When I first heard of Brutal Legend, I knew that it would be very likely that I would drop the cash to pick up the game on release date. The fact that the game revolved around a roadie with a metal attitude peaked my metal loving interests. Then I heard that Tim Schafer, who previously worked on Psychonauts, would be writing for the game, which was a huge plus. Great story telling and amazing music. The only thing that was left in the equation for a great game was great gameplay.

STORY

Jack Black plays Eddie Riggs -- a roadie who travels back to a different time after falling victim to a freak accident. Riggs joins a resistance that is fighting against Emperor Doviculus, voiced by Tim Curry. The story is compelling and comedic at times as Riggs travels through this new land of metal. I saw someone compare Brutal Legend to Legend of Zelda and I completely agree. The open world is vast allowing players to dive deeper into the story with additional side quests and enough collectibles to keep anyone intrigued after the story ends.

The story is a little short (I finished in one sitting that was roughly around seven hours). However, the character development is enough to create a meaningful experience for gamers in that short time.

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay is where I think Brutal Legend hiccups. It is an interesting mix between an action game and real-time strategy, which reminded me of Overlord at times. The mix was a little shaky with the first stage battle, which pits two different characters and their armies against each other.

I personally have never liked playing an RTS on a console, due to the lack of simple controls. Brutal Legend really didn't do much to change my mind. These stage battles seem to lag as some of the unite move very slow in a large play area. Also, in later battles, players who have not taken the time to explore may suffer punishing defeats as it almost seems necessary to have additional buffering solos in order to succeed.  

GRAPHICS

The cartoony graphics of Brutal Legend are fitting for the outlandish setting and writing style of Tim Schafer. The art is intriguing in a goofy manner as Eddie fights metal beast or his army does battle by smashing their metal heads against their enemies.

As gamers progress through the story, they will experience various areas that have completely new sets of enemies and vista points. This immersive setting plays well with the story.

AUDIO

The audio for Brutal Legend is where the game truly shines. For a self-described metal head, I feel that this game has one of the greatest soundtracks ever. I found myself at times skipping the main quests to drive around in the Deuce (Eddie’s car) to listen to the 101 songs from some of my personal favorite bands, which include Dethklok, Iced Earth, Iron Maiden and more.

Another strong point of the audio aspect of Brutal Legend is the voice acting. Jack Black depicts his wacky attitude through his narrative. Tim Curry also makes an appearance as Emperor Doviculus. Off topic, but I feel Tim Curry has one of the best bad guy voices, which made him perfect for the role that he played in Brutal Legend. Rounding out this all-star voice acting was Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy from Motorhead and Rob Halford from Judas Priest. This may be one of my personal favorite uses of voice acting in a game.

MULTIPLAYER

Multiplayer puts players battling against each other in the stage battles that appear in the single player campaign. However, players are allowed to control three different factions creating more gameplay options for gamers. All this can provide a deep multiplayer with various ways to defend your stage or attack your opponent.

However, I feel most of the battles I got in ended in stalemates where we continue to produce units, but were unable to gain the upper hand. It may say something for my ability to adapt to this game. My main concern was the maps were not conducive to the speed of the units or the controls, which were at times difficult.

SUMMARY

Brutal Legend is good game. I would suggest my friends who are looking for something more from an action game to pick it up. It has an amazing story with great writing and voice acting. My only gripes lie with the gameplay. I feel that Double Fine could have developed the RTS elements of the game in a way that was a little more suitable for a console. However, it remains a commending effort on their part to step outside of the normal action genre and I’m interested to see how they continue to support this title.

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