward in the game itself, but are often an annoyance designed just to slow you down.

This motion away from climactic achievement is, I believe, a result of the tendency to eschew linear progression in games –which is not something I am complaining about, after all, Morrowind is my favourite game of all time and it is the most non-linear game out there. But with the gameplay mechanic of non-linearity comes the loss of shock and awe in the game itself. All victories are almost equal in the game, or some are even greater than others as an uneven difficulty curve means that Bosses encountered seemingly mid-level are far more difficult to defeat than those met at the end. El Gigante was far more imposing and difficult in Resident Evil 4 than, say, the village Chieftain. I had more difficulty with Salazar’s monster than I did with Salazar himself. Thusly, I did not feel as much pride in defeating the mutant Spaniard as I did his lackey. For me, this is disappointing.

The same can be said for games such as Fable: random attacks from giant rock-throwing monsters just divert the natural flow of the game when they are much harder to defeat than the “Mighty” Bandit Warlord that you are hunting.

This is akin to having an action movie where the Hero defeats the Criminal Mastermind within the first half hour and subsequently spends the rest of the time mopping up his lackeys and the occasional elite guard: laying the best cards on the table before you have a chance to build up a better hand is a poor strategy that will only see you win if you are very lucky.

However, perhaps this is also symptomatic of the demanding gamer in the modern age. In the days gone by, players were prepared to wait for their final encounter as they knew it would be the most testing challenge that they would have to face. In this era where gamers are far more casual “pick up and play” gamers, instant thrills are wanted so that their attention does not wane. Showy set-pieces and mid-level bosses that are more eye-catching and breathtaking than the End Of Level Guardians of yore provide a short term adrenaline rush that will spur the disinterested player onto the next piece before they run out of interest.

Personally, I’d rather face off against an End Of Level Guardian and feel like I’ve really gone through the wars to achieve something significant.

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