Rocktober is upon us, and you should all know what that means: Tim Schafer is back, with a game that could only rock harder if it was made out of stone. But that wouldn’t be a very great gaming experience. Brutal Legend has a lot to live up to considering Schafer’s history with LucasArts’ adventure games and his previous game that no one bought: Psychonauts.

Brütal Legend kicks off, where else, at a metal concert. Jack Black plays Eddie Riggs, the world’s best roadie who’s working for the world’s worst metal band: Kabbage Boy. They have a tween audience, which doesn’t sit well with Eddie. There’s nothing that Eddie can’t build or fix, except the band itself. After an on-stage accident some of Eddie’s blood spills onto his belt-buckle, in reality an amulet of Ormagöden, The Fire Beast, Cremator of the Sky and Destroyer of the Ancient World.

Stellar voice acting and a great script makes characters come alive. Jack Black is perfect for the voice of Eddie Riggs

Ormagöden transports Eddie into a fantasy world heavily, pun very much intended, inspired by artwork from various metal albums. Here he quickly finds his tools of combat and transportation: an axe, a guitar and a hot rod, and joins the human rebellion against the evil emperor Doviculus. According to the rebellion Eddie is seen as the “chosen one”, but it’s unclear whether he’s the saviour or destroyer of the world. The ancient ones weren’t big on specifics.

Fans of Tim Schafer will be instantly gratified upon playing Brütal Legend, as the traditional humour found in both Psychonauts and Schafer’s adventure games is present from the get go. And haters of Jack Black can put their scepticisms aside as he’s a perfect fit for the character of Eddie Riggs, being a metal head himself. Black’s comedic timing, coupled with a hilarious script makes the character, modelled partly after Black himself, really come alive.

Along for the ride is a fantastic line up of famous voice actors and heavy metal musicians with names like Jennifer Hale, Tim Curry, Rob Halford, Lita Ford and Lemmy Kilmister on board for the ride. Special props go to Schafer for getting Ozzy Osbourne to play the Guardian of Metal, who’s basically Ozzy himself under a different name. All musicians provide great performances as their respective characters and their acting never seems dull or forced, making their characters very sympathetic and likeable.

The world of Brütal Legend is absolutely steeped in metal iconography, but you don’t have to be a headbanger to enjoy the fantastic scenery. I know virtually nothing of heavy metal album covers, yet the guitar monuments, the mountainside made of speakers and Mt. Rockmore are awe-inspiring to behold in their fantastic glory.

According to Schafer the game world is approximately 64 km² in area, which makes Eddie’s hot rod, The Druid Plow (a.k.a. The Deuce) a must for getting around. The world also comes with its own day and night cycle, as well as a weather cycle which makes the whole world believable as well as immersive.

The graphics do a good job of portraying both the world and the characters inhabiting it. The grass is green, the clouds darken during rain storms and the heavy metal landmarks look like a natural and ancient part of the scenery. The characters both look human and artificial enough not to fall into the uncanny valley and their facial animations in particular allow them to emote on a very natural level.

While there is a lot to see in Brütal Legend, it hardly feels like there’s a lot to do, which is a shame because it feels like the immense world has been wasted somewhat.

There are side-quests to be found, but they don’t amount to much else than “race this guy there”, “attack these guys” or “defend this spot”, something that makes the whole thing seem a bit formulaic and stale. There are also Bound Serpents to be discovered, 120 in all, buried metal to raise and legends to uncover, but the way to discover all of this is random at best. You’re more likely to happen upon them during your travels around the world rather than if you actively look for them.

Everything in Brutal Legend is pure heavy metal to the core

Freeing Serpents, uncovering legends and completing side quests help you earn Fire Tributes, basically experience points. Fire Tributes can be spent on upgrades for Eddie and the Deuce. Raising buried metal rewards you with new songs to play in your hot rod And the tunes are fucking awesome! Brutal Legend features 108 heavy metal tracks from 75 different bands of various heavy metal genres. Bands like Black Sabbath, Manowar, Mastodon, Judas Priest, Children of Bodom, Enslaved, In Flames and Tenacious D are all part of the package and fits perfectly into Brutal Legend’s style. For what is a heavy metal game without massive amounts of heavy metal tracks?

The heavy metal soundtrack also filters through into the game’s combat scenarios which mix RTS elements with action style beat’em up gameplay. Eddie’s two main weapons are his axes, one a literal axe “The Separator”, the other a Flying V guitar that can electrocute or set fire to your enemies “Clementine”.

Killing most enemies are simple enough, and actually purchasing new combos isn’t always a necessity, but it can help to break up the monotony of simply mashing A or X in order to attack. Eddie can also do special team up attacks with his allies like surrounding himself with a mosh pit of headbangers or throwing his love interest Ophelia into a group of enemies, carving them into chunks of meat.

In battle, Clementine can be used for special solos which do everything from summoning the Deuce, calling allies to your aid or melting your enemies faces. The solos themselves are played through Guitar Hero style QTEs that are easy to pull off, but leaves Eddie open to enemy attacks. Trying to do a solo in the middle of a battle can be very rewarding, but also very punishing.

There’s plenty of blood and gore in Brutal Legend, but it doesn’t feel out of place considering its subject matter. It can be censored away, as can the swearing, which is a neat touch from the game designers in case certain gamers have young children.

Combat can get a bit hectic at times, but carving to pieces with an axe never gets old

The RTS parts of Brütal Legend come in the form of Stage Battles where Eddie takes on the role of battle commander for his army Ironheade (with an e on the end, so you know they mean business). RTS games on consoles rarely work well enough as it is, but Brütal Legend does its best to shave off any unnecessary elements. A concert stage serves as your base and troops can be summoned from the stage via a radial menu. Which units to summon are up to the player, but your army will be absolutely decimated if you don’t choose the right units for the right battle.

Controlling your allies with the D pad can be a bit awkward; if they can’t hear Eddie’s voice, they can’t obey his commands, so straying too far from your troops is generally a bad idea. Brutal Legend’s online multiplayer component consists entirely of these Stage Battles, so if you found them annoying during the single player, the multiplayer portion might not be your cup of tea. It should be mentioned that once you get the hang of these battles they do get better, and the multiplayer segment allows you to play as the enemy factions from the single player, which provides a fun mix up from the single player campaign units.

Much like Psychonauts before it, Brütal Legend is a great game with some awkward flaws. They’re not horrendous, but they do detract some from the overall experience. The basis for a near perfect game is present; well rounded and loveable characters, a great soundtrack, fun hack’em up combat, a good script, and stylised and good looking graphics.

Unfortunately some clunky RTS controls and uncomfortable driving controls hamper the experience somewhat. Brutal Legend also suffers from the same twitchy difficulty curve that Psychonauts did. Certain side quests aren’t very clear when it comes to your overall goal and can take a lot of trial and error. Others can seem needlessly difficult at first and painfully easy once you’ve spent some Fire Tributes to upgrade Eddie’s weaponry.

Brutal Legend is less a game and more a heavy metal package, which is evident from the moment you boot up the game. It even makes the EA logo look awesome, which is a fantastic feat in and of itself. Brütal Legend will make you laugh, care about its characters and almost force you to head bang your brains out.

– 8 / 10