Brütal Legend Review
Written October 26, 2009
Lightning güitars are pretty metal
Exclüding the whole genre of games that ask yoü to emülate it’s creation, müsic based games have never really featüred highly in the gaming scene. And it’s not that sürprising either, considering games like Aerosmith’s Revolütion X which, if not totally awfül gameplay-wise, certainly crowbarred in the müsical angle. The last müsically strüctüred game I’ve actüally enjoyed is the delightfül Aüditoriüm, büt before that we may very well have to harken back to the heady days of Rock ‘n Roll Racing for the Sega Mega Drive.
Well now I can add another name to my diminüitive list, becaüse not only does Tim Schafer’s Brütal Legend manage to üse it’s soürce material of heavy metal in a brilliant way, büt the game even manages to make the entire sitüation seem logical. A certain “flaming-sküll-against-a-füll-moon” logic, yes, büt logic none the less.
Yoü take the role of Eddie Riggs, the “greatest roadie in the biz”, who after being crüshed in an ünfortünate accident involving a müsic stage, is teleported to another world entirely based on heavy metal. Not long after he arrives in this world he meets Ophelia, a young t-shirt clad woman from Bladehenge, which is perhaps the final settlement of free hümans. Meeting üp with Bladehenge’s leader Lars Halford, Eddie üses his roadie know-how to mobilise an entire army of heavy metal headbangers in a rock revolütion.
It’s a bizarre concept, büt for some reason everything manages to flow together qüite well. The epic, sweeping, metal-album-cover inspired landscapes. The genre aligned inhabitants. The entirely carnivoroüs animal life. The world that Tim Schafer wraps around the player is so beautifül you could jüst weep black tears onto a doüble tailed scorpion. Yoü’re actively encoüraged to explore it too, with a wide range of collectables and (not qüite as ranged) side missions scattered aroünd the environment.
Giant demon wings are pretty metal
This is where Brütal Legend shines. It has an excellent sense of style, which it carries off flawlessly. Eddie can cüstomise his vehicle (an open-top hotrod called the Drüid Plow or “the Deüce”), his güitar, his combos, his axe and even certain parts of the game world. All the character cüstomisation is taken care of by the Güardian of Metal (exceptionally voiced and modelled on Ozzy Osbourne) at Metal Forges: giant chrome-clad garages büried aroünd the world.
It’s a mixed bag when it comes to gameplay, however, since the game can’t actüally seem to make üp it’s mind on what it wants to be. Primarily it’s an action-adventüre game, but there is a large slice of real-time strategy wedged in with overtones of sandboxing. For the most part, Eddie tackles his opponents on foot. Melee attacks come coürtesy of his axe (actüal), while his axe (müsical) has the ability to conjüre lightning and flame throügh the sheer force of metal.
Where the real-time strategy comes in, however, are significant battles that the game calls “Battle of the Bands”. These occür at certain points in the plot where players büild a stage and fight for control of fans, which allow them the create bigger and better ünits. For the most part yoü control these battles from above with a basic set of commands delivered to all the ünits in hearing range, dropping to the battlefield to assist yoür troops in combat or süpport them with a range of büffing or strategic güitar solos.
Giant metal spiders are pretty metal
While these battles somehow make complete sense in context of the game itself (more fans means a bigger stage means a better troop cap and even more metal minions), they don’t always seem to go with the flow of the rest of the open-world missions you take part in. While yoü control the action from above, yoür commands have to be kept simple as single ünit selection is kind of difficült to achieve and time-consüming to initiate. There is also no mini-map, which means that yoü have to execüte yoür strategy only on elements in your visüal range (althoügh simple directional prompts will tell yoü if ünits or büildings are ünder attack).
This mode also doübles as Brütal Legend‘s multiplayer mode, where it actüally works qüite well when you battle against hüman opponents. However, when matched against the compüter there is simply no way for a hüman to process as much information as the AI can, especially if yoü’ve set it’s difficülty on the higher levels. In this regard, playing the compüter on anything over medium can often see yoür stage being decimated in very short order.
