Brütal Legend is the newest title from legendary game designer Tim Schafer and his development studio Double Fine. Schafer is the man responsible for such gems as Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango. Brütal Legend has had a rocky development cycle, originally slated to be published by Vivendi Games prior to its merger with the publishing giant Activision. The game was then dropped by Activision and later picked up by EA, resulting in a lawsuit between Schafer’s Double Fine and Activision regarding publishing rights. Fortunately this matter was settled out of court allowing EA to publish it.<\/p>\n
Brütal Legend starts with one of the most original menu designs we’ve seen. The intro movie sees Jack Black, who also lends his voice to the game’s protagonist, walking into a small record store and retrieving a vinyl record. The record cover and its contents then become the main menu complete with Mr Black’s hands opening and turning it over, even removing the record from its sleeve depending on the option you’re looking for. The game kicks off with Eddy Riggs tuning Clementine, a Flying V guitar, prior to a show of the tween metal band, Kabbage Boy that he roadies for.<\/p>\n
A craftily designed parental control setting interrupts the intro on two occasions, first to ask whether the player prefers swearing or to have it bleeped out and the second to ask if the gore should be left in or removed. Should the player choose the more family friendly options the swearing will be bleeped out and gore is replaced with enemies simply falling over.<\/p>\n
After this Eddy is promptly crushed by a piece of falling stage and thanks to his father’s magic belt buckle transported to a land where rock and heavy metal have become part of the landscape, guitars summon down lightning bolts and cause fire balls to erupt from the ground. Thus begins this Brütal tale.<\/p>\n
What’s Right With it<\/strong><\/p>\n The story is original, well thought out and the characters memorable, from the likes of Ophelia the love interest, Lars the heroic leader and Doviculus, demon emperor of the Tainted Coil, brilliantly voiced by Tim Curry best known for his role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Throughout the game the voice acting is top notch, Jack Black is more reserved as Eddie but it suits the character well. We had expected the Schaffer and Black duo to create a plot so side splittingly funny that no 2 minutes would pass without having to pause just to wipe away the tears; this was however not the case.<\/p>\n Although there are plenty of times when it is hard not to laugh at some of the dialog there are also times when it seems strained or trying too hard. The units that players command in battle are also very original, from the Head Bangers with the hugely muscled necks to the chopper riding Fire Barons, each unit also feels unique and not simply a quick cut and past job. The different factions have different units with different abilities such at the Drowning Doom’s Bride which carries with her a storm cloud which slows down and knocks over nearby enemies.<\/p>\n The solos Eddie can play on Clementine are quick-time events disguised as a small rhythm mini-game, but are so well implemented and fun that players won’t associate it with those cursed quick-time events. The world is also brilliantly designed with the way the art team incorporated metal into this Brütal land sometimes being truly jaw dropping. From Bladehenge to the metal beasts that inhabit the land, everything screams metal. It really does look like a metal album cover came to life.<\/p>\n Last but not least is the music which consists of an incredible 107 heavy metal songs from 75 different bands ranging from “Am I Evil” By Diamond Head, “Metal Storm\/Face of the Slayer” by Slayer to everybody’s favourite Guitar Hero track “Through The Fire and The Flames” by DragonForce. Few games have had soundtracks as epic at Brütal Legend, Shaffer and the game’s music director Emily Ridgway did a great job choosing these tracks.<\/p>\n What’s Wrong With It Another example is that of the Bound Dragons which there are something like 120 of, its never explained that the player should fire off some pyrotechnics with Clementine in order to release it and win favour with the rock gods who will then bestow fire tributes. <\/p>\n This lack of information can lead to the game being incredibly frustrating. Fire tributes are Brütal Legend’s currency, completing story quests and side missions give the player a small amount which can then be used in the motorforge to purchase upgrades for Eddie’s axe, Guitar, The Deuce, Eddie’s hotrod and for Eddie’s fighting skills. You can also purchase Mount RockMore effigy but since it serves no practical purpose there is little reason to spend hard earned fire tributes on it. <\/p>\n Now had this been a straight up sand-box game in the spirit of Prototype or Infamous or even Red Faction the shop\/upgrade bit would have worked fine but in Brütal Legend it feels stuck on. Story quests and side missions also give so little fire tributes that the player is forced to complete as many side quests as can be found in order to purchase all the upgrades. <\/p>\n There are only about 5 different flavours of side mission; sneak attack, race, beat the hunter’s top score, death rack and aim the mortar cannon and as original as some of these side missions are, after completing 3 of the same missions it gets a little old. The main story missions also feel a bit shallow, being either too short or just too easy to really give the player any sense of accomplishment after completing them.<\/p>\n The melee combat feels weak with only the combat solos giving the player any real power. Only a few guitar attacks can be launched before Clementine becomes too hot to handle and requires a few moments to cool down. Sadly there are no upgrades which reduce the cool down time.<\/p>\n Lastly the real time strategy elements that Double Fine incorporated into Brütal Legend do not do the game justice. These so called “Stage Battles” see the player face off against an opposing faction in a watered down version of real time strategy that does not actually involve much strategy. Erecting merchandise booths above fan geysers funnels the fans to the player’s stage and can then be used to buy stage upgrades or build more units. <\/p>\n Most stage battles can be won by building a great deal (48 which is the maximum units buildable) of units and storming the opposing stage. Two of these stage battles require the player to destroy a certain building or unit first but again this is not explained until the player has been killed several times for trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n One line of dialog in the game’s finale sums up Brutal Legend nicely “You are so many things, is there any one part of you that is whole?” <\/p>\n This is exactly what is wrong with Brütal Legend; it tries to be so many different things that it does not do one thing excellently, leaving the game feeling like a jumble of idea’s hastily thrown together. Had the design team simply gone with an open world brawler and focused on making the combat more rewarding then the game could have really lived up to the hype, unfortunately with the rather dull combat, lacklustre real time strategy elements and little replay value Brütal Legend falls far short of becoming truly Legendary.<\/p>\n Discuss Brutal Legend<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\t
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Not telling the player certain things is kind of a staple in Brütal Legend, “Climb to the top of the horn-thrower to customise Mount Rockmore” but what exactly “the horn thrower” is or why the player should care is never explained. If we hadn’t accidentally climbed on top of the giant arm sticking out of the ground throwing horns at a nearby mountain with four of the same faces on it this would have remained a mystery. <\/p>\n