I'm going through Darksiders, and really getting a Brütal Legend vibe off all this. In the way it was supposed to be set inside a world of a metal album cover, had a similar but more simplistic combat, a cartoony artstyle, and some platfoming. If Darksiders had the humor and characters of BL, cut some of the padding (god, the slow pacing is driving me nuts) and steered away from any RTS bullshit, it could be one of my favorite games ever. Oh and DS could really use some Black Sabbath in its soundtrack. Well, a boy can dream, right?

I agree that had Brutal Legend been a more traditional game like Darksiders instead of turning into a weird RTS, it would've done better. The demo of Brutal certainly made the game out to be something like that.

Can you ride animals in Darksiders 2?

Starhawk is what Brutal Legend's RTS elements could've been.

There are some similarities of an open world, hack and slash combat in your example, but that's about it. They had envisioned RTS elements from the beginning, so not having that is out of the question (no matter how much you might hate RTSs...). To me, what Brutal Legend could've been meant just having better RTS elements, instead of cutting them out because they're essential to the stage battle theme as the war between different types of metal music. Having no war aspect like with the RTS stuff would just make it another simplistic hack-and-slash action game with just different source material.

Brutal Legend succeeded in nearly everything else, unique metal-inspired open world, can ride animals (better controls than the cars), use guitar solos as buffs, roadies as allies, memorable characters, good humor, and the best licensed soundtrack ever in a game.

Brütal Legend  is what  Brütal Legend  could have been. If you did your homework and knew going in that it was an RTS hybrid, and set your expectations accordingly, that game was hella fun. I guess I'm the only person on the planet who got the Cönquerer achievement. 
 
You'd summon your dudes and point them toward the first resource node, then fly over and start bashing your opponents guys personally with your axe, then play a rhythm mini-game and summon a giant zeppelin to crash into their stage... that game was great.

@TooWalrus said:

Brütal Legend is what Brütal Legend could have been. If you did your homework and knew going in that it was an RTS hybrid, and set your expectations accordingly, that game was hella fun. I guess I'm the only person on the planet who got the Cönquerer achievement. You'd summon your dudes and point them toward the first resource node, then fly over and start bashing your opponents guys personally with your axe, then play a rhythm mini-game and summon a giant zeppelin to crash into their stage... that game was great.

The problem was that even if people did their homework beforehand, there was very little marketing made available regarding the RTS elements. That's why so many people felt like they had fallen for a bait-and-switch.

IDK, I knew about the RTS, but it after the first few battles, which were fun, it just was kind of bad. Managing units with the damn radial dial on a controller was cumbersome, and when I actuqlly won, I didn't really get what I was doing right. To be fair, I suck at real RTS's, though. But if Legend and DS would have a baby, it would be something REALLY special.

I think the only Brutal Legend vibe I get out of that game is the art style.

Even the melee combat that is already in Brutal Legend is pretty crappy. Why would you want a game that is that?