GameInformer

When I first heard of Brutal Legend, I wasn't entirely certain what to think.  Heavy Metal Legend of Zelda?  Not quite (but close, actually).  A medieval Grand Theft Auto?  Again, not quite (but close).  Then when the game released I read an article discussing something that sort of turned me off from the game... it incorporated real time strategy battles ala WarCraft, StarCraft, or any Craft in general.  Now I consider myself quite an avid gamer and will give anything a fair shot but I have to admit RTS games are the ones that are generally the lowest on my spectrum simply because crap happens too fast for me to keep up with while wrestling the controls to try and doll out support of any kind.  Especially on consoles.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here, I'll discuss those battles in their own section but I WILL say that they aren't as bad as I made them out to be once I got around to trying them out.

I've heard of Tim Schafer.  Never had the honour of trying out his creations because at their time of their release I was always either on another console or didn't have the sufficient financial means to afford his games.  Grim Fandango and Psychonauts as well as some of his LucasArts stuff fell by the wayside for me, unfortunately.  I make it a steady habit to keep up with everything videogames as much as I can however, and Tim Schafer is something of an urban legend in the industry so I knew that when I booted up the game I'd be exposed to something new and different (and let's face it, that's the reason we play videogames).

With that being said, I wasn't expecting this.

The game stars Eddie Riggs, a roadie protagonist who only wears black and who is used to always living in the shadows and letting others have all the fame.  He understands that the spotlight isn't his place and has come to accept that his point of being is to make another look undeniably awesome.  It is with that monologue at the beginning of the game (which is accompanied with the choice of censoring swearing and gore if that isn't your thing) that he saves a careless and reckless band member and winds up getting crushed by his own set.  His blood seeps onto his belt buckle, a metallic beast, and it awakens the mythical God Ormagodden, who kills all the band members (who are more emo than heavy metal, anyway) and transports Eddie back to his world, a world of Heavy Metal.  A place where his guitar shoots out fire and electricity and humanity is being oppressed.  I won't spoil anymore of the game for you, but I should say that the story, voice acting and facial feature animation are all top-notch.  You will care about these characters and they will make you laugh and smile, and sometimes even be generally touched by their contextual circumstance.

It's not all goofy Jack Black jokes and light heartedness, halfway through, the game ditches the comedy and goes Uber-DARK.  Times are tough, and dark times means undead Goth Kids trying to rip out your spleen to decorate their walls.  I'm not even kidding.  The game idolizes the old Heavy Metal, pre-nineties and all the bastardized sub-genres that spawned from the original subject: the game spares no expense at throwing light-hearted jabs at Hair-Metal and Emo Punk Rock especially.  On a separate note: never piss off a goth chick.  She will make your life a living hell until you rip her heart out and throw it in a river of black tears.

The game generally follows the Grand Theft Auto formula for the most part, where you are thrust into a vast open world dynamic and can venture wherever you want pretty much directly from the get-go, but all sidequests and main missions are illuminated by shining light descending from the heavens that serve as waypoints and a general compass for wherever you would like to drive off toward.  The main world houses plenty of secrets for you to drive off and find, such as Bound Dragons that upon being freed will grant you a small health bonus and the like after you've gone and freed ten; thirteen hidden gargoyle statues that tell the tale of the land, and hidden monuments of Rock that must be risen from the ground that allow you to visit Ozzy freakin' Osbourne for powerups and that also unlock various tracks to listen to on your car radio.

The further you progress through the main missions, the more sidequests become available and aread that were previously locked became available to explore so the game never feels monotonous with its locals.  My biggest problem with Grand Theft Auto and its brethren was that a lot of the areas felt the same, with reused building textures and straight roads criss-crossing across one another so that you couldn't really memorize the land unless you played way too much while casual gamers would always be hitting the select button every five seconds just to see the map and get their bearings.  Brutal Legend escapes that problem because every single area is completely different from the last which helps it stand out as showcasing a world that is truly alive and unique.