Brutal Legend - Initial Thoughts

About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)

Brütal Legend is an action-adventure that marries visceral action combat with open-world freedom. Set in a universe somewhere between Lord of the Rings and Spinal Tap, it’s a fresh take on the action/driving genre, which in this case is full of imitation cover bands, demons intent on enslaving humanity and Heavy metal tunes. Featuring the talents of comedian, actor and musician, Jack Black as super roadie Eddie Riggs, as well as cameos by some of the biggest names in metal music it's a wild ride in the belly of the beast that is not to be missed by gamers and Metalheads alike.

Included as a free bonus in the PC version of Brütal Legend are both the Hammer of Infinite Fate and Tears of the Hextadon multiplayer map packs.

Story
The vivid and wildly creative world of Brütal Legend is brought to life through a spate of chrome, leather, rocker babes, epic music, fire-breathing/stud-wearing beasts, mountains made of guitar amps, and more. Follow Eddie as he embarks on a tour of epic destruction with an axe, a guitar, and his minions as he commands the power of rock in epic band battles. It’s lighter-flicking awesomeness that will melt your face clean off.

Combat
Brütal Legend’s combat is a combination of classic action slasher and real time strategy mechanics. Melee and ranged combat come from your double-sided broadaxe and demon-slaying, pyrotechnic-creating guitar. Add that 1-2 punch to a guitar solo mechanic that can summon objects, buff your teammates, or cripple your opponents, and you have a deep, gratifying core gameplay combat loop that is fun for the hardcore and accessible for the casual. On top of that, players will journey from Roadie to Rock God by commanding legions of metalheads into Brütal Victory and sending troops charging into battle.

A Streaming Open World
Brütal Legend gives you the freedom to walk, drive, or fly anywhere in a fully streaming open world whose art style is inspired by some of the most iconic and hilariously rad metal album covers ever created. Every vista in the beautiful universe of Brütal Legend looks like it was pulled from a Frank Frazetta painting.

Packed With Cameos and Voice Talent
Brütal Legend is full of cameos from gods of metal like Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Lita Ford, and many, many others. It has a MASSIVE metal soundtrack from every era of metal music: 1970’s classic metal to 1980’s hair metal to the scarier cousins of 1990’s metal. And of course, Jack Black pays the ultimate homage to metal as Eddie the Roadie, continuing the theme from the work of his band, Tenacious D and his previous films like School of Rock and High Fidelity.

Multiplayer Mayhem
4v4 "skirmish" multiplayer marries action combat with a strategic unit-control mechanic. As the leader of one of the factions in the game, the player will direct his armies in a Battle of the Bands where the trophy is survival. Brütal Legend’s multiplayer is online-enabled, so you can conquer your friends online (broadband connection required for online play).

Music
The music in Brütal Legend is truly massive. Made up of 108 of the most rocking tracks from 75 different bands representing every sub-genre of metal, it is something to experience in and of itself. 

Previous Playtime

0 hours

What Was I Thinking When I Bought This

It was completely free! I didn't need another game. I didn't even want another game. But I'm only human. Tell me something is free, and I'm immediately drawn to it. That wasn't enough on its own, though. I've been getting more selective about the games I've been buying this year, and I've turned down other free games because I wasn't exactly interested in them. But Brutal Legend is definitely something special. I've played it before and loved it, so I was willing to risk falling behind on my annual goal to pick it up.

Expectations and Prior Experience

I've played the console version before and I loved it. It may not have had the most polished gameplay out there (like, why is it an RTS, seriously), but the world design may well be my favorite ever, and the characters are hilarious and the first half of the plot is both funny and engaging (like many Double Fine games, I found it had a weak ending, but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me).

The funny thing is that I was not (and largely am still not) a particular fan of metal music. I always found its over-the-top machismo and embrace of dissonance to be offputting, but put in to the context of a colorful fantasy world, I found it charming. I loved driving around in the hot rod, looking at the album-cover inspired scenery, and blasting Manowar. It's not something I'd do in real life, but Brutal Legend managed to take me out of myself enough, and there's something magical about that.

Which is why I expect the game to go easy, and hopefully fast. I've got 24 days to play 4 games and I chose this one specifically because I know that it can transport me to another world and make me obsessed. I hope to channel that power for a quick completion, though I worry that maybe I've changed enough in the past few years that I won't find it nearly as enrapturing as I once did.