In the Beginning:

 

Brutal Legend is an action adventure game based on the musical genre of Metal. You play Eddie Riggs who is voiced and modeled by Jack Black… Why Jack and not some fictional character still baffles me, while Jack has been known for his rather stylistically overdone movies such as Tenacious D. Anyway, Jack is Eddie a roadie who gets teleported to a fantasy world based on various heavy metal album covers.

 

Brutal Legend features an array of heavy metal icons such as Ozzy Osborne, Lemmy Kilmister and Rob Halford all lend their voices for games main characters. Brutal Legend is a mix of gaming genres, originally it was meant to be a pure RTS but it has since been scaled back to appeal to a larger ordinance.

 

 

Brutal Legend starts off with Eddie moping about the music in his time, only to be transported to a fantasy world of metal where demons have enslaved all of humanity and only Eddie with his Guitar in hand and a tune in his heart can free his fellow mankind.

 

“Destroy enemies with a riff or heal allies with his soothing bass, music has never been so brutal.”

 

In the middle:

 

While Brutal Legend won’t be grabbing any awards for most enthralling story line or the visuals. Brutal Legend will be renowned for its ingenuity and out of the box thinking. While most of the game is played from the third person perspective with Eddie roaming the streets or coasting around the world in his car with various weapon mounts. Brutal Legend also has a unique game play mode called stage battles, the basic premise here is that Eddie sprouts wings and takes control of the troops below from high above, thus being able to set rally points as well as upgrade and build new troops to destroy the enemy’s stage.

 

Just like any decent RTS there are resource points, capturing and holding these points provide Eddie with addition resources with which to expand his army of metal rockers and secure victory. Visually Brutal Legend is lack luster with its cartoony renders and stationary backdrops, no matter how beautiful they look, leave one feeling a little disappointed that more effort wasn’t placed on the graphics.

 

 

The sound effects and background music are as expected, pumping! Each new part the world has its own unique sound, and the epic boss battles are graphical representations of certain periods of the metal culture, such as the first boss General Lionwhyte who gets around using his massive hairdo to soar, this represents the glitz and glamour of the 1980’s metal scene.

 

Brutal Legend controls are simple to learn and master, leaving the gamer with a decent control system. While Brutal Legend utilizes three gaming genres, RTS, Platformer and action and seems to offer just enough in each genre to keep the peace, it would have been nice for the developers to focus on one or maybe two genres and give additional attention to the visuals.

 

As with any decent game these days, upgrades are a must and Brutal Legend has many to choose from. Buying upgrades from the guardian of metal for his vehicle and weapons which can then be used to defeat the demons with ease.

 

“Head Banging has never been so ambiguous”

 

In the End:

 

Brutal Legend tries to take main stream metal and convert it into a humorous game. With class acts and some unique twists to the current norm for Third person action games, Brutal Legend certainly succeeds in being unique. This also poses an issue with who should grab the game. While no sane person can deny that bashing away with a guitar is not fun, you can argue it has no logic or offer any real depth beyond the obvious aesthetic upgrades.

 

Brutal Legend boasts an online stage battle where other Eddie’s can all compete for the ultimate metal freak title. While this is fun for those console RTS’s out there the casual gamer will feel exposed and vulnerable when online as the controls can be a bit finicky and can create some annoyance especially when you are trying to protect a resource point.

 

 

Racing around in a fully pimped out metal car, taking on various bosses from specific era’s of metal and using the power of music to defeat evil and head bang your way into the lyrics of victory has never been so enticing. While Brutal Legend is relatively short if you follow the main quest line, there are various side quests which can earn you favor with the metal gods and earn you additional skills for the stage battles.

 

In Conclusion if you enjoy arb and out of the box games do yourself a favor and grab a copy of Brutal Legend. If you have console RTS phobia then you need to find a different musical game perhaps DJ Hero where you are always in control.

 

“Playing stage battles online can be exhilarating but also extremely frustrating.”