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    Brütal Legend

    Game » consists of 10 releases. Released Oct 13, 2009

    Brütal Legend is a humorous heavy-metal, open-world, action-adventure game with light real-time strategy elements. As Eddie Riggs, lead the people of the Brütal World to rise up against the Tainted Coil demons who rule the world, and their leader, the sinister Emperor Doviculus.

    septim's Brütal Legend (Xbox 360) review

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    Not Quite Legendary...

    Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs a roadie who is transported to another world during a stage accident. Although the premise may sound paper-thin, the brilliant pairing of designer Tim Schafer and Jack Black really bring the story and characters to life. Humor in games has been notoriously difficult to pull off and this is one of Brutal Legend's strongest selling points; its consistently funny. Jack Black has experience doing voice work (Kung Fu Panda) and his chops show, he makes Eddie Riggs a unique character as opposed to a dude that just sounds like Jack Black. From the opening moments I was already endeared to the character, and that charm goes along way to covering the games numerous faults.
     
    Although it was initially billed and marketed as more of a hack and slash, the gameplay takes stabs at both Overlord-esque and RTS elements. It mostly all works at first but as things ratchet up the game struggles to juggle all these differing game types. The RTS portion of the game is still avatar based and they attempt to accomplish remaining as the character while commanding by giving Riggs a pair of wings. At first this seems to be a pretty nice solution. You get to fly up for an aerial command and then swoop down to help your forces. Once you get to the more advanced parts of the game you are being attacked in multiple spots and its next to impossible to fly around (slowly), manage resources, order troops, and defend yourself all at the same time. I found it to be consistently frustrating like at certain points I was gimped more by the controls than the actual challenge of the game. 
     
    The game is presented as an open world. There are quite a few side missions sprinkled throughout the map although most aren't compelling or rewarding enough to be worth the time. It is quite obvious that the level of effort put into these was less than of the main campaign. The actual environment is pretty nifty. Trees made out of tail pipe and numerous rock monuments make it an interesting universe to explore. Once again the charming nature of this game masks the flawed gameplay of the side-missions.
     
    And that's really what I felt the main theme of this game was; a great story and cast of characters is brought down by gameplay that sometimes clicks, but often feels unpolished to the point of mediocrity. I never felt like I was playing an outright broken game, but I often felt like I had to work around the gimped controls of the RTS sections. Considering the multiplayer is based off the RTS sections I don't see myself devoting much time there at all. If you can overcome the sometimes wack gameplay you will be treated to be a brief stay in a charming world.

    Other reviews for Brütal Legend (Xbox 360)

      Command the power of rock! 0

       Staring at a heavy metal album cover can muster up many thoughts: why is there a Black Panther shooting laser beams from its eyes? Why do I find that so cool? And what in God’s name does this have to do with the actual music? The answer to the latter is normally ‘nothing’, but the crazy, elaborate heavy metal album covers of old never failed to capture the imagination. They definitely inspired Tim Schafer in his teenage years, and now his team at Double Fine have finally brought it all to life ...

      13 out of 17 found this review helpful.

      I throw up the horns and salute. 0

      Brütal Legend is a great game, and I enjoyed it from start to finish. It's not perfect, but it has the quality you expect from a Double Fine game where it counts. Even if you're not a fan of heavy metal, there's lots to enjoy here.  Story: Everybody knows the basic plotline by now. Eddie Riggs is the greatest roadie in the world, but he's stuck working for the worst "metal" band in the world, Kabbage Boy, who completely dismiss the great...

      3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

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