I recently completed Brütal Legend (which from now on will be
referred to as Brutal Legend, since I don’t want to keep having to look up the
shortcut for an umlaut) and though it’s weird writing a review of a game that
came out 7 years ago, I’ve had to write book reports for books from the 20’s
so, ya know. All roads lead to Rome.
Spurred on by the phenomenal story telling of Undertale,
which could be played on the charismatic calculator that is my laptop, I built
a dedicated gaming computer. After years of avoiding the financial commitment
to one of my hobbies, I figured I should really get back to my escapist roots.
In my first bout of Steam sale purchases, I grabbed Brutal Legend for like five
bucks.
I remember staring at the case in Wal Mart in high school, hoping
to get my hands on it. Jack Black is the lead and he’s sort of my Jesus. School
of Rock is my bible, and now you understand all there really is about me. This
is a game about metal, a video game about metal music. It’s the game I would’ve
made if I was an insanely talented writer/developer/composer/designer/junior in
high school. Sadly, I didn’t possess the game creation skill or the Xbox 360
necessary to experience this game. So it sat on my mental “to-play” shelf until
a few weeks ago.
Brutal Legend’s biggest strength lies in its world building.
Its foundation is the mythology metal
bands have built, and then Brutal Legend expands with its own stories. The
earth was made by Ormagöden, the “The Eternal Fire Beast” who brought light and
became the earth. And bears a striking resemblance to Motorhead’s mascot Snaggletooth.
His iron body, when destroyed, littered the land with metal. His sacrifice gave
the world its elements, Blood, Fire, Noise and Metal. When you drive around the
continents (in a hotrod called the Deuce of course) you see the remains of
Ormagöden, his iron tusks jutting up from the ground became cars, because “it
was hard to find beasts fast enough to pull the chariots”. The obvious
connections between Judeo-Christian, Norse and Greek lore might seem a little
trite at first, but Brutal Legend pulls off its own legend with much
conviction.
You know that feeling when you finally understand a concept?
Like how the periodic table works? And you’re like oh, duh, Chlorine bonds like
Florine because they have the same number of valence electrons. That feeling
cropped up constantly while playing Brutal Legend. Your first antagonist is
General Lionwhyte, a hair metal avatar. His name is a play on the band White
Lion, he dresses like David Lee Roth, but with a little more glam, and is
voiced by Rob Halford of Judas Priest.
And the voice talent is its own crop of in-jokes and star
talent. You’ve got Jack Black, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford and Lemmy Kilmeister,
but then there’s nerd metal comedian Brian Posehn, 80’s singer Lita Ford,
Tenacious D’s second half Kyle Gass, comedians David Cross (Tobias from
Arrested Development) and Steve Agee, and Tim Curry as the villain, an evil bondage
demon.
All of the musician’s contribute tracks to game. Obviously a
game about metal is going to hava great soundtrack. Is that Michael Schenker
Group’s Assault Attack? Crimson Glory? Savatage? Riot? This doesn’t feel like a
pander attempt at cashing in on a niche demographic, it feels like someone’s
care and dedication went into making this. While playing this game I was
constantly being rewarded. With new music! I discovered Prong, Angel Witch, 3
Inches of Blood, and Black Sabbath made a pop song!
Of course I’ve been avoiding the whole “game” part of the
“video game”. While exploring the world and picking up on references is fun,
the gameplay part is just par. It was billed as a Batman Arkham City style
brawler, and that’s there… but it’s also a Real Time Strategy game? And a
racer? And a collect-athon? All in an open world? The game is spread too thin
to really excel at any of them. The RTS is the most ambitious and original idea
the team implemented and it just feels too big and rushed to ever really get off
the ground. Units are introduced and I don’t really know what they do or how to
use them, so I just build mixed units and send them into the fray. Eventually I
push my way to capture the other side. And again the best part of this game is
the lore. Your basic infantry is a group of Headbangers who smash their heads
into enemies, Thunderhog’s are bass playing healers, and Fire Barons are
motorcycling units that leave trails of fire to damage enemies. Every faction has its own units that play
differently as well.
 |
| Fire Baron Concept Art |
But at no point was I making tactical decisions about which
units to construct. It was mostly about making the biggest and most dangerous
thing while keeping a steady supply of smaller units and a healer. Even if I
did want to make strategic decisions I don’t know if I could, I barely learned
how to direct individual units until the very end of the game, just by fiddling
with buttons. Which isn’t a very fun way to discover mechanics. The complexity
vs depth ratio is just a little off in the RTS, it’s too complicated to
understand when and how to utilize units, and it’s just simpler to minimax your
basic infantry, healers and then wait til you can afford a powerful unit. It
was an odd choice to put an RTS in a story driven brawler. It was an odd choice
to put an RTS on a console. It was an odd choice to put development effort into
the multiplayer, you can play as 3 factions all with different units, but you
only play as Jack Black’s Ironheade in the story. The Double Fine team seemed
to have wanted too much from itself.
The brawling is a little shallow too. I just mashed buttons
and sometimes I died but it didn’t seem to matter, I would just respawn back at
the base. Racing is pretty simple and there are some side quests that I didn’t
even bother with. So much of this game feels not tacked on, but like it was
made on a bunch of tacks. A great beautiful painting that’s hung in weird
places, that just could’ve used a more solid frame. The gameplay just can’t support
such a beautiful world.
Basically if you love metal music or you’re a fan of the
developer you should pick this game up. Otherwise, you probably won’t be able
to fully appreciate this game. There’s just too much fluff between the good
stuff. But undeniably, I had a great time just driving around smashing into
animals listening to Saxon.
