Prepare to meet one of gaming's most appealing protagonists.
These questions are posed partly because the story on offer in Brutal Legend is terrific. Jack Black stars as the protagonist of the game, veteran ‘roadie’ Eddie Riggs, whose primary purpose is to make other people look good so that the audience is satisfied. While touring with an obnoxious, posing troupe of Jonas brothers-style wannabe-rockers, Eddie sustains an injury which awakens the fire beast, Ormagoden, who transports him to an alternate world, the landscape of which has been forged by the gods (or ‘titans’) of heavy metal. There, Eddie encounters a resistance movement of humans who find themselves oppressed by a tyrant named Doviculus, and comes to realise his true destiny. While the game’s plotting is far from unpredictable or new, the sublime writing and intriguing conceit (being the clever pastiche of heavy metal iconography with classic fantasy trappings) make Brutal Legend an absorbing experience for the eyes and ears. Each and every character in the game, from Jack Black’s surprisingly mellow and likeable Eddie to love interest Ophelia and arch-villain Doviculus (voiced with relish by the inimitable Tim Curry) is convincing and well-realised - even the celebrity cameos of Ozzy Osbourne et al are hilarious.
The game’s visuals are solid, if unremarkable from a technical vantage, but the compelling art design and amazing animations (at least in cutscenes) make Brutal Legend stand out from the crowd. The fusion of different styles of metal, from Goth to Glam, is particularly inspired, giving each region of the metal world a unique identity, and the reconstitution of elements such as swords and hot rods into druid-inspired architecture and landscapes is pulled-off with flair. As one would expect, Brutal Legend also sports one of the grandest soundtracks in all of gaming, delivering in excess of one-hundred licensed tracks specifically-selected by Tim Schafer. Whatever your musical predilection, there can be little doubt that the tracks fit the action perfectly, and with tunes from Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, Megadeth, Motorhead, Slayer and dozens more, it is likely that Brutal Legend will be responsible for more than a few converts to the church of metal.
Boss encounters are sadly few and far between.
Because the diegetic universe of Brutal Legend is so endearing, attractive, populated with immediately memorable characters and boasts such an amazing soundtrack, you may find yourself wishing that Schafer and company would simply turn their hand to producing animated films. This is especially so given that Brutal Legend fails to deliver in terms of its raw mechanics, which are never as engaging as its presentation. The game tries valiantly to merge a slew of different gameplay styles and genres, but the result is less ‘chaotic genius’ and more ‘clumsy mess’. You see, while Brutal Legend begins as a fairly rote, action-adventure game in the vein of Zelda, Beyond Good & Evil or Fable, replete with a central over-world ‘hub’, accessible combat and one-on-one boss encounters, it slowly reveals its true colours, culminating an hour or two later into a light real-time strategy (or ‘RTS’) title.
The trouble is that while Brutal Legend is a competent action-adventure title, with streamlined combat and fun vehicular controls, the RTS segments are shoehorned in a manner which is inelegant, and at worst, not fun to play. Most of the RTS battles consist of capturing ‘fan geysers’, upon which you can build merchandise stands. These stands allow you to harness the power of your fans and deploy more units in your attempt to capture the enemy’s stage. Sadly, these portions never feel organic and come off as contrived, frustrating forays. Controlling the various units through the D-Pad and a bevy of radial menus can be extremely clunky, highlighting the notorious difficulty in translating mouse-based mechanics and interfaces to the console world. These portions are likely to prove too frustrating for the mainstream Guitar Hero-crowd, attracted by the game’s star-wattage and metal-trappings, and too crude for RTS veterans accustomed to the genre’s best titles. The worst part is that upon their introduction, these under-explained strategy forays comprise the majority of the game thereafter. This is unfortunate, because this fundamental design-snafu destroys what could have been a fun, albeit simple action-adventure and turns it into a shambling Frankenstein. In their attempt to deliver variety and produce a unique generic hybrid, Double Fine has unwittingly made a mess of Brutal Legend and spoiled its vast potential; vast tracts of the game feel like a hard slog, chores to complete before one is graced by the next compelling story sequence.
Spicy.
Brutal Legend is also a slight package, boasting a campaign of a half-dozen hours which feels longer due to the interminable RTS battles. There are a wealth of collectibles and optional missions on offer for the anal-retentive crowd, ranging from races to search-and-destroy missions, but these are all fairly repetitive and serve only to provide the player with ‘fire tributes’, the in-game currency used to bolster Eddie’s abilities and equipment. The fully-featured online multiplayer mode performs well and offers up an interesting gallery of factions and units to experiment with, but in all honesty, it is difficult to imagine too many gamers will still be playing Brutal Legend online in the coming months, given that the mode is based on the single worst component of the single-player campaign.
As foreshadowed in the introductory paragraph, Brutal Legend presents a dilemma for any person seeking to critique it; passion and love flow from every pixel on the screen, and the game presents a universe as rich and compelling as any seen in gaming – and yet, controller in hand, Brutal Legend fails to consistently engage. The game is never bad, certainly never terrible, yet that is faint praise for what should and could have been an action-adventure classic. Blame a lack of focus, or blame over-ambition, but Double Fine have inadvertently produced one of the most disappointing games of the year, worth a play for worshippers of all-things metal, but destined above all else to be remembered as a missed opportunity.
In the vast fora that is the Internet you can't expect anything to go without criticism. Granted, my last comment came off much snarkier than I intended, and you have my apologies Michael.
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