A strongly heavy metal-themed open world action adventure, with a mediocre RTS mode that drags it down a bit.
I think of Double Fine as an “adventure game“ company, thanks to the LucasArts legacy of founder Tim Schafer. Even their games that aren’t point-and-clicks still carry some of that identity, like the item mechanics in Psychonauts. In Brutal Legend it manifests in the strong story focus; it’s got lots of cutscenes, twists and revelations, and copious stunt-casting (Jack Black prominent as the lead character Eddie, and the supporting cast filled with cameos from metal icons like Ozzie Osborne and Lita Ford).
Aesthetically this is Heavy Metal: The Game (the music, not the magazine). Environments are filled with monuments of giant guitars, the landscape itself is made from giant speaker blocks or gleaming car parts, and the character designs evoke looks from across the subculture. Your enemies include glam rockers, goths, and for some reason heavily bondage-themed demons. This theming is a big strength of the game, and it’s also supported by a robust soundtrack of genre classics.
The gameplay is split disjointedly into two phases. The open world I found enjoyable to roam around; your cartoonish hot rod car controls nicely as you ramp off broken architecture, run down spiky demonic creatures, and navigate the surreal wastelands on your way between mindless sidequests or checklist items on the map. This involves combat too, with car armaments (carmaments?) and Eddie’s axe & guitar serving for melee and ranged attacks that can be upgraded and customised.
Your quest missions come in different flavours but the other main style (which also makes up the multiplayer) are these strategy battles. Eddie sprouts wings, plays guitar solos for buffs or other effects, and recruits and orders troops around in a pretty basic way. The fact that you’re still in direct control at all times gives it the slight feel of something like Overlord, while the game focusing on this feature to the detriment of its other modes of play reminded me more of Giants: Citizen Kabuto’s strategy segments. It’s… fine, with some neat ideas, but splits the focus of the game and, well, I just didn’t find these bits fun.
It certainly gives the game a unique edge to it, being a genre hybrid (even though the different modes aren’t integrated much). But I’d argue that the heavy metal theme is edge enough, and I might have preferred the game had it dropped the strategy stuff and developed the rest further. Oh well! Oh and by the way, if you’re playing the PS3 version like I did, I was warned not to update the game as the latest patch includes a game-breaking bug that would stop you progressing in the campaign after a certain point. Pretty sloppy.
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