GameSpy Review of Brutal Legend

GameSpy's Take





Growing up listening to metal is more than just a choice of music, it's a lifestyle. Brutal Legend is a videogame dedicated to an unabashed love of metal, a game inspired by a love of the culture, the album artwork, and above all the music. It's heavy metal fan-service to the highest degree, where you unlock music tracks right alongside your power-ups, where your allies are hot rocker chicks and headbangers, and where bolts of lightning and bursts of flame are summoned forth from the power of your guitar riffs.





The world of Brutal Legend is inspired by the dark fantasy visuals that artists like Frank Frazetta, Derek Riggs (Iron Maiden), and Joe Petagno (Motorhead, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd) have graced album covers with for years. It's a land of chains and skulls, of dragons and fire, of fantasy beasts and hot rods, of wicked spikes and gleaming chrome. Your avatar in this world of metal is Eddie Riggs, the world's greatest roadie, voiced by the inimitable Jack Black. That alone should clue you in on Double Fine's approach to conveying the story in Brutal Legend -- this is a comedy at heart, though its humor may resound most with metalheads.










You'll definitely appreciate Brutal Legend if you've seen Judas Priest in concert, though it's genuinely funny at times regardless of your taste in music. Black does an admirable job of delivering his lines to maximum effect, even if they're not all winners. Riggs comes across as a very likable, if self-effacing character, and the surrounding cast includes strong performances from such talents as Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford (who stands out as the game's ludicrous hair metal sub-boss, General LionWhyte), a remarkably coherent Ozzy Osbourne, and Tim Curry, who in effect reprises his role as the bad-ass Lord of Darkness from "Legend." The singers brought in as voice actors don't stray too far from their familiar sound, basically being cast to act like themselves. But in the case of someone like Halford, whose voice is so distinctive and has such a broad range, it's a delight to hear him bring these characters to life. Brutal Legend's cut-scenes, filled with funny one-liners and witty back-and-forth repartee, are one of its greatest strengths.





Brutal Legend kicks off with traditional third-person action game combat, in which you can string together melee attacks with magic to create effective combos. Eddie can lock onto targets to hit them at range, and can perform defensive rolls and block to keep from spilling his vitals onto his jeans. But very soon it all unexpectedly goes crazy and turns into a fully fleshed-out real-time strategy game, where you play the role of a battlefield commander issuing orders to individual units and defending resources, deciding on unit production strategies, and so on. You wouldn't expect this sort of experience from a console game, but it's pulled off remarkably well, both in single- and multiplayer.





While you control Eddie's forces throughout the single-player campaign of conquest, multiplayer battles can be fought from one of three different armies, each with their own unique avatar and unit selection, balanced and interesting enough to rival even StarCraft's faction trifecta. In multiplayer you have to carefully decide on strategies to outwit your opposition, choosing when to attack their fans (the game's basic resource) and when to charge for a direct attack on the enemy's main stage. While the commanding and tactical aspects are going on, you'll also have to take direct action, laying waste to enemy units with your axe and guitar and playing solos that have great impact on the outcome of the conflict. You can play solos that do direct damage to nearby units, or summon powerful effects like a giant flaming zeppelin that crashes down on the battlefield. There's never a dull moment in these battles, as careless playing will lead to defeat at the hands of a savvy foe.











Listen Up





Brutal Legend's soundtrack plays an important role. During key moments certain tracks kick in that absolutely send your heart racing, filling your ears with the atmosphere and feeling that the visuals on-screen only partially convey. You might think that a soundtrack composed of almost entirely heavy metal could get stale very quickly, but there's an enormouse breadth of sound and diversity within this compilation. You have older classics from Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, industrial metal from Ministry, and the ultimate vehicle-driving song in Motley Crue's "Kickstart my Heart." The list goes on and on. You have black metal, symphonic black metal, thrash, grindcore, power metal (could they have made this game without an adrenaline-pumping sequence to the tune of DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames?" I think not.), progressive metal, hell, there's even pirate metal from a German band I'd never heard of, Running Wild. If you didn't know that pirate metal even existed, you're not the only one. If you're into metal or any of its many different subgenres, you're sure to find lots to love here.





Despite the game's strengths, sometimes I would tire of all there was to do. Brutal Legend's multitudinous activities are a weakness, as the secondary missions become a chore. You're encouraged to complete these goals in order to earn fire tribute to purchase unlockables, but there's no real need outside of completionist's sake. The driving missions in the Deuce -- Eddie's customizable hot rod -- are simultaneously some of the most entertaining and some of the most annoying, depending on your patience level. More than once I flew straight off of a cliff in my hurry to race towards an objective, forcing me to restart the entire sequence. Checkpoints may have trivialized the difficulty to a degree, but they still would have been appreciated. Escort missions fare no better, feeling like a chore that had to be slogged through before I could reach the next area and the forthcoming series of battles.










Occasionally I was left with a bad taste in my mouth concerning the control scheme for the otherwise greatly entertaining large-scale combat and unit-command sequences. In a crowded melee, it can be difficult to choose exactly the unit you're looking for in order to initiate a double-team maneuver (some of the most effective techniques possible). Targeting is also handled by centering your intended target in the middle of the screen, and it can be a chore to get an acceptable level of precision when belting out orders. All too often I found it a challenge to single out units for specific tasks, like sending stealthy units off for some sabotage or sending a small group to perform diversionary attacks. Still, the system works more often than not, and it's all quite playable.





I loved playing Brutal Legend, and some of that may be attributed to growing up listening to a lot of metal, going to shows, wearing nothing but black tees and jeans, the whole bit. The soundtrack in particular won me over from the very start. But despite all the references to this beloved material, I also felt satisfied as a gamer, challenged by its unique blend of exploration, action and strategy. While I was prepared for a thoroughly entertaining storyline, and was not disappointed, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was to wage war in and explore this lovingly-crafted world. Regardless of whether or not you've seen Iron Maiden in concert, you'll likely still want to share a few laughs and slay a few demons with Eddie and company.







Check back to see what others are saying about Brutal Legend in the near future.

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