Brutal Legend for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Admittedly I was not excited about Brutal Legend to begin with. Tim Shafer is a good designer but I feel like he's a little bit like a French film. You're going to get something different but whether you'll like it or not is entirely subjective. I think Brutal Legend follows that.

Whether you like Heavy Metal or not (I'm not a fan but was in jr. high) the humor and art direction will speak to you. After a few hours of playing I was telling a buddy about the game and I realized that everything that went into this game was meant to make you say "Awesome" in a burned out roadie voice.
Exhibit A) Oh I have to do a grinding mission where I kill 10 pigs, is this WoW? Wait they're not pigs, they're Razor Boars and they they're half pig half motorcycle. And I don't hunt them with a sword or axe, I have to round them up while riding on the back of a flaming Trike while playing riffs...Awesome.
Exhibit B) Oh I have to fight the requisite giant spider boss. Wait it's not just a giant spider, it's a huge engine SHAPED like a spider and the only way to hurt it is to bash it's exposed brain with my flaming axe...Awesome.

Ok so the awesomeness aside, the art direction is great, at first glance the game looks like a dark version of every other fantasy game, but then you look closely at the objects and you see that they are all heavy metal...Literally. The trees are made of motorcycle tailpipes or glistening metal Valkyrie wings. Jumps and buildings are made of stage scaffolding and marshal stacks. I saw an interview where they said the art direction was to make every second look like the cover of a heavy metal album...they did.

Now the downside, after about half the game, story missions switch to a kind of front lines action RTS. It's weird and feels like it slows down the fun parts of the game. I found myself putting story missions off as long as possible and then just hoping to get through them so I could explore again. Oh and the voiceovers are a bit repetitive.

I would just like to say, that I can’t really think of a SINGLE THING that bothered me about this game and I’m a pretty hypercritical guy. So here is a list of its awesomness.

Graphics: Detailed, stylized, UNIQUE, varied and awe inspiring environments that I actually stopped to look at several times. Who thought a metal-themed-world could look so fascinating and beautiful.

Gameplay: Brutal Legend mixes elements from strategy, racing, action, open-world and RPGs flawlessly. Each form of gameplay is fun. Combat is always entertaining and fun to look at, and the game keeps giving you enough upgrades to keep things interesting. Avid explorers will be well-rewarded, as finding collectables is key to earning certain useful upgrades. Even fetching collectables is fun because you don't simply walk up to the floating-spinning-obtainable like in most games. Collectables are usually obtained by playing a short-song at a place or object where a tell-tale sign of goodies alerts you to the presence of something useful. Maybe it's the red-thorn flowers around an old monument, or maybe a dragon statue bound in chains. They are always easily identifiable, and not simply collected, but unleashed. Idols raise from the ground with sparks and lights. Dragon Statues scream fire and break their chains. Just driving around the countryside looking for things is fun in this game.

Story/Setting: Characters are humorous, unique and well acted. So many bazaar concepts are well imagined and brought to life by Brutal Legend. It took me totally off guard because I was really expecting some dank, dark and offensive metal-setting, and what I got was a colorful and beautiful fantasy/metal world. The story does a good job at motivating you to keep moving forward producing an adequate amount of “care” for its characters and events.

That's all the room I have for this review, but I encourage even the most skeptic of gamers to give this game a shot.

Three words sum up this game, Unique, Entertaining, Comical...

This game is a great button masher. Well worth a play through. For those people that say it is short, I agree, but only if you do the main story line only. Between the side quests and searching for the dragons and story nodes it takes a while.

All in all this game rocks. A killer sound track, good gameplay, good story line, and Jack Black. What isn't to love in this game.

For rockers or non-rockers alike. Play this game and enjoy the splendor of hair metal in its finest. Rock on!

Take every heavy metal fantasy poster you've ever seen, turn them into a fantasy world where heavy metal is magic, drop an axe/guitar wielding super roadie on it, have Jack Black do the voice, and you have Brutal Legend. Truly one of the funnest, most unique, enjoyable games I've played in a long time.

