Best Resident Evil Bosses - IGN (original) (raw)
As Resident Evil 5 comes ever nearer to release, we continue to reflect on the past entires in the series and what makes us love them so much, even after all these years. A big reason Resident Evil remains memorable is its use of boss battles. Zombies are one thing, but once you start tossing Tyrants, giant snakes, and chainsaw-wielding maniacs into the mix, you hit upon something truly magical.We sorted through many of the infected to come up with a collection of ten of our favorite bosses from the wwhole franchise, from its humble beginnings in the original Resident Evil, all the way to the copious amounts of fearsome foes in Resident Evil 4. These ten villains, in no particular order, are the ones we still have nightmares about.
And be sure to let us know who your favorite bosses are by posting in the comments section. We'll be putting together a Reader's Choice feature next week, so now's your chance to make your vote heard.
Lisa Trevor Lisa Trevor was the dirty little secret of the Spencer Estate. Lisa is the daughter of George Trevor, the man who designed the mansion for Ozwell Spencer. The paranoid Spencer wanted the Trevor family out of the way. After eliminating George, Lisa and her mother were subjected to a series of horrific medical experiments.
The results turned Lisa into a beastly but powerful creature. Her body became immune to almost all forms of harm. William Birkin was able to develop the G-Virus based on tests performed on Lisa's body.
For her part, Lisa developed a pathological desire to be reunited with her mother, who she had inadvertently killed. She even took to wearing her mother's rotting face like a mask. As Lisa became increasingly insane, she murdered other Umbrella employees and added to her growing mask collection.
Lisa hid for years in a small cabin on the estate. When STARS came calling, they were greeted to the ghostly sounds of Lisa's howling. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine encountered Lisa several times during their exploration, but found her all but impossible to wound. It wasn't until they exhumed the corpse of Jessica Trevor that the crazed Lisa was finally satiated and seemingly killed herself.
Not quite. Wesker was left to clean up the mess. As Wesker fled the mansion's self destruct sequence, he was forced to fend off Lisa at every turn. His own enhanced abilities made him a more formidable opponent, however. Ultimately, Lisa was trapped under debris and left to die in the massive explosion that wiped Spencer Mansion off the map.
As gamers progressed through the original Resident Evil, it became increasingly apparent that there was no limit to the types of creatures Umbrella could mutate with the T-Virus. The Gamecube remake only worsened matters by adding increasingly bizarre and terrifying monstrosities.
Many people hate snakes. More people still loathe poisonous cobras. But gigantic, poisonous, T-Virus infected cobras? Where the hell is that exit?
Yawn lives in the attic of the Spencer Mansion. It would be simple enough to leave this snake and his man-sized jaws to his own devices, but Yawn also guards a vital puzzle piece. Therefore, gamers have to empty their shotguns and cross their fingers they don't run out and catch an oversized fang to the chest.
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence only worsens matters further. In this remake, Yawn survives the fight, grows a set of hardened scales, and takes up residence in the space formerly occupied by Plant 42. Just one more nasty surprise as gamers struggle to make their way out of the world's worst haunted house.
The Las Plagas-infected villagers of Resident Evil 4 are bad enough. We weren't eager to hit that inevitable first boss battle, and Del Lago certainly punished us for our lack of anticipation.
Del Lago is a lake monster of considerable size. Leon is forced to combat this beast on its home turf, by hopping in a boat and grabbing a harpoon. No, guns are no help here.
As he attempts to spear this fish the old-fashioned way, Leon will be dragged across the lake from one end to another. If he's not careful, he may even be tossed in the brine with his would-be prey.
Del Lago will eventually fall, but only after emptying a dozen or more spears into its thick hide. The fight is so exhausting for Leon that he passes out for six hours afterward. We can certainly sympathize.
Dr. Salvador isn't technically a boss character. He and his kind are recurring threats throughout Resident Evil 4. Still, the amount of terror we felt at the sight of this hooded killer rivals that of many full-fledged boss characters.
Dr. Salvador stands apart from the rest of the Las Plagas villagers by virtue of his burlap sack mask and roaring chainsaw. Salvador is quite a bit tougher than the average villager. Worse still, one slice of his chainsaw is enough to take Leon's head off. It's best to bust out the heavy caliber weapons and hope for the best.
But if you thought Salvador was bad, wait until you meet Super-Salvador. This Salvador-on-steroids appears in the mercenaries mini-game. Besides an extra boost in height, Super-Salvador wields a flaming, double-bladed chainsaw. Where's Ada and her last-minute rocket launchers when you really need them?
Alexia Ashford was one of the last remaining members of the Ashford clan and one of the final stewards of Umbrella. Despite that, she spent most of her later years cryogenically frozen in a tube as the T-Veronica Virus worked its way through her body.
By the time Alexia emerged, she was a full-grown woman whose delusions of godhood had solidified. Alexia viewed herself as superior to all other living beings. When T-Veronica began to mutate her exterior, Alexia found herself becoming the goddess she always imagined herself to be.
Alexia' first form is very Tyrant-like, albeit with a more feminine appeal. As she continues to transform, however, Alexia becomes more resistant to gunfire and harder to fend off. By the time she reappears as a monstrous dragonfly form, the only way to defeat Alexia is to blast her with the experimental Linear Launcher cannon. Even a goddess is no match for super-heated plasma.
Jack Krauser is like the Sabretooth to Leon Kennedy's Wolverine. The two once worked together as military operatives. But whereas Leon now employs his skills in the fight for good, Krauser is little more than a thug who works for the highest bidder.
In Resident Evil 4, that bidder was Wesker. As Krauser attempts to infiltrate Los Illuminados and steal a sample of Las Plagas, he battles his old partner on two separate occasions. The first is interrupted by Ada Wong. The second is the one most gamers remember well.
