Brutal Legend

Review from Yug - Wednesday, 04 November 2009 @ 11:06pm

"There's nothing you can really do to prepare to rock. Do you prepare to eat a delicious meal? Are you hungry? Then you're gonna eat it" - Jack Black

There’s not many ‘names’ in the gaming industry you can attach to a product for marketing and promotional purposes. Notable examples include Will Wright (Sim City), Sid Meier (Civilization), and American McGee (Alice ... although I think Mr McGee got his name on the box cover just because it’s such a fucking awesome name). There are also plenty of evangelists who are well known enough that just the fact they worked on a game makes headlines – Peter Molyneux, Cliffy B, Gabe Newell and John Carmack.

Brutal Legend is promoted as a ‘Tim Schafer’ game, the man behind such adventure game classics as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts.

Games industry and hardcore gamer cred: Check

Another tactic is to use a well known celebrity to promote a game, either by getting them to feature in it (Tony Hawk, Vin Diesel) or assist in the creation of it (Steven Spielberg, James Cameron).

Brutal Legend stars ‘Jack Black’ as the title character, a man who rose through the ranks of rock with his internationally successful band Tenatious D, and has become a successful comic actor headlining such movies as School of Rock, Shallow Hal, King Kong, Nacho Libre, and Tropic Thunder.

Accessible celebrity status and endorsement: Check

I should also mention I’m a HUGE Tim Schafer fan, and a HUGE Jack Black fan.

So why didn’t I enjoy playing Brutal Legend?

How could a game with a screenshot like this NOT be awesome? How indeed ...

Perhaps it could have been because of my expectations going into the experience thanks to the two main collaborators. From Tim Schafer I expect a clever, witty adventure based game that has substance and unique characters. From Jack Black I expect a level of awesome over the top entertainment that will blow my fucking balls off.

Maybe it was because I was playing Uncharted 2 around the same time, a game that is a clever, witty adventure with substance and unique characters (ok, that ones debatable), and cinematic set pieces that blew my fucking balls off.

The game puts you in the rock boots of Eddie Riggs – ‘the greatest roadie ever’, and within 5 minutes of the game’s opening you die. Don’t worry; this is a good thing, as you are actually summoned to an alternate universe completely engulfed in Heavy Metal lore, an environment Eddie Riggs knows all about.

Unfortunately, I don’t. Sure, I have a passing appreciation of Heavy Metal, and can understand WHY people like it, but when the game boasts 108 tracks from 75 bands and I can only find 5 songs that I actually like, I’m quick to realise perhaps I’m not the target market for this game.

That’s not actually as big an issue as it sounds though, since the jokes and characters are general and well known enough that you’d have to really have had a sheltered life to miss them. There are fantastic guest appearances by such Rock legends like Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath), Lemmy (Motorhead), Rob Halford (Judas Priest) and Lita Ford (The Runaway).

Mind if I AXE you a question? ........... oh gawd that was horrible

The issue is that Brutal Legend feels like a game that doesn’t really know what it wants to be. Sure, it starts off well enough as an open world adventure game, but you soon become bogged down in micro management RTS mechanics. It starts out friendly enough, but towards the end of the game you’re commanding sizable armies in some large scale battles with a control scheme that makes me miss playing Stormrise.

"I’m quick to realise perhaps I’m not the target market for this game."


It’s even worse on a smaller scale, when you have to select a certain type of unit and direct them to certain objectives, something that just seems needless and finicky, and will have you continually double checking which button you’re supposed to press to select all units, one unit, send all, send selected, deselect, etc etc.

At the end of the day, I just don’t know why they put this crap into the game, since it works perfectly fine as a third person brawler. In fact, it can be quite fun in this respect, especially as you upgrade your equipment through the game to get better weapons and combos.

The other part of the game that works well is the ability to summon your car within the open world environment and tear around the levels quickly, as well as gunning and flaming down anything in your path after a few upgrades.

It's the car right? Chicks dig the car

There’s an exceptional level of polish to the in between bits, Jack Black doesn’t disappoint as a video game persona, however – and this really bothered me – the actual dialogue leaves a little something to be desired. It feels ... flat. The pauses are too long. The characters aren’t all that interesting. I’m not going to go out and state this as a fact, but for some reason – they just didn’t work for me, and neither did the generic over the top Rock Opera story.

Its obvious alot of love went into this game, it screams passion project with all the subtle and not-so-subtle references within the Heavy Metal theme ... but it didn’t grab me. And when the ending finally (and surprisingly quickly) came about, I was glad it was over.

Pros

Jack Black rocks, open world environment is fun - especially to drive across, if you’re a Heavy Metal fan this game is MADE for you, very polished, the RPG and brawler aspects are fun.

Cons

Why oh why did they put RTS elements into it? The story feels lacking, the characters feel flat, and the dialogue feels off. If you’re not a Heavy Metal fan there might not be many redeeming features for you.