Use metal guitar solos to summon flaming zeppelins down from the sky. Find collectibles in the world that unlock famous heavy metal rock songs to listen to in your heavily armed Deuce Coupe. Buy upgrades from the Guardian of Metal Ozzy Ozzborn. Free the land from Demons by bringing magic back to the world, the magic of METAL! And most imporantly...get ready to laugh.

The only down side of the game is that the story is very compelling and moves quick once you're in it. So make time between missions to look around and collect stuff. Not only will it make the final boss battles easier (due to upgrades and increased health), but if you're like me: roaming the world looking for collectibles is more interesting as a pastime between missions and not as something to do now that the game is done.

It's a really good game and I would buy it because of the good aspects of it.

Good aspects of the game: 1. Multiplayer: The edition of multiplayer in a game like this is really cool to me and the different teams you can pick is also cool. 2. The car (DEUCE): The deuce is a car that allows you to go around the entire map without having to walk which is really cool, especially the fact that you can listen to music as well and if you get tired of it you can always mute it. 3. Ozzy Osbourne: Having Ozzy in this game just makes it really cool. 4. Upgrades: Upgrading the deuce and your abilities makes it more fun and quicker to get past levels. 5. Challenging: Throughout the game you do missions that are hard and that's what I like is a good challenge.

Bad Aspects: Like all games this game has bad things about it 1. You can't jump: Not being able to jump makes navigating a lot harder when it comes to getting to ledges. 2. Repetitive Sidemissions: There are a lot of sidemissions but they have you do the same thing over and over but in different areas. 3. After a mission: After a mission instead of the deuce being where it left off you have to summon it again just to use it again and th9iis just gets annoying and repetitive.

Well even though this has some bad aspects about it I still recommend buying this game I'm sure you would love it as much as me.

So much awesomeness in this game, that my brain went into awesome overload. Had to put the controler down after awhile.

If your around 35-40 ish and grew up listening to the likes of Ozzy. This is worth your time.

Note: unlock a bunch of stuff before you start the first Tour of destruction, get all leveled up with unlockables in the northern part of the map, then you should be fine in real battles. Do it Not! and perrish in the wake cryptic characters that look like "Beatle Juice"3... Dont actually say beatle juice 3 time tho... LOL

This game was over-hyped in some minds, and to some people... there wasn't enough potential. I am gonna simplify this into one word... AWESOME! The controls were responsive and easy to learn. The concept of Heavy Metal combined with the action-adventure genre blew my mind. All of the gameplay elements came together and boiled down to one simple concept... STAGE BATTLES! You get to build a stage and create units to fight other factions (like an RTS-style game) This is one of my favorite genres and I have played these since early-childhood (birth-5 yr old) These genre will never die. The graphics are cutting-edge and beautiful. Sometimes, I feel like I am in the game due to the fact that any metal is awesome in my mind. The metal-montage of creatures and enviroments that would be on a CD cover is in here in all of it's current-gen glory. The replay value is moderate for me. I could play this a couple of times to see how the game plays out with gore on/language on, gore off/language on, and gore off/language off. This game has a freaking option IN GAME that lets you turn gore and harsh language on or off (so if there are certain individuals that come and go alot, you can do this fast and easily) It censors face melting, gibs, and even people CUT IN HALF, censors all swearing, and even covers all middle-finger scenes. This game is easily one of my favorite RTS-Adventure games of all time (yeah, it basically broke through RTS-style and created its own genre, RTS-Adventure! The (sometimes dark) humor will keep you from NOT bursting out laughing. This game is definitely a must-have for any fans of Metal/RTS-genre. It is basically a montage of some of the greatest metal by all-star bands COMBINED with awesome RTS-style gameplay.

