Brutal Legend Review

Electronic Arts and Tim Shafer's Double Fine have teamed up to bring gamers and rockers alike the epic tale of Brutal Legend. Eddie Riggs is the world's best roadie, but sadly he's working for one of the worst metal bands imaginable. When that same band nearly get itself killed on stage during a concert, the show literally comes crashing down on Eddie as he saves the band. Thanks to his cursed belt buckle getting a bit of blood on it, the monster Ormagden is summoned, kills the band, and brings Eddie to a fantasy-like world of heavy metal. Dropped into the thick of things, Eddie Riggs begins what gamers will long remember as one Brutal Legend.

Brutal Legend is a third person action game, but increasingly stacks up more varied gameplay as the game progresses. In the world of heavy metal, Eddie wakes up on a temple pedestal as demonic robed men approach to kill him. Brandishing the guitar he dubs "Clementine" and a massive battle axe, Eddie literally rocks out and lays waste to the swarm out to kill him. It's on his full throttle escape from the temple that Ophelia enters the picture, the first human to encounter Eddie in the metal world.

As it turns out, in the metal world humans are enslaved by demons. However, there is a small resistance that stays in hiding, barely hanging on, and mostly forgetting the ages past of Metal Gods and Titans. Eddie stumbles into the shoes of a legend foretelling his coming as the saviour of humanity. He turns around the sour spirits of the resistance, and from there, they set out to build an army to take on humanity's oppressors. It's quite the foundation for Brutal Legend, and without continuing to spoil the story, it simply keeps on rocking.

The writing from the get-go is strong, and the voice acting really backs it up. At times the story doesn't make a whole lot of sense and doesn't particularly draw in players, but it's the attention to detail in story elements that sells it. The setting is great, and it's easy to become invested in the journey that the characters take due to a script that gets players rallying behind Eddie. The finer points of the acting don't stop with gameplay either, as Eddie and crew constantly banter throughout the game, and with one heck of a metal sound track to back it up, the story rarely misses a beat.

At the beginning of the game Eddie also acquires the parts to build his own hot rod which can be used to traverse the world. He calls it the Druid Plow. The game is set in an open world, with an art style right of the cover of classic heavy metal albums. It's got metal-themed monsters, a ravaged landscape of dark mountains and even the Resistance's own home-base of Blade Henge. Many beasts and enemies roam the land, and Eddie is given just about every tool along the way to take care of each and every one of them. Combat is split between Eddie taking on enemies with his Battle Axe and Guitar, and unit-based rock battles where Eddie's human army face off against a variety of different enemy armies.