Brutal Legend Review - New Game Network

Brutal Legend (or Brütal Legend if you wish to keep it authentic) is an odd mix of a game. It was created by Double Fine, who’s key member Tim Schafer, the man behind the classic popular titles such as Monkey Island and Psychonauts. Many fans were very excited for this project, hoping for yet another fun and also brilliant title that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone. Needless to say, Brutal Legend is unable to meet the high expectations of fans, having gone through some legal trouble during development. Part third person action, part RTS, the game has a strong style and some great licensed music, but it ultimately can’t decide an aspect to focus on and ends up feeling like less than the sum of its parts.

In Brutal Legend, players become a comedic character known as Eddie Riggs (played by and designed based on Black Jack), who is a roadie for a young rock band. During a stage show, Eddie accidentally falls on stage, with the decorations above him crushing his body. In this moment, Eddie is transported into an alternate world that is themed based on strong heavy metal music imagery. Here, Eddie quickly runs into trouble with the local monsters, only to be assisted by Ophelia. They quickly become friends, and later on join with Ophelia’s village of humans. As the story progresses, Eddie gets to meet a cast of various odd characters, all based on different music mythologies. The story in the game certainly has a fair share of twists and interesting outcomes, but in the end things do become a bit cliché and unwilling to take risks. It doesn’t carry much weight or high emotional impact as some fans may expect from a Schafer game, but it’s still a worthy romp through an interesting world with many different locales and things to see.

The gameplay in this title is a mixed bag, quite literally. A majority of the game plays as a third person hack and slash, as Eddie takes on enemies in melee combat with his axe, or with ranged attacks in the form of lightning for his guitar. There isn’t much strategy behind the combat, with a limited number of combo hits being available. It’s not quite a button masher, but at the same time the game is not particularly difficult if you engage the enemy groups carefully. The health restores quickly overtime, so there is not much time that must be spent recovering. A big unique aspect of the game is Eddie’s guitar, and the ability to play various solos. These solos are quick QTEs that, if performed successfully, can inflict various attacks on your enemies as well as perform certain functions. Some solos are provided to start, but most need to be found scattered across the world. Solos can raise motor forges, free serpents and spawn Eddie’s car.

The world that Eddie’s adventure takes place in is relatively large, but mostly linear. It resembles a U shape, so the story campaign progresses from one end to the other. After beating the story though, players are returned back to the start. So if you want to do some item collection in the other half of the world, you need to travel there all over again. Given that Eddie can spawn his car at almost any time, it does not take too long to travel. Eddie’s car is rather important to the gameplay, not only as a means of transport but also in combat. By visiting motor forges, Eddie can purchase upgrades for his weapons and the car from the God of Metal himself, Ozzy Osbourne. After enough upgrades, it’s usually not necessary to leave your vehicle and fight enemies in the world, as you can just as easily run them down or use the mounted machine guns.

The game is largely open world, but in order to progress the story, Eddie must win various battles and defeat the bosses. However, this is not your usual boss fight. The second large part of the gameplay experience in Brutal Legend is actually a strategy game. Entitled “stage battles”, these are basically RTS matches that take place during the campaign. Stage acts as your home base, with a few mounted defenses if enemy forces get too close. There are various geysers spread around each map, which must be capped for control and to generate “fans”, the game’s resource for units. Having enough “fans” allows the player to build various units, just like in any strategy game, with different attacks and functions. Some units can also be upgraded to a newer version, if there are enough resources for the upgrade.

The control over all these units is given to Eddie, who can grow wings and fly over the battlefield. There are a few commands at your disposal while in the air, such as ordering the units to group up, attack a target, or move to a location you set previously. It gets clunky at times, since Eddie can only order units that are almost directly below him, requiring much flight time to gather everyone and get them moving in the desired direction. While in flight Eddie cannot be hit by enemy forces at all, so this lets you oversee the battle without worrying of taking damage.

However, should things become to turn sour, Eddie has the ability to drop to the ground and enter the fight. Here, all of the usual attacks from the free-roaming mode are still available. What’s new are the selection of solos – in stage battles, Eddie’s solos become completely combat-based and aimed at destroying enemy forces. There are healing solos, area-of-effect attacks, a solo to cap a resource geyser, and a solo to gather all your troops at the current location. While it’s a good option to have, ground combat quickly becomes very messy and you may die quickly – and why not, just imagine if you suddenly controlled a single unit during battle in your favorite PC RTS game.

If Eddie dies, he respawns quickly at the base and can resume battle. The game ends when the opposing base has been destroyed, and the AI often puts up a very good fight. The enemy can select from a variety of factions in the game, all with different units. They also have a leader character who, like Eddie, flies around the battlefield and can often be found on the ground, damaging your units and healing their own. As such, the player is often required to micromanage the troops, which isn’t a very pleasant task, given the limitations of the controller when playing a strategy game. Oftentimes, the battles become a deadlock, as you and the opposing AI are stuck fighting over the same resource geyser, constantly sending units to that rally point in hopes to hold or overtake it. The AI isn’t clever enough to go after any other resource points once this “deadlock” has been created somewhere on the map – giving the player an opportunity to send just a few units to capture a resource elsewhere. As it stands, the RTS gameplay in Brutal Legend is diverse and fresh but isn’t particularly deep or challenging. The AI can only put up a fight on higher difficulties, and even then it is because they create more units than you. Most other times, maps result in a deadlock, until one of the combatants can manage to overrun the other.

The game does offer an online multiplayer component, but at this point it becomes a total strategy game. So if you didn’t like the stage battles, online play should be avoided. All of the races from the game are available for online play, though expect the overpowering factions to be dominating the battles. If RTS on consoles isn’t your thing, there is nothing else to do online, and no coop or third person action to be had, which seems like a missed opportunity. The map selection is decent and maps are fairly well balanced, though there are not that many players online. Both ranked and unranked matches are available, but the latter is almost completely devoid of player population.

One of the most unique aspects of the game is the presentation. Eddie’s transported in a very detailed and interesting world based on Heavy Metal imagery. Everything from rock formations, to grass valleys, to animals you encounter – all somehow borrow from the created imagery, resulting in cool and varied locations and enemies. But what would a game like this be without some good tunes? When Eddie is in his car or during the stage battle, tons of classic rock and heavy metal tracks blast through your speakers. There are some amazing acts and top songs in the game, all sure to provide a great atmosphere. A noted omission, though, is that there is no music when Eddie is simply roaming around the world without his car.

Like the environments, the characters are also designed and voiced with a certain style and finesse. From Eddie himself, to his friends and enemies, the characters look fairly unique and oftentimes goofy, but often preserve the Heavy Metal style of the game. The voice acting is done well, with Jack Black and Co putting on a good performance overall. The animations are good for the most part, with some very subtle facial expressions and poses that look very amusing. Technically, Brutal Legend looks good for its somewhat cartoony style, though there are some small texture problems and sound glitches, though the game runs without any framerate issues.

Brutal Legend may not be the brilliant game some hoped for, but it is still a fun experience in a unique environment. The third person action remains enjoyable if simple, and roaming in an open world means there will always be things to find and locations to discover. The RTS stage battles take some practice and may definitely prevent some fans unfamiliar with the genre from enjoying the experience. But, the battles are at least done well with a variety of units and the unique ability to jump into battle for yourself and help turn the tide with some devastating special attacks. The world that Eddie finds himself in is unique, well presented, and the game’s characters and soundtrack only add to this rocking experience. If you enjoy basic third person action with a twist, some heavy metal music, and can get past the RTS aspect of the game without frustration, then the game is well worth your time.