The Metal has finally arrived. Jack Black makes what would have been a really cool game a must-have game for anyone who likes to rock. This game helps make rock a verb again.

The cartoon style is the only thing that feels kinda iffy to me, but it really makes character expressions come to life. The controls are very easy and the story is great. You get to fight with two kinds of axes: a guitar and an actual "axe."

I have been waiting for this game for a long long time and I am not remotely disappointed.

First off i just have to say that the amount of work put into the landscapes was AWESOME. also, Ozzy AND Lemmy AND Jack black? i cant belieave the amazing rock GODS decided to join in on this awesome game, even a Judas priest member is in on this. Tim Shafer has really outdone himself for this game, looking forward to awesome online battles as well!

The only reason I rented this game was because of the soundtrack, and Jack Black rules. You play a dude who looks like Jack Black and basically complete missions in a dark world ruled by music and metal.

I gave this a 5 because of the amazing metal soundtrack and theme. Driving around in a sweet hotrod running over a bunch of animals was fun. Using the weapons and hacking up guys was also fun. But I did not like the strategy aspect. There aren't many combo moves for the weapons either.

This game does require a Command & Conquer or WOW type mentality. You can't run around and just slash your way through the game. You need to command your troops, give them orders, tell them where to go, etc. It requires a lot of memorizing button commands with little game-in tutorial. I rented from Gamefly obviously, and didn't have an instruction manual, so it took awhile to get the hang of commands but the game didn't do a very good job teaching either.

I dound myself getting stuck alot in missions, or taking too long to beat them because of missing dumb commands at times. I felt like my troops also did not listen to me all the time and died. Or maybe I just suck at this game.

Rent, do not buy. It will take you awhile to beat which is good. I truly respect the game for what it is since its unique but wasn't for me. I like more of the God of War type action adventure where you learn combos, upgrade stuff, etc. To end positively since i ripped this game a bit, it's one of VERY few games where I actually turn the music up versus down---nice work on that one.

I have been playing this game for over 6 hours staright now and have not been bored once. Jack Black and the other Voice actors make this game really enjoyable. Great graphics and tie in to other games like OverLord and other Tim games is incredible. THere is so much to explore and find. I think i might be halfway through game but i dont know yet. Havent tried multiplayer yet but everything in this game is design with two things in mind... Metal Music and simple easy FUN!

Quick review in which I'll focus on the pros and cons of this game.

Pros

1. Cool theme and presentation captures the spirit of 70's/80's metal.
2. Jack Black does a great job with voice acting.
3. Huge soundtrack really gives a good slice of the genre.
4. Great Humor through out campaign.

Cons
1.What starts as a great single player adventure game turns into a clunky crude RTS.
2.Graphics while fitting still look like something from last gen.
3.Extremely short campaign is basically training for the multiplayer portion of the game.

I recommend this one as a rental.

Unless you are really into the metal theme of the game you will find this game to have charm but peel away that charm and humor you find gameplay that really does not fit consoles (The RTS controls just dont lend themselves to a controller.) which made me just stumble through the battle portions just to get to the story and adventure elements. I just wish this game would have remained a adventure game which would have really fixed my biggest beef with the title. Just a good example how mixing genres can be a risk.

Like everyone else, I was really excited for this game to come out. When I got it, I was having great fun. The characters are great, the scenery is great, riding around and exploring was fun, and the combat wasn't all that bad. I was ready to give it an 8 out of 10, maybe even a 9 for how unique and fun the game was.
Then I had my first RTS (real time strategy) battle. I was no longer having so much fun. The controls for these battles are clunky. It becomes frustrating ordering your troops around, and it's not set up very well at all. For me, a game killer. But...
At first I didn't mind so much. It wasn't a hard battle, I won, and continued on my journey of having fun. I was enjoying the story, laughing at the characters, the side missions were fun...
Then I had another battle. More stuff added. Battle got harder. Controls still junk. Again I got through it and went back to having fun.
Needless to say, that's how the whole game goes. I was playing on normal. I got to the next to final battle (I think because I only had one more story achievement to earn), lost 3 times in a row, and was so frustrated I took it out, sealed it up, and am returning it unbeaten.
It's a shame that they put this one element in there. I understand they wanted to do something different other than boss battles, but when something is this frustrating, so much that it makes you dread having to play those parts, it needs to be scrapped. And it's even multiplayer! I can't see myself going through that torture online.
The game is worth a rent, especially if you love metal music, and quirky unique games. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself being a bit let down.

