Just last year, during E3 2010, David Jaffe took to the stage during Sony's press conference to announce that his team at Eat Sleep Play were working on another "Twisted Metal." Since the new game's title didn't have an obligatory sequel number or any other distinctive sub-name, I was kind of under the impression at the time that this new iteration was actually a reboot. Well, after finally getting a more in-depth look at the game during E3 this year, it doesn't appear that "Twisted Metal" is exactly a reboot, but it certainly is bringing some cool new features to the table.
I sat down with a member of the development team to check out the game's second boss fight. The mission has you squaring off against Doll Face, taking some cues from the game's previously announced "Nuke Mode" online match.
We set off in Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck to take on the opposing faction, who immediately began attacking us with the usual assortment of automotive combat techniques. It's easy enough to dispatch the lower-level thugs with Sweet Tooth's "head" – a kind of homing missile shaped like the evil clown's noggin – but these enemies are really just fodder in the bigger picture of how you'll take down Doll Face.
Floating in a gigantic, mech-suit modeled after the masked female boss herself – called the Iron Maiden – Doll Face is constantly assaulting you with a barrage of missiles. The suit is heavily armored, and it's going to take more than a couple nuke missiles to take her down. Just like in "Nuke Mode," there is a mobile missile launcher truck, including a handy-dandy meat grinder on its rear side, placed on the map. Initially, the launcher is stationary, and all you'll need to do is grab the other faction's leader to get that rocket airborne.
Finding the faction leader on the mini-map, it's simply a matter of taking their vehicle out. Afterwards, they are placed on top of – or tethered to the back of – your vehicle. Drag the unhappy faction leader back to the nuke launcher, "sacrifice" them into the awaiting meat grinder, and voilá – the missile launches towards Doll Face's Iron Maiden. You're guiding the missile, so you'll obviously have to make sure the metal monster doesn't shoot it down before slamming it into her face.
After the first missile hits, the Iron Maiden's armor is weakened, but she still isn't too vulnerable yet. You'll have to repeat the same faction-leader-becomes-ground-chuck method in order to send another missile Doll Face's way, but this time the missile launching truck is mobile, ratcheting up the difficulty. Once you do finally throw another nuke her way, the Iron Maiden is vulnerable to traditional attacks.
You're not confined to just shooting Sweet Tooth heads at the boss, though. Each "Twisted Metal" vehicle has two built-in special weapons; in the case of the ice cream truck, the second being your very own flying, Transformers-like robot. The truck shifts into the bot form, making it much easier to attack the Iron Maiden around the canyon setting's varying ranges.
There's two more stages to taking out the giant mech, and at this point a red HUD ring will show up within a certain radius around the flying Iron Maiden. You'll need to keep your vehicle within that ring in order to keep your shots effective; it's definitely a difficult dance between dodging Doll Face's attacks, the constant onslaught of enemy faction vehicles, and making sure you don't find yourself driving off the edge of a cliff. While there were no checkpoints present in the demo, I was told the developers are planning to include them in the final version.
Eventually, the Iron Maiden is taken out, clinging to the side of a broken bridge. What's an evil clown leader to do? Why, shove her off, naturally.
The Doll Face boss fight was really great, even if its mechanics borrowed heavily from an already announced multiplayer mode. I'm still really optimistic about "Twisted Metal," but the game will probably live or die by its ability to keep the vehicular combat fresh and satisfying. Personally, I tend to grow bored about halfway into "Twisted Metal" games, but if the single-player is broken up with more creative ways to take on bosses, it may just drive away a winner.