Brutal Legend (Brutal Legend (Xbox 360))

Member Name: AndyCreighton

Product:	Brutal Legend (Xbox 360)
Date:	02/11/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, Awesome characters, Looks great, Killer soundtrack

Disadvantages: RTS system if a bit disappointing

As a huge metal fan, I was quite excited when I heard the news of Brutal Legend. And on top of that Jack Black, Lemmy and Ozzy would also feature in the game? Great! Thy shall feast on the awesomeness that is Brutal Legend, and bask in the pool of heavy metal perfection, for here is but a game that is more wicked than Satan himself, more evil than Death and more rocking than the Stones. Double Fineeeee.

The story is bizarre, but a good type of bizarre. You play as roadie Eddie Riggs, he prides himself upon pleasing the fans and ensuring the show goes to plan without ever being seen. Eddie is mysteriously transported to a far away world, ruled by demons and the sinister, but ridiculous looking, General Lionwhyte. He joins the fight for humanity, and sets about ridding the world of these vile beasts. Learning that his best weapons are The Separator, his axe, and the power of metal found in Clementine, his guitar, and with some help along the way, Eddies story is one of excitement, love and general awesomeness.

The thing was, I picked up Brutal Legend expecting it to be some 8 hour, slightly-boring metal-fest, but what we have here is something I did not expect at all. He have depth, depth in the game itself and in the characters. As the story progresses you learn more about the characters and in turn actually care about their outcome. This is probably down to the killer voice acting, headlined of course by Jack Black, who does a superb job with the loveable badass Eddie Riggs, ontop of that we have Ozzy Osborne as the Guardian of Metal and Lemmy as the Kilmister. Probably some of the best voice acting I've seen in a game to date.

For the first couple hours of the game I thought BL was going to be the usual seen-it-all-before hack and slash third person adventure game, and to be honest even if it had of stuck with this formula it still would have been heaps of fun. But you soon uncover the RTS monster than dwells below, and before you know it your having so called "Stage Battles". It basically follows any usual RTS game, you have a source of income (Fans), capture points/resources (Green Geysers), a command base (your stage), and units. There are actually a fair selection of units here, from your basic head bangers to pig-gun wielding super babes. The nice thing is about the RTS side of the game, is that your actually there in the action. So while your controlling your army, your also down in the dirt delivering justice to these fowl foes. But like all other RTS games on console ever, BL doesn't really work. Commanding your troops is extremely hard, getting them to go exactly where you want them to go, or attack the target you want can be frustrating. I found myself just letting them do what they wanted to do while I ran about decapitating things. Decapitatiooonnnnnnn!

The graphics are actually pretty spot on, they're not super realistic and they don't intend to be. Brutal Legend knows it's a game and so looks like one. Lots of dark broody levels as you would expect from a Heavy Metal settings, but also some bright colours and nice textures bring the game to life. It's a gory game no doubt, with a lot of blood and limbs flying everywhere, but it only adds to its charm, and if you really don't like it, you can turn it off! The sound, as you would expect in a game that's so reliant on music, is utterly mint. The soundtrack is great, a lot of rocky, metaly songs from bands such as Slayer, Ozzy and Judas Priest. On top of that the sound effects are great, the sounds of the riffs especially. Aesthetically the game is very pleasing.

In terms of replayability? Yea I would play it again, only because the experience was so fun the first time round. However if your one of those weird, collector, have to have everything 100% sort of people your gonna love this game. There is plenty to collect and its going to take you hours! Whether it be landscape viewpoints of the killer jumps found throughout the world. On top of that there is a bunch of extras to unlock, mostly concept art but its still worth unlocking. Its not a game you'll be taking back to the shop within a week.

Overall Brutal Legend is a gem, I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Everything feels great about the game, the music, the feel of the world and the gameplay. If there was one gripe I had it would be that the RTS side cant be a bit flawed in telling your army what to do, but it can be overlooked, and should be. While the games obviously aimed at metal and rock fans, I would recommend it for anyone as it is a good game. But I would rather carve my intestines out with a butter knife than take the metal charm and humour away from BL. Buy now.

Summary: Buy It Nowwwwwwwwww!!