So far, we’ve covered Bite The Bullet’s weapons and the crafting system, but what good are the weapons if you don’t have something to kill? That’s right, it’s time to explore the bosses of Bite The Bullet.

Bosses should be special. They should be memorable, exciting conflicts against powerful, intimidating foes. They should give the player a sense of accomplishment and triumph when the death animation rolls. In Bite the Bullet, bosses also give you a full belly of nutrients and experience points.

There are a total of eight bosses in the game, so in the interest of brevity, we’ll be splitting this one up into two parts. This week we’ll go over the bosses from levels 1 through 4, and next week we’ll cover levels 5 through 8. Now, let’s get into the action!

Level 1: The Gigavulture

Level 1 has you exploring a subway system and running on top of trains, kinda like a side-scrolling Uncharted 2, only with way more robots and zombies. At the end of your train ride, you’re greeted by none other than the Gigavulture, a strange, derp-faced avian beast with minigun and missile launcher implants attached to him. It’s as if Tony Stark decided to make War Machine a bird.

Luckily, vultures only eat things that are already dead. So, uh, try not to die. Fortunately, the first boss was designed to be fairly straightforward, to avoid overwhelming the player too early in the game, and to go down after a steady onslaught from your assault rifle. Throughout the fight, he’ll swoop down at you, launch missiles, and rain down bullets from his miniguns, so try to make quick work of him if you can. If you’ve been picking up weapon upgrades and crafting, he’ll go down in a pinch.

After you kill a boss, you’re prompted to eat him to complete the level. Once eaten, you then throw up onto a scale that presents you with your stats for the level, some of which include remaining health, enemies killed, time in Zombro mode, raw material collected, and more. This also adds the boss's genetic information into Darwin Corp's Compendium, so you might want to check in with your employer back in the Hub World after the battle. Once all is said and done, it’s time to move on to the next level.

Level 2: The Flesh Golem

Level 2 greets you with much more glum and grotesque scenery, ripe with feeding mutants and tons of baddies, but none are as bad as the boss: the Flesh Golem. Frog-like in nature (and appearance), this boss has an even bigger missile launcher than our last boss, and charges at you, fast. Really fast.

Avoid his bombs and his Reinhardt-like charge, and you can stave him off. He tends to jump a lot too, so be prepared to get out of his way. Speaking of prepared, you’d better make sure to bring some firepower, because he won’t go down nearly as easily as the Gigavulture - I had to use my souped-up Critter Cannon to bring him down. The difficulty spike is considerable, so make sure you’ve gained enough experience and weapons before taking him on.

Level 3: The Snatchoid

Home to the Snatchoid, level 3’s big bad pays homage to classic bosses like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Volvagia and Risk of Rain’s Magma Worm, as well as legendary works of sci-fi like Dune and Tremors.

The Snatchoid is tough, literally. His top side is invulnerable, so you have to make sure to fire at his underside. The problem with his underside is that… well, his underside is shooting at you. He can pop out of either side of the map at any point, and when he does, you’ll know it.

Having a boss designed after others, like the aforementioned greats, allows us to reinvent a classic and make it our own, while still giving the player a sense of familiarity. Upon seeing this boss, you know exactly what you need to do, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be easy, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ll survive.

Level 4: The BC3K

Ever wondered what would happen if Smash T.V.’s Mutoid Man and BioShock’s Big Daddy had a baby? Did you say a prominent chin? Nevertheless, that’s essentially what we have here - a big, hulking dude with tank tracks for legs, a massive drill for an arm, and a handsome jawline. The BC3K excels in close quarters, and he’s good at getting in close. Luckily, there are moving pillars to either side of the arena to help you get up and out of the way.

Up until this point, the boss stages essentially had the player fighting on an even field. This is where things shake up a bit. The pillars introduce a necessary challenge, making the player think differently about how to approach the boss. However, they also provide the player with the opportunity to try out new strategies during the fight. Bite The Bullet is all about options and choices, and boss fights are no different.

There are plenty more creatures to sink your teeth into, so check back next time as we take an in-depth look at the remaining four bosses!

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