i had no idea when i got the game but it turns out it is an RTS game. kinda. thier is other parts to it for sure but but what i mainly got out of it was a RTS. now dont get me wrong it was a very funny game and jack black did a great job i just didnt know what i was geting when i rented it. this game is a very fun rent for a little bit but it not what i wanted. i give it around a 7.5 because the game is fine it just did not work as well as i was hopeing.

Lets get the obvious out of the way first.

Jack Black is awesome, his voice work and dialog is top notch, some of the best I have seen in all my years of gaming. There are many of laugh out loud moments.

The graphics fit the story and game setting very well. Sure it's no Uncharted, but it just wouldn't fit if it was. The style fits the game perfectly.

THE MUSIC!! This is by far the best feature of this game. You got songs that range from Iron Maiden to Def Leapord and they all freaking rock!! Being able to change what song you are rocking to with a click of the button is also a very nice feature.

This game has somewhat of an open world design. You have your main missions and your side missions to do, yet at the same time you can jump in the Druid Plow and just drive on a rocking course of destruction.

Which brings me to combat and controls. Combat is fun and fluid at first, but as the game progresses and the enemies grow in numbers you begin to see just how much the controls are lacking. The driving controls are FLAT OUT terrible. It can be extremely hard at times to drive in a straight line in order to hit the mark you are looking for. Combat becomes non-responsive in large battles and feels very odd and clunky when you are fighting large amounts of enemies.

The RTS part of this game is rather odd as well. It's a very good idea, they just failed to deliver it properly. Think Overlord with a splash of Age of Empires thrown in. You are able to build stages, and merchandise stands, and from those you call your fans and road crew to help rule the world and battle for you. Great concept but you end up having very limited control of your followers. This is by far the weakest part of the game.

There is plenty to do though and plenty to unlock. All throughout the world you will find upgrades and bonuses such as art work and back story. This really makes you want to explore every last inch of the map.

This is a must rent.

I can't even express in words how insanely awesome this game is. If you are like me, a hardcore gamer and a hardcore metalhead, you MUST play Brutal Legend. It didn't just blow my mind... It blew my soul.

At the beginning this game was lots of fun I loved the combos you could pull off and the music was so great (if your a metal fan). Then I got to the middle of the game and there was a game mode were I had to build a stage and fight the A.I in this R.T.S kinda game play. This was kinda fun at first then they kept bringing it back every time. It wasn't very hard but just having to do it over and over again really made me not like playing this game very much. first of all you should look at some of the stage battle multi on youtube and decide for your self. I haven't played it long enough to see if that stage battle stuff moves away and you actually get put out on missions were you get to fight not order people to do it for you. All I'm saying is that some of this stuff get repetitive real easy and another thing the humor in this game pretty funny but not my style, if you do play this game I advise you to censor the swear words it's way funnier if there bleeped out trust me.

I've been waiting for a game like this for a very long time, and honestly, i wasn't dissapointed.

THE GOOD:
-This game combines a racer, real time strategy, and a hack n slash game int one. And this is done beautifully.
-The soundtrack to this game is all classic metal, which ties in with the story.
-The humor and cameos are not overdone, and are done greatly.
- The story is fantastic and progresses at a the perfect pace.
-The upgrade system is excellent.

THE BAD:
- The side missions are fun, but repetitive.
-The gore is not very realistic.

