Brutal Legend

Brutally Awesome

Tim Schafer has again brought a great game into the hard core gamers' consoles. Brutal Legend is awesome in its own uniqueness, how it can never be copied. Much like Psychonauts, this is a trippy dream realm where you star as Eddie Riggs. This is where most reviews would start. But not for Brutal Legend. Even the opening cinematic is awesome, with Jack Black in real life going into a record store, and pulling out the record, which is ultimately the menu screen (awsome!!). From there, the other opening cinematic shows Eddie Riggs as the best roadie ever for a crappy band who call themselves metal, but really are just alternative. (Adam Sessler already used Linkin Park, the best band to describe it). The idiotic guitarist climbs the set, and falls, killing eddie, where his blood falls onto his belt buckle, awaken a monsterous god of fire called Ormagodden, and transports him to the past? I don't get where he gets transported. It's either the past, future, dream sequence, or parallel dimension. The whole story has highs and lows. In the beginning, it starts off as a classic "new warrior" movie where the new person joins the rebellion and is the deciding factor against the evil empire (Star Wars all over it). Later spoilers he finds out his dad was here before, married the emperor (no idea if she was evil or good) and the child is Eddie end spoilers. Awful end plot. Like I care his dad was here, can't he just kill Doviculus? And this all gets explained in the final hour , which isn't all that suprising seeing as I finished the game with half of the side missions completed in 7 hours. Should that be possible? I literally put the game in the PS3 5 times to beat it. Sure there is still side missions, tons of collectibles, and easter eggs scattered around, but still how can the main story be only 7 hours. The good thing is that combat is so awesome, that you could play this game in one day and beat it, and never had a dull moment. Just driving around is fun, seeing the awesome atmosphere of the game, and killing animals. Metal songs blast from the car, and are a great way to experience the atmosphere. The upgrade system, sometimes seems stupid like statues of characters, but is really is the bow on top of the present. Only a few upgrades are available, but they all are extremely helpful. The final boss fight(s) are awesome, stage battles mixed in with one (short) battle with Doviculus. Stages battles are extremely fun, and are a great break in between actual combat. It's an oversimplified RTS, where you can make troops, upgrade some troops, and try to control points on the map, and eventually trying to destroy the enemy's stage. However, in multiplayer, this doesn't go over well. To try and keep up with your enemies, you must toggle between giving commands, guitar solos, creating units, and fighting. It's all too much to juggle, but it isn't too much fun flying from above and giving commands. Multiplayer doesn't take away from the game, but it doesn't add to it. Some might like it, if they are huge RTS fans who can toggle between menus with their minds, but for everyone else, single player battles are much better.

So, what is the verdict? Well, from the words of a great clown:
"I heartily endorse this product!"
Krusty the Clown
Go out and buy this game, because we want Schafer to make more games like this