Brutal Legend Hands-On at GCA Singapore
Amidst the many demo code giveaways on Twitter, I actually got the opportunity to get my dirty little mitts on Brutal Legend at this years Games Convention Asia in Singapore.
Double Fine Production's Brutal Legend is an action adventure game set to be published by EA. The game is an unworldly amalgamation of mythical lore and heavy metal, starring familiar voices like Jack Black and Ozzy Osbourne as well as plenty of heavy metal tracks selected by DFP's own Tim Schafer.
The demo kicks off with Eddie Riggs, the game's protagonist who is voiced by Jack Black, waking up in a mythical world of rock. Unfortunately for him, he does so in the midst of a ritual and comes face to face with a group of hooded druids armed with swords. The game wastes no time after the intro cutscene and players will quickly find themselves running around chopping off limbs and heads (Yes, there's plenty of blood to be spilled). The gameplay itself is very self-explanatory. Once Eddie arms himself with a legendary battle axe, players can quickly tap the attack button to perform a combo or hold onto it to execute an unblockable takedown which pretty much guarantees decapitation or some form of bodily separation.
That's not all to the combat system though, in addition to the battle axe, Eddie is also armed with his Gibson Flying V. Normal in earthly lands, but magically deadly in mythical ones. The player will find that he's capable of calling forth electrical charges from the heavens that will either kill the smaller goons or paralyze the bigger ones. Of course, players can put two together and perform some rockin' combos. One of the attacks that surprised me the most was the Earthshaker power chord. Not only does this attack send everyone around you flying, it literally shakes the earth, bringing down any part of the level that's destructible and in the case of the first stage, the entire roof and walls of the ritual hall.
After a couple of more minutes running around taking limbs off of anyone on screen, Eddie runs into the first ally of the game, a young girl named Ophelia, and the comic dialogue ensues. This is where the game also introduces the ally co-op attack in which an ally pulls off a double team attack alongside Eddie on an enemy or two.
Soon after, Eddie summons up a hotrod by way of a simplified Guitar Hero mini-game and I find myself running over every druid in the way. The controls for the driving segment are simple enough, R2 for the gas, L2 to reverse and the left analog stick to steer. Players can also pull a hard u-turn by pressing the circle button and a nitrous boost with the L3 button. After plowing down a lot of druids as I raced across a highway of sorts, the next cutscene kicks in with Eddie and Ophelia attempting to open up a gate that blocks their path only to be hindered by more druids and a giant parasitic looking lamprey of sorts, complete with tentacle-like tongues and bad breath.
Besides the gameplay, the visuals themselves were quite impressive. However, with the Playstation 3 version at least (since it was the only version on display), there were several moments where the framerate would stutter. The controls, although simple to grasp, aren't the best as running and turning around is rather sensitive. This is compensated though with the lock-on function which lets Eddie lock on to any single enemy.
Brutal Legend is looking to impress rock and roll fans the world over. From it's visceral heavy metal inspired art direction to the addictive mixture of gameplay and humorous cast of characters, it is definitely an adventure Gaming Union is looking forward to. Gamers can rock on this coming October 13th and 16th in North America and Europe respectively on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360!
