Co-op shooter 4:LOOP will undoubtedly feature many bosses for players to take on. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, chief creative officer of developer Bad Robot Games, Mike Booth, has provided some details on the design of one of the game’s bosses—the Scanner. In the post, Booth discusses the studio’s approach to designing boss battles and how many of those decisions led to the design of the Scanner.
Booth has noted that one of the studio’s main goals in designing 4:LOOP‘s boss fights is that each one has to be a unique experience beyond just visual design. Bad Robot Games wants players to react in different ways depending on the boss, which also means adopting new tactics and improvising. With the Scanner—also called “The Cube” internally—Booth spoke about wanting to create a boss encounter that was less about direct combat and more about spatial awareness, navigation, and cross-map coordination.
To achieve this, the Scanner is equipped with one main method of attack – a Laser Matrix, dubbed the “Grid of Doom,” which covers the entire map in an interlocking grid of dangerous red lasers. Getting hit by one of these lasers is enough to knock a player down, with a second hit taking them out of the fight entirely. However, the Laser Matrix also moves slowly and is easy to see, leaving it up to the players to figure out safe ways to tackle it. As the fight goes on, however, the laser grid starts getting tighter.
The boss itself has been designed as a cube with 9 tiles on each side, for a total of 54 targets. Players have to knock out all 54 panels at the same time, which reveals its vulnerable Reactor Core. To add to the challenge, the Scanner keeps moving around and rotating, and damaged panels will reset over time.
“This creates a boss fight that requires players to spread out and attack from multiple angles, while navigating the Scanner’s ever-tightening Laser Matrix,” explained Booth. “All of this results in a unique gameplay challenge. Stay mobile enough to avoid the Grid of Doom, while remaining focused enough to knock out panels and coordinate a team-wide attack on the Reactor Core once it’s exposed.”
Opening up the Reactor Core gives players a brief window during which they can deal as much damage as possible. The general design of the boss also encourages players to think harder about their loadouts, like picking up a Cloaking Backpack to help them navigate the Laser Matrix, or picking more powerful weapons to quickly shoot down the Reactor Core.
“The Scanner started from a simple image: A giant, floating cube puzzle with breakable panels,” he wrote. “Over time, it grew into one of our most iconic enemies, and one that touches on almost every layer of how players can improvise to overcome overwhelming obstacles together. And it does all of this without firing a single shot at the players.”
4:LOOP is being developed for PC and PS5. For more details, take a look at its announcement trailer and another gameplay deep dive with a focus on action and gadgets.
