Review: Brütal Legend
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We welcome Brutal Legend with open arms. Tim Schafer’s heavy metal homage has been through a publishing nightmare the likes of which made its future look uncertain.
With a pat on the back and in true rock and roll fashion, Brutal Legend made it onto shelves fashionably late but is this performance one that’s worth the commotion? Enter the world of Eddie Riggs, an expert roadie who is stuck repairing guitars and running amps around for a snotty pop rock cliché.
When an attempt to rescue the bands guitarist from falling to his death results in the stage falling down killing Eddie, his death summons a metallic beast who obliterates the band in a gory fashion before sending Eddie’s body off to a mysterious world filled with all things rockin! Things get off to a rocky start and Eddie soon realises that his trip to this heavy metal paradise wasn’t coincidental.
Brutal Legend’s opening segment is hilarious, full of action and a facade. After no more than an hour of playtime you quickly become aware of Brutal Legend’s hidden agenda: a hack and slash/ real time strategy hybrid. The only problem with this pairing of genres is that Brutal Legend sits on the fence never excelling in either department.
For a title that mainly relies on the Hack and Slash gameplay, it feels more like mindless button bashing instead of requiring any necessary skill. When you get tired of swinging your axe around, your electric guitar provides a shocking attack and a special move that will melt the faces of your foes.
You’re guitar also doubles as a summoning device working in a similar way to Link’s Ocarina from Ocarina of Time. Play a killer riff and you’ll conjure up merch booths and your form of transportation, a car aptly titled ‘The Duece’.
Upgrades are available but mostly optional and never seem mandatory enough to make you keep track.
The real time strategy element is also served a little undercooked. Set up as a concert, your job is to build up an army of head bangers, rock chicks and so forth and set up merch booths which will feed the centre stage with fans whilst you and your army hold off an array of alternative rock themed foes who will build their own merch booths and try to take out yours.
What’s nice is that you can join in the fight and use some of your moves and killer riffs to help knock the opposing army down a notch. You can also make use of double team attacks allowing you to form mosh pits or use other key members of your army effectively. The aim is to keep your armies vast, your enemies at bay and a good flow of fans feeding the centre stage to win the battle.
It’s an interesting addition and not at all an inappropriate one but the more the real time strategy element rears its ugly head, the more it feels like its being used to flesh out some of the games eventful moments and this quickly becomes tiresome.
One of Brutal Legends better assets is its vast over world inspired almost completely by Heavy Metal album covers and you’ll be given plenty of opportunities to explore its sights when you’re being forced to drive back and forth to take up side quests or a fetch quest to activate something as meaningless as a cut-scene to tell you to go back to where you just came from.
The game doesn’t excel as a graphically impressive but its art style really saves the day. The aforementioned Heavy Metal over world is complimented by a terrific cast and character design the likes of which ooze originality.
The voice acting is also top notch with the likes of Jack Black providing the perfect voice of Eddie Riggs and a wide variety of Metal veterans making regular cameo appearances. All this accompanied by a killer sound track so vast and classic that you might just want to take some time out to cruise round the over world pumping out some Skid Row ‘Youth gone wild’ instead progressing in the games tiresome story.
The games narrative should be the driving force of a game like this and whilst the story is packed with twists, turns and the occasional shocker, things tend to run a little bit dry mid way through. Those who persevere through the games duller moments might find the ending a little more rewarding but path that gets you is a rocky one made up of short sequences with plenty of storytelling and long drawn out moments where almost nothing happens.
When you’re torn up Brutal Legend’s 10 plus hour campaign and you’re still craving some more metal entertainment then the Multiplayer segment should provide some extra enjoyment but only if you enjoyed the real time strategy gameplay or enjoyed it enough to bear the experience against a friend.
Teams come in three varieties; Ironheade, the Drowning Doom and the Tainted Coil, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The structure is more or less the same as it is in game but with plenty of maps and the plus of having a friends AI to compete with. You have to give some kudos to Double Fine for choosing to add multiplayer to a game that on the outside probably wouldn’t demand it and it’s already being supported with DLC.
It pains me to say it but Brutal Legend is hard to love. It’s got only good intentions most of which starts off charming but things quickly take a turn for the worst. The gameplay becomes stale, the script becomes tired and the humour just seems to vanish only to make a handful of jokes here and there.
If you’re heavy on your metal then Brutal Legend will serve as a hilarious commentary for your favourite genre of music. Others will find that the game just doesn’t live up the expectations that preceded it.
