The Game that Rocked
Brutal Legend is an odd game, it attempts to combine a number of different gameplay mechanics and to a certain degree it is a success. In Brutal Legend you play the role of Eddie Riggs, a roadie for a lacklustre nu metal band who is transported back in time to a world ruled by heavy metal!
The game game begins as a simple adventure game, you control Eddie from a slightly elivated third person view and can slash enemies with your axe. The fighting is combo based and moves can be earned purchased through the duration of the game adding to longer and more devastating combos. You also have access to your guitar which you can use to summon allies, summon your Hot rod and even bring a huge zepplin crashing down on your foes. Speaking of which you eventually gain control of the Deuce which is the aforementioned hot rod, you can upgrade and to a certain extent, customise how your car looks and drives.
The other huge gameplay change (aside from the guitar hero esq summoning) are the huge boss battles. These take place in a huge battleground where you are put in control of your own army which you then have to use to destroy and take over your enemies and thier resources. This gets very complicated very quickly and its not always obvious which units are best against your rivals units. This mode is also what the multiplayer is all about so playing at least half of the single player will give you a good grasp of how that plays.
The soundtrack is a dream....that is if your like me and enjoy Metal and Rock music, i can only imagine how off putting this would be if you dislike or have no interest in the genre. Featured bands include Megadeth, Leta Ford, Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osborne as well as some slightly more gothy sounding stuff like Crade of Filth and The Ministry. The world of Brutal Legend is made up of metal imagery, huge stone hands holding swords, a stone henge area made of blades, a volcano spewing out molten metal, the game is saturated with such references and music so you really need to have an understanding and liking of that music to get the most out of the game.
The characters and story are extremely well written, Jack Black and Tim Curry are the stars of the show of course but Lita Ford, Ozzy, Lemmy and Rob Halford all do very well at thier parts.
All in all the game is a fantastic piece of work but could have better if the single player was a little longer and they had stuck more to the adventure game and less to the rts. That said if your into metal and enjoy adventure games you could do worse than to add this to your collection!