This game is nearly perfect, but is not for everyone.
Personally, I would definitely recommend this game and I pray for a sequel.

This is an amazing game idea and plot. But it went sour when it turned from action/hack em up to real time strategy. So the first hour or two was pretty good.Then it shifted to real time strategy. If you are in to both you will love the game and all its parts if not you will be left wanting more. hope this helps

I was told this game was not as exciting as everyone said it was which is true,but to me it wasen't a bad game i found it to be very freakin awsome! For all you metal fans and i mean true metal fans u'll love this game you won't even have to play the game to like it,it has probably the best metal sound track i ever heared. The story is also pretty good just knowing that jack black is in the game you know it's gonna have some crazy things in there. The graphics are not amazing but good enough to makle it look good. So all in all good story,good graphics,good music,good game.

Its really funny and enjoyable. You really have fun while playing this game because the developers put so much time into it. The only downside is the single player is roughly 13 hours long. I wish it was longer. Everything ties into this game so well. I have only played 40 minutes and very artistic. I am not a heavy metal fan. Actually up to this point i have hated heavy metal. Now i respect and like it a little. The music they selected is pretty good and the design of everything is so intriguing. I remember hearing Tim say that they designed Brutal Legend for the multiplayer and added a singleplayer. So i played a game of single player, and man is it great. I knew this because it was confusing and awesome at the same time. I can tell that 4v4 with experienced people could be an EPIC battle and reallllllly strategic. A very unique experience. I dont buy many games but Double Fine got poor sales on Physconauts so i thought id help them out by buying the game. Its great fun and Im glad I did

This is a RTS sandbox brawler game. Its very fun and the sound track is exellent. If your at all thinking about playing this game then you should.

I was worried the game would feel limited with game play. I thought it would just be a few classic no-name metal bands playing in the back ground while I ran around a field and destroyed adolescent dragons. I was violently surprised.

The game starts off with the most executed cut scene I've seen in quite some time. Instead of having to run around a huge map for days on end you build a car that looks to have more of a thunderous devil heart more then a engine.

The voice cast of the game is what pushed it from a strong 8 to solid 10. Jack Black recorded enough audio to cover 3 movies. And just when you think how did they get him? Multiple metal legends jump into the game to aid you.

But that is only the start. The soundtrack alone with this game gave me chills. With multiple types of metal from the classic heavy metal of Black Sabbath to newer types of comedy metal like Deth Klok. The music is also so well placed in the game that you can't help but throw up devil horns of your own.

The game play is great. With a ton of upgradable and customizable weapons you wont get board very quickly. There are multiple environments all of which invoke a clean metal feel. There are many different battle systems keeping the game fresh threw to the end. All around they pushed the original concept of the game to new heights.

I would recommend this game for anyone over 13 with the swearing turned off mostly due to the metal culture. I feel that between this game and a few VH1 documentary's you have a good start into the world of metal.

Side Note: With Xbox live there is now multiplayer downloadable content and even more upgrades and player costumes

Well For Starters I Think That this Game is Better If you Rent it Rather then spend money on a game you MIGHT completely beat in like a week... But its certainly a MUST PLAY.I just don't think it has a high enough replay value...
The Game is Very Funny at times. and would be great for Any age (allows censorship for children)... It is Your Basic Button Masher Game That Most people can play without an issue...You Basically Run around and do Quests for people, And Later on in the Game when you hit the bosses it turns into a sorta strategy game. Something similar to control points/base defending.. The Graphics might be cartoony ...But they are amazing... and the storyline is Great. you can tell there was a lot of work put into just the story... more then others i would say... Also another thing i LOVED was the very low amount of loading screens. Usually in a game similar to this you deal with load screen after load screen each time u enter/leave an area.. This game requires no loading when u go to new areas.. only when u activate a cut-scene or leave... I find this game unlike any other i gave played.. Very Unique.. Anyway that's all i can think of ... Go try the game. Hope you like it.