Brutal Legend Review

Double Fine's Brutal Legend is an unabashed love letter to an era and genre of music that celebrated fast guitar riffs and hard living. It's also a tribute to an epic lore that spoke of conquerors and death--all of which were often depicted at once on any given metal album cover with the obligatory smattering of lightning. Of course, the fact that Brutal Legend features a phenomenal soundtrack from the likes of Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and Judas Priest with suitable hack-and-slash action would feasibly constitute a reasonable tribute on its own terms. Yet, what raises Brutal Legend above that simple construct--plus what makes it a great ode to metal--is how it cleverly integrates so many different facets of the culture and its music to create an experience that consistently entertains and surprises in both single-player and multiplayer.

But it should come as no surprise to those familiar with Double Fine's previous work with Psychonauts that Brutal Legend's characters and its story are the primary highlights. Eddie Riggs, a roadie who remembers and worships the glory days of metal, serves as a perfect lead character who's magically transported to a world that ostensibly reflects his own image of heaven. This world is a vast place where enormous, crumbling statues and smaller, skull-encrusted shrines pay homage to the gods and titans that brought metal and its music to the land. Naturally, there's a heavy dose of irony involved in this setup, which gives Jack Black (who voices Riggs) plenty of room to do his funny--albeit expected--trademark sarcasm-laden, observational routine. But his act rarely gets old or overwhelming because Riggs, as a character, often humbles himself in an endearing way despite finding himself in a position of leadership. He never loses sight of his roots as a roadie, and as such, he is there to help people who have fallen under the oppressive boot of the demonic Emperor Doviculus and his human warlord General Lionwhyte (voiced by Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford), who also happens to symbolize a not-so-subtle jab at hair metal.

Secondary characters are often just as entertaining and memorable as Eddie Riggs. Ozzy Osbourne gives an amazing (and surprisingly coherent) performance as the Keeper of Metal, a storekeeper of sorts dwelling within special monuments dotted around Brutal Legend's open-world landscape. He sells upgrades for attacks, as well as Eddie's various pieces of equipment, including his battle axe, guitar, and his vintage roadster--the Deuce. There's an equally amusing, if not subdued, performance by Motorhead's lead singer Lemmy, who--as The Killmaster--functions as a healer for Eddie's army of headbangers. Sure, part of what makes these characters so delightful is that they are just fantastical representations of their on-stage personas, but even those characters that aren't voiced by real-world gods of metal do their part to balance out the star power, and they do it well. For example, Magus, a dimwitted stage engineer, provides an extra bit of laughs when Eddie's engaged in more serious affairs.

These characters and the story they tell are major reasons to keep playing through Brutal Legend's single-player campaign, but there's also plenty of good action to be had despite some shortcomings. The game is set up in an open-world structure that lets you set the pace of progression, so you can either stick to Eddie's main mission to defeat Doviculus and Lionwhyte or drive around in the Deuce to find secondary missions that are easily found using an in-game map. At first, the motivation for taking the secondary route is pretty clear. Every completed mission rewards you with fire tributes, or points, that function as the game's currency, and because secondary missions are usually pretty easy and don't require much time, this is a quick way to make a substantial amount of cash. You can then visit The Keeper of Metal and exchange points for aforementioned weapon, combination, and vehicle upgrades--additional items unlock as you venture deeper into the game.

Eddie Riggs--roadie, lover, demon slayer.

But at a certain point, perhaps even just a few hours in, the motivation to engage in Brutal Legend's equivalent to level grinding wanes, and the reasons are clear. First, most secondary missions share the same objectives, so it doesn't take long for all of the ambush, race, and defend-this-point scenarios to get old. Secondly, you can purchase most of the useful upgrades relatively early in the game, which makes these missions even less enticing. In fact, by the end of the game, you may find yourself purchasing upgrades just to check them out, never to use them again. There are some exceptions to the tedium in the secondary missions, though, including a run-in with a bat that has a human head resembling Ozzy Osbourne in his earlier years, but Brutal Legend's side missions would've benefited greatly from more of these kinds of scenarios and fewer of the cookie-cutter options.

Conversely, its primary campaign does a much better job of breaking up different mission types and mixing in action that plays to its different mechanics. Granted, there are a couple of dreaded escort missions where you have to follow your army's tour bus from one location to another while fending off enemies, but these aren't all that difficult as long as you keep an eye on where enemies spawn. Eddie also has to go on foot into unknown areas for some missions, relying only on his axe for close combat and his guitar for long-range lightning and fire strikes. It's in these moments that you also learn to use some of his other skills, specifically guitar solos.