In this battle, Krauser attacks Leon with a combination of bow and arrow shots and pesky flash grenades. Krauser is a slippery little weasel, and the answer is to move in close and shift the battle into a knife fight. Even when Krauser mutates and grows a gigantic clawed appendage, his legs are vulnerable to a few well-placed slashes.
Given Krauser's own tendency to shrug off death, we wouldn't be at all surprised if he and Leon are reunited once again.
William Birkin is responsible – whether directly or indirectly – for more death and suffering than almost any Resident Evil villain.
This Umbrella scientist spearheaded the G-Virus project based on data collected for torturous experiments on Lisa Trevor. Even as he was wrapping up work on the G-Virus, Birkin triggered the destruction of Umbrella's Management Training Facility to hide the return of his former mentor James Marcus.
But the real trouble came when Umbrella came to collect Birkin's virus samples. An enraged and mortally wounded Birkin ingested the virus and almost immediately mutated into a hulking monster. He chased the Umbrella agents through the sewers and caused a new outbreak of the T-Virus in the process.
From there, Birkin wandered Raccoon City, searching for hosts to plant his embryos in. When gamers first encounter Birkin, he still retains some vestiges of his human appearance. His primary weapon at this point is a simple wooden stick. Each time Birkin reappears, however, his body mutates further and further. He progresses from brute to winged beast, and then into something that only H.P. Lovecraft could properly describe.
Leon and friends had no real means of destroying Birkin. They were fortunate that the massive explosion which destroyed Raccoon City took Birkin with it. Still, with Ada able to retrieve a sample of his remains, it appears the threat of the G-Virus still remains.
Looking at many of these boss creatures, it's difficult to imagine they were ever once human. And yet, most of them were normal enough at one point. El Gigante was once a simple Spanish villager until the Las Plagas infection took over. Using some foul, arcane process, the cult was able to turn simple man into towering, orcish monster. Leon encounters several of these giants during the course of Resident Evil 4. In their first battle, Leon is locked in a makeshift gladiator arena and forced to battle it out. El Gigante seems impervious at first, but after absorbing enough damage it drops to its knees, allowing Leon to climb on its back and slash away at the exposed Las Plagas.
While many gamers breathed a sigh of relief once this difficult fight was over, they were probably awestruck to realize there was more than one El Gigante. Los Illuminados has several of these creatures at their disposal, and some even fight in pairs. That's just mean.
The Tyrant deserves many accolades for inspiring so many subsequent bosses in the franchise. Without the original Tyrant, there could be no Mr. X, no Nemesis, or really any humanoid terror beyond the simple zombie.
The prototype Tyrant T-001 was first encountered by Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen. His thick hide and super-strength made him a beast to contend with, but his exposed spinal column offered a lone point of weakness. The more well-known Tyrant T-002 in Umbrella's Arklay facility was improved, but gamers could take it down - thanks to a similarly-unfortunate weak point in its chest.
Eventually Umbrella wised up, and we've been seeing newer and more deadly varieties of Tyrant in subsequent games. Each is more durable and more intelligent than the last. Rarely is something as simple as an exposed heart present to even the odds. Many people have nightmares of being stalked by a relentless and unseen predator. Thanks to Resident Evil, we can know put a face on that predator.
The one good thing that can be said about any boss battle is that it eventually ends. Even that half-hour battle with Ruby Weapon in Final Fantasy VII eventually came to a close. But when it comes to Nemesis, the fight never really ends.
This monster stalks Jill Valentine from the game's beginning to its ultimate climax. You never quite know when Nemesis will decide to burst through a wall like some hellish version of the Kool-Aid Man.
Nemesis was created by fusing the NE-Alpha parasite in the body of a Tyrant T-103 (better known as Mr. X). This fusion allowed for a Tyrant with far greater intelligence, as well as the ability to recover from almost any wound imaginable.
Nemesis' was assigned to hunt down and kill all remaining STARS members, He made short work of the cowardly Brad Vickers, but Jill Valentine proved a far more difficult target. As Jill, gamers constantly bump into Nemesis during their travels. Nemesis became the first boss capable of following characters from room to room, proving that no area was truly safe from danger. When faced with the choice to run and hide or stay and fight, neither choice was especially attractive.
Nemesis was seemingly destroyed in an explosion, but the damage inflicted only caused his body to begin mutating out of control. Like so many bosses before and after him, Nemesis swelled to massive size until he was no longer recognizable. At this point, only a blast from a massive railgun was enough to put down what may be Umbrella's most fearsome creation ever.
Honorable Mention: One Deadly Zombie (Forest Speyer)
Here's an idea to file under "best ever": Zombie strapped with explosives.
Normal zombies are creepy enough when you first encounter them, but after a few skirmishes with Hunters, Lickers and the rest of Umbrella's menagerie, zombies start to lose their luster. Crimson Heads go a long way towards livening up this shambling, moaning enemy, but forward-thinking, prepared players may rarely encounter their kind.
One zombie manages to stand out from the pack. He is One Deadly Zombie, formerly known as STARS agent Forest Speyer. One Deadly Zombie is so named because he still has all his STARS gear protecting him from bodily harm. The only thing more pesky than zombies are zombies with bulletproof vests. Seemingly harmless, the corpse of Forest rises again and attacks his fellow STARS members without warning.
Zombie Forest becomes much,, much worse in One Dead Zombie mode. Here, gamers are tasked with clearing the game as per usual, but with one significant twist. Forest appears recurrently, charging ahead of the pack and crying for blood. Unfortunately, one gunshot or knife swipe is enough to set off the numerous grenades strapped to his chest, killing both the player and Forest. This is one boss fight that's better off avoided.