Brutal Legend | Xbox 360 | Third-Person Action | October 13th, 2009

Tim Schafer has been giving the industry hilarious and quirky games for decades, however none of them has ever received the attention Brutal Legend has gotten. From the very beginning, Brutal Legend will move your mind and keep you playing till the very end. It’s one of those games that I couldn’t tear myself away from no matter how hard I tried. With perfect casting and Jack Black’s complete involvement, it makes the experience even more worth it in the long run. Let’s enter into the Heavy Metal world of Eddie Riggs and talk about exactly what makes Brutal Legend such an exciting new release for action games this year.

If you’re not in check with whom this Tim Schafer guy is let’s give you a little background. Schafer entered the industry decades ago, try around the 80s, with plenty of fresh new ideas and started work at LucasArts developing classics like Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion and the ever popular Psychonauts. In 2000 he created his own studio called Double Fine Productions and signed on with publisher Electronic Arts to create this latest entry in his portfolio. So, now that you’ve been introduced into the world of Tim Schafer, what makes Brutal Legend such an exciting new release?

 

To start, Brutal Legend centers on the character of Eddie Riggs, perfectly played by actor and comedian Jack Black. He’s a roadie for a wannabe heavy metal band that during a gig one night, one of the band members manages to make Eddie’s entire set collapse on top of Eddie who sacrificed himself to save the band member. When the blood of Riggs lands on the skull-shaped demon, it summons Ormagoden, a fiery beast from an alternate universe and teleports Eddie to that same alternate universe. Here, humans are enslaved by demons and the world is built too look like a heavy metal universe. Discarded set pieces, speakers and even band equipment are scattered all over the land as if a huge rock concert just took place. After getting yourself organized you’ll meet up with a few characters that are on a mission to destroy the demons and free humanity. While, at first this may look like your typical third-person action game, Brutal Legend quickly turns around and becomes something else entirely.

The story takes many twists and turns and you’ll be exploring everything about the alternate universe that you come across. Eddie knows this isn’t his town, and is completely committed to helping his friends achieve their goals and stays out of the spotlight. The game takes on many themes of heroism and sacrifice and with the M rating, you can expect it being true to the blood and gore description. There is, however, a funny take on it; once an opportunity for a curse or blood shows, a box pops up and asks you if you would like to show blood or hear the foul language. You can opt out to show any blood or hear foul language in the game as soon as it begins. While, Brutal Legend may not take itself too seriously, the story still has substance to keep you going and keep you interested.

 

Once gameplay kicks in you should notice a mixture of genres taking place with a lot of different opportunities. This is where the game takes a different turn for the worse. The story missions are real time strategy efforts as you control an army of head bangers and women with guns to protect the stage made up too look like a heavy metal concert. However, if you already managed to play the demo you know how it goes, it’s not as fleshed out as it could be. Gameplay feels a little too stiff at times and isn’t as free flow as we would’ve liked it to be. The real time strategy elements make the game seem a bit too repetitive and dull. It ends up serving as the focal point for boss fights. These real time strategy battles boil down to you building “Merchandise Booths” for your fans and protecting them from the enemy. This also helps provide a resource for your units. This is how you’ll be fighting to take down the opponent’s rock stage or even a door to a fortress.

The real time strategy elements are where the game really fails to grab and keep you in the game. For those experienced in the real time strategy genre, once you get your hands on Brutal Legend you’ll find yourself laughing at the attempt made. With only point-and-click beacons and go/stop/holding commands in the likes of Rainbow Six, guiding your way, you’ll be lucky if your units actually listen to you half the time. It’s frustrating when you find yourself dying so many times in one level just to move on in the story. If you’re on the harder difficulties don’t be surprised if you notice yourself restarting the same level over and over. The other more annoying part of the game is not being able to skip cut scenes after watching them for the fifth time. It’s unfortunate that most of the major boss battles have to resort to this kind of effort, and couldn’t keep to the earlier boss fights you face in the early part of the game.

 

Outside of real time strategy, the game can turn into a shooter and racer combining all elements smoothly and not taking anything away from the experience. Eddie can swing his big heavy metal axe to cause his bloody dismemberment or use his guitar to summon anything to his desire. Using the guitar you’ll play a little button oriented mini-game to help summon the different items or factions to help in your quest. There is no HUD on your screen so don’t be surprised if you find yourself lost in the open world. There is a shining blue light that guides you to your main story objective but that’s about it. The lock on system in Brutal Legend is a little confusing. At times you’ll want to target the next group of enemies in the distance but only end up targeting the closest enemy within 10 feet of you. While in the mean time you’ll be pounded with enemy attacks from the distant enemy unit. Eddie’s car will give you some help with its blinkers giving you a general direction, but it’s not something you should rely on completely.

It’s obviously no secret that Double Fine Productions intended on making Brutal Legend a real time strategy experience, it would have been nice to flesh out the game with a little more development time. The real time strategy elements work their way into the online multiplayer which you can battle with up to 4 players with. Each side gets to pick 3 of the games factions; Ironheade, Drowning Doom and Tainted Coil. It is highly recommended you try to find 3 other friends to tackle it on with as you’ll find yourself more frustrated with the experience as you did in the single player mode. There are side missions in the single player to keep you busy if the multiplayer isn’t doing it for you, however they are dull and don’t add anything to the overall story.

 

The art design in Brutal Legend is nicely done. Characters are brought to life by the voice actors that play them. Eddie Riggs himself looks as believable as any character out there, even the appearance of Ozzy Osbourne is a nice surprise. The quote that practically all of Brutal Legend’s artwork can be used as a heavy metal album art rings true here. Environments are nicely detailed and the alternate universe looks as if you just walked in from a heavy rock concert. The framerate for the game holds up for the most part and doesn’t take on too much of a load when things get hot. The camera holds onto its own though when you’re running around all over the place it does get a little tricky.

The game is completely in tune with its heavy metal soundtrack. The game features over 100 tracks from many artists including Iced Earth, 3 Inches of Blood, Black Sabbath and more. The infamous Jack Black himself voices the main character of Eddie Riggs and always seems to be on point. While the script isn’t completely comedic as to what Black is used too, it’s still top notch Schafer writing. The voice work is nicely done outside of that and with a nice surprise appearance from Ozzy Osbourne himself playing himself. To have heavy metal gracing the game, it’s nice to see the genre exposed to a bigger crowd.

 

Brutal Legend is lucky to have the talents of Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions behind the wheel. With Jack Black also supporting the game, the title would have fallen to the back of the pack without as much as a rumor gracing the internets. The writing is top notch and deserves as much attention as you can give it. The story is also its biggest strength and will keep you’re eyes glued to the screen. Brutal Legend in many eyes could be the greatest game of all time; however, it’s far from it. There is 15 hours of gameplay which leaves for a short single player experience and only the multiplayer to help keep you entertained.

So, what can we call Brutal Legend? It’s certainly not the greatest game ever created by man and isn’t the second coming. Brutal Legend is simply a good game hindered by some flaws that unfortunately make it rental worthy from your local Blockbuster. Don’t’ go in and spend the retail 60 bucks it’ll take to get the game in your hands. With just a little more time and ironing out, Brutal Legend could’ve simply became something more then what we have today.