Brutal Legend Review

By Matthew Scullion

Jack Black's portfolio is a force to be reckoned with. He's done kitschy rom-coms, lucha-comedies, epic rock musical comedies, remakes of a remarkable scale and then there’s his success in the music industry. He's conquered film and music, two of the biggest media industries on 21st century  Earth, so it'll come as no surprise that his sights have been set on the most profitable medium of them all, video-games.

And so we get Brutal Legend, his vehicle into the world of nerds- created and developed by Tim Schafer and filled to the brim by a metric buttload of metal royalty. It seems odd to talk about the voice talent of a game as one of the high points of it, but one of the many strings to Brutal Legend's bow is definitely the actors who bring the characters in the title to life. Aside from Mr Black's amazing performance we have the likes of Tim Curry as the primary antagonist, which should be enough to convince most of the project's awesomeness. Rather than just sit back with just two great actors, Shafer sweetened the deal by adding rock gods such as Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister and the ever hilarious Dark Lord of Metal, Mr Ozzy Osbourne. Surely this’ll help pull in the hardcore metalhead gamers to spend the £40, though the cameo from Black's band mate Kyle “KG” Gass isn't exactly detrimental either.

Now that I'm done name-dropping, I'll move on to the actual content of the game. For anyone who has been living under a rock big enough to shield themselves from the landslide of advertising for this game, Brutal Legend is the story of Eddie Riggs- a roadie for an awful band, transported back in time to the age of Rawk. That doesn't mean real life 70s or 80s [or even early 70’s- Dan], instead we're talking a world dominated by S&M demons, haunted by swarms of goths, plagued with marauding gangs on Glam-rock fiends. With landmarks such as a set of gigantic stone “Metal Horns” and spiders so large the webs they spin can be used as bass strings.

You take Riggs to various parts of the amazing continent, freeing the moshers from their crushing pits and enlisting the aid of the stealthy roadie clan as you go, with Ocarina of Time type music playing and inspiring them onwards. This game doesn't seem to fit any one set genre of gaming, very rarely can a game take two styles of play, combine them and do so well, but Brutal Legend dares to try with three, weaving them nigh-on seamlessly. Sure, the driving controls are a little dicky from time to time, maybe the real time strategy bits are a little too simplistic for some RTS fans' tastes, but the game doesn't suffer for this in the least. Beating your enemies to a bloodied pulp then busting out your other axe to play a solo so sweet it melts their faces off, or drop a flaming blimp on their pathetic bodies is incredibly satisfying- one of the best things I've experienced in gaming in years. Racing over a natural ramp, nitro tanks blazing on the sides of your hot rod gives a great sense of speed and mowing down demon deer gives a grin inducing crunch. As for the main bulk of the story driven part of the game, the strategy sections, the only statement to accurately portray the level of fun is as follows: summoning a legion of motorcycling bassists, head-bangers and then unleashing a horde of fire breathing metal beasts on an unsuspecting platoon of MCR fans is something that still makes me break into a manic smile every time.

The real star of the entire piece is the story it sets out to tell as it never fails to enthral and amuse, filled with twists, turns, sly references to culture and one liners that will have you laughing to the very end. Furthermore the game makes up for its “short” 6 hour length by leaving you with a bounty of collectables scattered on the 4 corners of the game world to find, gagged dragons to return dignity to, hidden songs, gigantic monuments to metal and upgrades for your axe, guitar, car and character are all included. Likewise none-story related missions are aplenty too, races, ambushes and simple pleasures such as mowing down helpless 2 story angry mammoths with titanium tusks leaves you with a fair bit on your to do list once you've seen Eddie's story, guaranteeing days of looking up at the clock and wondering where the time went.

One can't hope to talk about Brutal Legend without saying at least a little bit about the immense soundtrack contained within, featuring rock classics like Osbourne's “Mr. Crowley” to modern in-jokes like “Through the Fire and the Flames”, not to mention a couple of cheeky favourites from Mr Black and KG. The soundtrack can be accessed at any point in the game in which you are driving the Deuce (Rigg's affectionate name for the hot-rod) or from the stage during the battle scenes. The only real complaint that can be made about Brutal Legend pertains to the multi-player experience. There's no offline mode for those of us with real-life friends, but the exclusion of this is forgivable but the matchmaking system is regrettably not. The first time I logged on to the ranked multi-player I was faced against a rank 30 adversary and was suitably raped. In a RTS game strategy nuts deem “simple” you wouldn't expect the complicated manoeuvres people will use against you, but this is toned down slightly by the limited amount of factions available to play as. Maybe it’s being saved for DLC, but the game already has one more commander and set of units programmed in and 3 seems a little pathetic.

Tim Schafer's games have an unfortunate and undeserved history of getting good reviews and then flopping into the deepest bowels of obscurity, but maybe the incredible amount advertising, Star Power of such magnitude that when combined with the presentation it often feels like an interactive movie and playlist that is the stuff of myth, Schafer will finally have a winner on his hands. Raise the money to get this, raise your army, raise your hand into the suitable horn position and raise hell!

Confused about our review system? Click here for more info.

Click here to email us.
Advertising? Click the link above.