"Brutal Legend" Lands 7.5
Adam McGrath
Issue date: 3/1/10 Section: Entertainment
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The story is by far the games strongest point combining an entertaining tale with award winning voice acting. In Brütal Legend players will control Eddie Riggs a talented roadie who is disillusioned with what people now consider to be heavy metal. For those who aren't up to date with their concert jargon a roadie, not to be confused with a groupie, is a member of the crew who helps build and maintain the set, equipment, and instruments while the groupie attends to the bands "special" needs. Shortly after the game starts the stage comes alive killing the band and sending Eddie to an unnamed land that looks like it ripped out of the cover of an early 70's metal album. Once there Eddie must use an axe and magical Flying V guitar to save the world. Eddie then takes up the charge of assembling an army called Ironheade (with an E so they know we mean business) so he can challenge and hopefully defeat the Emperor. The story is surprisingly complex with a pretty good twist and the balance between heavy handed drama and humor making sure that the story is always entertaining. The voice acting is especially great with Jack Black providing both the voice and likeness of Eddie while Tim Curry plays the villain. As an extra treat heavy metal legends such as Rob Halford, Lita Ford, and the prince of darkness himself Ozzy Osbourne (with a digital touch up for clarity). Jack and Ozzy do a particularly great job with their roles and Jack Black even managed to beat Mark Hamill (known for playing the Joker in Batman Arkham Asylum) for the VGA best voice acting award.
The game play is a mixture of hack and slash, strategy, and 3rd person racing. While none of the styles are particularly deep it still manages to be fun as players must balance maintaining their armies in battle with personally fighting enemies. The axe provides melee damage while the Flying V guitar is used to cast spells such as lightning bolts. There is also a basic combo system that allows player to combine melee attacks and magic with entertaining results. There is also a special minigame similar to the note matching system of Guitar Hero that allows special moves such as summoning your car and literally melting the faces off your enemies. Being a roadie Eddie is able to build stages for your battle which act as you base, from there you take to skies (via your demonic wings) and command your armies to destroy enemy structures and capture merchandise booths to generate resources. This combination of fighting and commanding armies makes up most of the games combat. Another important aspect of the game is driving your upgradable car called the Deuce (and yes you have the ability to magically summon your car known as dropping a Deuce). Unfortunately the car handles like a rocket powered unicycle often flying out of control which normally leaving you crashing into things or flying off a cliff. This is unfortunate since you will have several missions that require Eddie drive the Deuce so he can protect his allies from waves of enemies; be prepared to die A LOT on those missions.
The graphics are pretty good as well keeping up with the comic book/ heavy metal theme. Music also plays an important part in this game as you will be decapitating enemies to the tracks 70's heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Mötley Crüe, and of course Tenacious D. But while the graphics are pretty good they still aren't good enough to impress anyone. Brütal Legend is a game that does lots of things without any of them being very detailed but still manages to be fun. The combination of great presentation with solid game play makes the game fun but the horrible driving controls could become a deal break for some people. Due to that very large flaw I'm giving Brütal Legend 7.5 out of 10. Not fantastic but still good enough to please the rock gods.
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