75

A solid and entertaining game

Lekes | May 8, 2013 | See all Lekes's reviews »

Brutal Legend is one of the few games where presentation and storytelling make up for the deficiencies in gameplay. It is essentially a hybrid games, with elements of an RTS (like in an older game, Sacrifice), 3rd person action-adventure, and driving/racing components. None of them stand out and all have weaknesses. The sum of the parts is still inadequate. What it does have is an engrossing tale with characters that are likable, and top of the line voice acting. Jack Black does a fantastic job. The hilarious dialogue and spoofs carry the game's first half, and by then you are genuinally interested in the characters and plot in the second half. There are numerous different environments that aren't simply repeated tilesets. The artwork is amazing. I would have liked to see the ridable animals better implemented, but really, this is a terrific game that while could have been better, stands on its own just fine.

84

Some silly fun

TartFlavor | May 2, 2013 | See all TartFlavor's reviews »

Although originally released on console in October 2009, the game was not available on PC until February 2013. I may as well start off saying that you need a controller to play this game. Don't have one? Don't bother reading any further. Without a controller the controls feel very clunky and it greatly detracts from the experience. I would consider it playable without a controller, however I would not consider it enjoyable. Even with controller though, the controls still take some getting used to and feel a little clunky at first. It feels like they tried to jam a bit too many commands into the controller causing them to be a little overwhelming.

Now that we've got that down, let's take a look at the actual game. The story is centered around Eddie Riggs (Jack Black), a roadie that is sucked into land of rock. The game is open-world and in third person, as well as being an interesting combination of action and real time strategy.

While no Skyrim, Brutal Legends has a fairly decent sized map. However, while Double Fine got the size down, the map is barren and not very diverse. Much of the landscape looks the game and it feels a little half-hearted. Much of the map feels closed off with walls that you can't go over and other barriers. As well as being enclosed by physical barriers, the missions seem highly linear.

Now to talk about where this game excels - the combat. As I mentioned earlier, Brutal Legend is a cross between action and RTS. For the action side, you fight as an axe-wielding roadie that likes to cut things up. Another main weapon is your other axe, your guitar. The axe is your melee weapon while your guitar is used for ranged attacks. You can also use to summon things such as your car or to rally your troops by playing a few notes.

In terms of RTS, you must buy units in a major battle from points accumulated based on the number of "fans" you have. Fans are acquired by building merchandise booths in certain areas. You must protect these as well as destroying the enemy's. You control your troops through a series of button combinations. This is where the problem with the controls comes into play. The RTS part feels clunky due to the lack of buttons on a controller as opposed to mouse & keyboard. Another complaint is that there is a relatively small unit variety at your disposal as opposed to other RTS games. The same is true with a low amount of enemy variety.

The game has a lot of customization options such as new skills and combos, as well as upgrades for your weapons and car. It even has reskins available for some things, like the car. While some of the upgrades are generic such as "do more damage", there are some pretty fun ones that include spewing blood everywhere with a car attachment.

My favorite part of the game by far is the humor. The game is hilarious ranging from the enemies to the descriptions of items. With a cast consisting of people like Jack Black and Ozzy Osbourne you can guess how good the voice acting is. The game also has some great music from bands such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest.

Overall, the game has decent mechanics and an acceptable art style. Where this game really excelled is with its humor and voice acting. If you're looking for something to dive into and just have some dumb fun as well as laugh at some jokes, this is the game for you. If you're looking for a more in-depth game you might not find this to your taste. Personally, I loved it.

74

Rock n Roll

Joeru | April 25, 2013 | See all Joeru's reviews »

This game takes the absurd and then beats in the face with a guitar, this hack n slash adventure combined the comedic narrative skills of Jack Black and metal music of the rock gods themselves like Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeath, Dragonforce and so on.

The gameplay include two modes aside from the aforementioned hack n slash there is also an RTS element, which unfortunately isn't quite as fun as the hacking and the slashing.

The clean cartoonesque 3D graphic style lends well to Jack's character and everything seems to flow fairly well together.

While this game may not be perfect it is a fun game with a quirky story and really awesome music. Any metal heads out there or people who enjoy a good laugh then this game is for you.

Rock On!

75

Heavy Metal Fans, Rejoice!

murgo23 | March 25, 2013 | See all murgo23's reviews »

If you're a Tim Schaffer fan, you'll like it. If you're a heavy metal fan, who also like games, you'll love it. Being both a gamer and a heavy metal fan (mostly the old school metal), this is the game I've been waiting to play. I got it when it first came out and loved every second of it. I'll keep this short and sweet.

Pros: -Game is fantastic -Soundtrack is amazing -The world is like every metal album cover come to life -It has Ozzy, Rob Halford, Lemmy, Jack Black, Lita Ford, and Tim Curry playing characters -Story is awesome -It's flat-out fun!

Cons: -Combat system can get tedious after awhile -No too much replay value -Multiplayer gets boring after awhile

60

Good Concept but bad Execution.

fable2 | March 11, 2013 | See all fable2's reviews »

It's an average button masher. Apart from the awesome setting, the insane music, the characters and humor i see nothing outstanding, nothing that would give this game a boost above games such as DMC or Darksiders. That being said, in a short period of gameplay i found quite a few bugs, artifacts and glitches. Nothing to cripple gameplay, mind you, but they annoyed the hell out of me. The gameplay mechanic is sort of clunky and unpolished, but it's a port so that was to be expected. It's a good game but nothing spectacular

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