I didn't know anything about Tim Schafer when I started either. After I looked him up on the ever trustful internet I learned that he worked on some amazing titles as a writer. He worked for LucasArts and worked on The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango which were both critically acclaimed games. He then went on to start his own company called Double Fine where he produced another widely popular game called Psychonauts. I still have never played Psychonauts but close trusted friends of mine have told me how it changed their lives. Psychonauts is available for download on Xbox Live so a review may be coming your way in the near future. Brutal Legend is his next title and coming from an inspirational mind such as his, this should hopefully be more than just a gimmick.
The opening video explains the nature of Eddie Riggs, a build anything, fix anything, tough and experienced roadie. He explains that "A good roadie knows his whole job is to make someone else look good..." As one of the guitarists of the band is about to fall to his death, Eddie saves the day only to have part of the stage crush him. As Eddie lies beneath his own stage bleeding, some of the blood gets on his belt buckle summoning the eternal metal fire beast Ormagöden. Ormagöden then murders the rest of the band and transports Eddie to a fiery world of magic and metal. When Eddie wakes up he realizes that he's not in kansas anymore and begins to fight his way through demonic hordes of terrible enemies. As he's fighting he comes across Ophelia who is fighting with the human rebels against their demonic enemy Doviculus. Ophelia takes Eddie to the human camp where he meets Lars and Lita Halford, the leaders of the human resistance. Eddie can easily see that his job as a roadie is to put someone else in the spotlight and make them the hero. He tells Lars to rise as their king and lead his people to freedom. Eddie goes out to gather an army fit for a king and rallies together a myriad of different people to his cause. Doviculus has a human general named Lionwhyte, who is the epitome of bad hair metal bands. Once his army is formed Eddie takes his band of warriors on tour to fight their first target: Lionwhyte.
The game has an incredible environment that consists of a few varying climates. There are random structures and obstacles protruding from the ground that look like they're from a Megadeath album. They did look quite impressive regardless of their arbitrary presence. Some of these monuments were awe inspiring such as the "Screaming Wall" and "Bladehenge". The combat in Brutal Legend is a touchy subject. It's generally a hack-and-slash action game with a cool magic element. At the beginning of the game Eddie picks up an axe with which he uses for melee and his beautiful guitar Clementine, which by "shredding hot licks" can cast magic spells. Clementine is awesome and you know it. Part of me does wish that the axe and Clementine were combined to create a melee weapon that was also a guitar but I don't get everything I wish for and the axe plays a semi-important role for the end game. The combat is quite easy and repetitive because it is a hack-and-slash style game but the developers made up for it by making the levels short and sweet. One doesn't have to spend forty minutes hacking his way through hordes of the same boring enemies just to die and do it all over again, God of War 2!
This is where Brutal Legend's combat threw me for a loop. Halfway through the game it introduced stage battles. These battles take place in one area where Eddie and his crew set up a mobile stage and battle against an oncoming army. This part of the game is not hack-and-slash, we've now transitioned into a Real Time Strategy. At first I thought to my self "Hmm, this is kinda weird but I guess it fits with the whole band on tour thingy." These stage battles consist of building merchandise booths over designated fan pits. These "merch" booths then supply your stage with fans and then Eddie can 'spend' these fans to buy units in which to do battle. It's a neat idea but the execution is quite rough. RTS's weren't designed for console games and it's very obvious by how tricky it is to control units and order them around. I really felt that this new element lurched the sweet ride Brutal Legend was turning out to be. The transition into the RTS elements are harsh and these battles really drag the game on. I will say that the units are quite clever and well put together, even though they're not well balanced. Headbangers are the first of Eddies hilarious units, they use their thick skulls and strong necks to attack enemies as basic melee ground units. The Roadie unit was another favourite of mine. They are your standard stealth units who use the power of being a roadie to stay invisible to the human eye and use feedback from the stacks on their backs to destroy buildings.
I played Brutal Legend all the way through and was overall pleased by my experience. There are a few things to be aware of if you venture to play this game. It is noted that the RTS element puts a painful thorn in the side of a generally enjoyable game. The gameplay is simple and repetitive but worth dealing with thanks to the creative world, bad-ass characters, and hilarious units. Brutal Legend's story is a little weak, and unfortunately the weakness starts right around the middle of the game and doesn't get better. As cool as some of the characters act they are pretty shallow even for supportive roles. Eddie Riggs stays just as rad from beginning to end and really closes the game out nicely as you'll find out. Tim Schafer's dialog is well written and very funny. So to those who will play this game I warn you with this; make sure you approach this game with the same expectation as you would Spinal Tap. There are many awesome features, but beware: there are some lacking components that make Brutal Legend potentially disappointing.
Thank you for your time my friends.
Also, I found that Yahtzee's review of Brutal Legend really echoed my opinion, even if he was a bit harsher then I was.
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