Nov 02 2009
Brutal Legend Everything You Would Expect
I finally played Brutal Legend over this weekend. I have to say, what I got in the experience is exactly what I expected from having played Tim Schafer games previously. I would liken Brutal Legend to playing Psychonauts. Here you’ll find a fantastic, imaginative and vibrant world that you’ll see is endlessly interesting, but that just seems to disappoint from a gameplay perspective.
The combat, a big feature of the game, is pretty atrocious, simply because Brutal Legend tries much too hard to be a jack of all trades. Here you find elements of many other games you’ve played before. From the RPG upgrade system, to the incredibly simplistic and yet overly complicated RTS controls for the large scale battles. Sure you have cool combat combos to pull off, and even better special ranged spells through shredding on your guitar, but the whole thing just isn’t polished enough.
But the world, plotline, and sound are what completely makes up for any combat shortcomings. A true metal soundtrack, coupled with fantastic guest voiceover appearances by legends the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, and a man character voiced by Jack Black are all awesomeness defined. Brutal Legend still features a fantastic open world for you to explore that’s ridiculously fun, engaging, and at times incredible.
What Tim Schafer does well, he does extraordinarily well. That shows through in the imaginative portions of the game. He just needs to brush up on the little things, like combat systems, upgrade systems, and RTS controls. Other than that Brutal Legend is typical Schafer fare, and that’s never a bad thing.