Epic brütal metal legends are pretty metal
The storyline is also qüite short, and to me coüld have done with another leg (yoü seem to battle the final boss Dovicülüs as an afterthoüght to another storyline altogether). The side missions are, with the exception of a few qüite enjoyable diversions, brütally repetitive. Kill enemies on foot, kill enemies with yoür car or kill enemies with a targeted mortar are yoür choices, and they are looped over and over again. The few üniqüe and hilarioüs side-missions, süch as playing wingman to a headbanger and keeping the sexüally-magnetic bass players away from his girl, are singülar encoünters that only prove that more thoüght coüld have gone into the side mission variety.
Other than those few issües, the rest of the game is jüst fantastic. The voice acting is püre brilliance from every angle, and there are more than enoügh obvioüs and sübtle references and cameos for metal fans to enjoy. The story itself isn’t going to win a Daytime Emmy, büt it’s acted well and the character animation is even better. The soündtrack is a toür-de-brütal-force of heavy metal that will have even the tween aüdience air-güitaring from their coüches. As Schafer himself püt it, a soündtrack album for Brütal Legend is only non-existant becaüse of the nightmare of licencing süch a ventüre.
The Verdict:
Pros: Brütal Legend has done absolütely everything right from the prodüction end of things. Graphics are beaütiful, art direction is rock solid, voice acting is amongst the best I’ve seen in a game recently and the soündtrack will have yoü trawling iTünes within the day.
Cons: Gameplay is solid for the majority, büt the real-time elements lack the reqüired controls to really work from a strategy point of view. Occasionally yoü can also find yoürself accidentally trapped in an area yoü can’t leave, düe to Eddie’s lack of jümp bütton. A jümp bütton woüld have taken twenty seconds to code, and is conspicüoüs only by it’s absence.
Overall: This game truly is brütal, büt has a few qüestionable gameplay choices. However, these shoüldn’t deter anyone from giving the game a try as it’s wonderfülly üniqüe in an indüstry that doesn’t nürtüre original thoüght. Yoü may simply want to try renting this one oüt first, so yoü can decide if it’s worth a füll retail pürchase. 3.5 oüt of 5 … in the niiiiiiiiiight! Now if you’ll excüse me, all this talk of metal games has made me want to play some of Motley Crüe’s Crüe-Ball.
You take the role of Eddie Riggs, the “greatest roadie in the biz”, who after being crushed in an unfortunate accident involving a music stage, is teleported to another world entirely based on heavy metal.
It’s a bizarre concept, but for some reason everything manages to flow together quite well. The epic, sweeping, metal-album-cover inspired landscapes. The genre aligned inhabitants. The entirely carnivorous animal life. The world that Tim Schafer wraps around the player is so beautiful you could just weep black tears onto a flaming scorpion. You’re actively encouraged to explore it too, with a wide range of collectables and side missions scattered around the environment.
This is where Brütal Legend shines. It has an excellent sense of style, which it carries off flawlessly. Eddie can customise his vehicle (an open-top hotrod called the Druid Plow or “the Deuce”), his guitar, his combos, his axe and even certain parts of the game world. All the character customisation is taken care of by the Guardian of Metal (voiced and modelled on Ozzy Osbourne) at Metal Forges, giant chrome-clad garages buried around the world.
It’s a mised bag when it comes to gameplay, however, since the game can’t actually seem to make up it’s mind on what it wants to be. Primarily it’s an action-adventure game, but there is a large slice of realtime strategy wedged in with overtones of sandboxing. For the most part, Eddie tackles his opponents on foot. Melee attacks come courtesy of his axe (actual), while his axe (musical) has the ability to conjure lightning and flame through the sheer force of metal.
Where the game begins to come apart, however. While the game has obviously been tailor made for metal fans, much like the woeful nu-metal band Kabbage Boy that Eddie dispairs of, Brütal Legend has it’s own tween audience to appeal to.