I’m not a big fan of Jack Black, but I am a big fan of Tim Schafer. I grew up with Sierra, Lucasarts, and whatever other PC game companies doing adventure games. I love that shit. Yeah, even still today, I just can’t get enough of them, even though it seems only indie developers are making full ones and minor developers making bite-size ones. But enough of the past; what’s good ol’ TS doing these days?

Well if you’ll recall, back in 2005 there was an awesome game released that really didn’t get enough attention: Psychonauts. This was released by a company known as Double Fine. At first I wasn’t sure what to think of this one as it was so…different, unique, and strange. And awesome. I mentioned awesome, right? Yeah, AWESOME. Psychonauts was an interesting, original idea with lots of platforming, cool level design, great characters and voiceovers…and all by a company I’d never heard of.

I went back to do some digging and here’s what I found out. Double Fine was started in 2000 by Tim Schaefer. Ol’ TS has worked on various Lucasarts classics such as Maniac Mansion, Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and even Grim Fandango. In other words, Schafer is a beacon of awesome and will most likely continue to be until he retires, at which point he’ll probably be the most awesome old dude ever.

But enough dick sucking. What is Brutal Legend? What’s it all about? Why should you play it? Well, if you’re not bought on just Schafer alone, there are plenty of reasons to love it, but first, let’s talk about what I hate about it. Yes, as awesome as Brutal Legend is, there are many minor faults that add up to something ugly, or at least ugly if these kinds of things really get under your skin.

Worst. Blind date. Ever.

First off, there are many different combos available to you. This would normally be a good thing, but they’re mostly redundant crap you’ll never use. Some abilities allow you to draw enemies in, launch enemies in the air, etc., but they’re just not useful. Think Devil May Cry, but enemies just don’t have the combat AI to make you really need to use all the crazy shit you can buy.

Basically, you can just spam the A button over and over again. You’ll never need to defend. You might need to dodge every so often and that can be accomplished by locking on, then using the defend button (B) plus a direction. No biggie. You can use medium range attacks with your guitar and that’s kinda cool, but beyond that all you’re really going to do is let your minions do stuff for you, use the earthshaker, or use guitar solos that attack a wide variety of enemies at once.

Yo dawg, I herd u like clocks…

And sure, you can also use your car for combat, but it’s pretty inaccurate, even with homing missiles. One mode that should have prevailed above all else was the RTS mode. Every so often you get into band battles where you get a stage, a bunch of minions, and various fan geysers on a large plane. It’s more or less you vs. them. You conquer fan geysers to build merch booths, which contributes fans to your stage, which is necessary to purchase upgraded stages, soldiers, and upgraded soldiers.

All of this sounds great in theory, but unfortunately guiding your people to things is a pain in the ass and the AI doesn’t compensate for what to do when encountering enemies on the way to things all the time…and on both ends, actually. This means that sometimes you’ll send your guys to take out a merch booth on the far end, when suddenly the enemy line gets through, your troops don’t stop to fight them, they don’t stop to fight your troops, and you’re left with taking them on yourself to defend your merch booths.

Above: your troops.

Furthermore, selecting different people to do things is cumbersome and you have to be close enough as well. It’s not quite “broken,” but it makes some battles, especially toward the end, unnecessarily and artificially tough. My only other complaints are fairly minor. No teleporting and the world is huge. You’re often not told what to do to get through some areas, unlock collectibles, etc., which I guess adds to the puzzle/adventure element, but not really.

And finally, not enough boss battles and you can’t always quit a mission, meaning there was a point at which I accidentally ran into the final mission and couldn’t back out…and good fuck was it tough (especially since I’d barely gotten any of the collectibles and upgrades). But now that my rant is over, let me tell you what’s awesome about Brutal Legend.

THIS.

The game starts out in a way where, especially if you love metal, you have great empathy for Eddie Riggs, the best roadie ever. One thing leads to another and you’re teleported to the world of heavy metal. The best way to think about this world is imagine every box cover to every metal CD (or record, for that matter) all in one as far as one section.

I say one section because there’s also a frozen wasteland and cursed forest that belongs to the emo band and a more hellish, desolate area that belongs to the demons, which I guess is the more hardcore black metal area. You start out the game having the purge the first area (metal land, I guess) from an obvious tip of the hat to 80s hair bands/glam rockers.

Now imagine them as enemies.

Everything, from the band enemies to the environmental monsters to the level design as a whole is perfect and spot on. Driving’s also pretty fun and the controls are nice and tight, though there are spots where you can get stuck if you try hard enough. The characters, voiceovers (including but not limited to Ozzy Osbourne and Tim Curry), and much more is also perfect.

Literally, the game has its faults, but overall it’s just damn fun. I’ve yet to try multiplayer, mostly because I know it’s just going to be the RTS shit, which I didn’t care much for but was still somewhat enjoyable. If you’re still unsure, at least rent it, but this is an experience you just can’t pass up.

Conclusion

The Good

- Awesome environments.
- Awesome voiceovers.
- Fun missions.
- Good graphics, animation, and character design.
- Lots of collectibles, upgrades, and more allow you to sculpt your character and vehicle.
- Combat is fun, fast, and simple.
- Solos are fun and awesome. Actually, having more solos or upgradable solos would’ve been an even better touch.

The Bad

- RTS was a good idea, but the execution could’ve been a lot better.
- So many moves, so very unnecessary.
- Gigantic world, but no way to fast travel. And it could’ve been very easily implemented with the motor forges.
- No way to really be protected during a solo, so even with more combat-oriented solos, it’s possible to get killed in the middle of trying to attack with one.
- Short. Literally, the main campaign can be completed in less than 10 hours. Yeah, the world is huge and there’s LOTS of collectibles, but I literally did ALL the side missions and beat the game in just a few days. Weak.
- The side missions are VERY repeptitive. They’re good for racking up fan tributes, but seriously, it’s nothing new.

And The METAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!

Brutal Legend is everything it should be and with only a few minor negatives that are really only there because they wanted to make it something more. Double Fine has done an awesome job once again and I hope they make yet even more awesome games in the future.

Verdict: 8.5

Category: Project Wonderboy, Reviews | Tags: 360, action, adventure, band, black, box, brutal, console, double, emo, fine, hair, Jack, legend, live, metal, microsoft, roadie, rock, schafer, tim, x // 2 Comments »