Brutal Legend's mix of RTS elements and adventure game tropes seems fishy at first, but grows better with time.
This game within a game will determine whether or not someone really like the game, because Double Fine makes it clear that this is the game that they intended people to play. The Stage Battles (the segments of the game in which strategy occurs) are clearly the most polished and thought-out area of the game. The three factions are all well-executed archetypes of the RTS genre ( Ironheade is the straightforward Terran faction, Drowning Doom are the numerous and status afflicting Zerg, and the Tainted Coil the restrictive but powerful Protoss), and while consistently successful strategies are already emerging online (I found that the Tainted Coil's ability to spawn units away from Stages made them ideal for rushing the enemy), it doesn't seem as though any one faction is far above the others.
Being an RTS on a console, Brütal Legend streamlines most of the aspects of the standard PC control scheme. Unit selection is allotted to the analog stick via a selection wheel, and since there are a maximum of 10 units to choose from at a given time, creating units isn't very complicated, if just a tad slow. Winning is a matter of destroying the opponent's stage, an all-in-one base, which acts as both a factory for creating units, and as a tech tree (you can make stronger units and upgrade your current ones by upgrading your stage). Fans are your one and only resource, and in order to harvest them you'll have to create merch booths by playing a solo near fan geysers.
The game also introduces some unique concepts to the genre. During battle, you take control of one commanding avatar (rather then be an ominous influence on troops). Through them, you give orders such as attack and defend, create merchandise booths, play solos to change to tide of battle, and directly attack enemy units.
The most interesting new concept, though, is the Double Team. Your commander can approach any unit and team up with it, usually taking direct control of that unit. Often this will allow that unit to perform a unique special attack, and some of these add a coat of flavor to combat; Double Teaming with the Drowning Doom's Bride unit will allow to summing lighting from a storm cloud, while doing the same with Ironheade's Fire Baron allows you to create a ring of fire that will damage enemies. The Tainted coil can only create its more useful units through double teams, which makes them the hardest faction to use, but the most powerful one to control.
The Double Teams, on top of the direct control of an avatar are what really made the RTS portion of the game for me. The ability to have a direct influence on the combat regardless of your troops clicked with me the first time I did it. I can easily see why other people would be turned off by it, though; by having the player control a hero character, the player loses the ability to command larger fleets, command multiple squads at once (more on that in a bit), and for the die-hard player of a more diverse RTS game, Brütal Legend doesn't offer much that would pry them away. Still, I had enough fun playing online that I could easily see myself going back to it.
The matches I played online all ended somewhere between the five and ten minute marks, though most matches won't let completely upgrade your units. Most matches were about rushing the enemy and disrupting them as quickly as possible. When hectically trying to command my units while also getting my hands dirty, I had a hard time effectively managing multiple squads at once. You can make beacons for your troops to head towards and summon rally flags, but I found that the command for selecting individual units and separating them (useful for engaging the enemy and finding geysers at the same time) severely lacking.
This lack of effective multitasking isn't present too often, since most online matches will end before either player has had much of chance to upgrade their stage, but in battles with more than two players, it can be hard to coordinate properly. This carries over into the single-player as well, where battles usually last longer due do a more defensive AI.
The odd thing about the single-player is that it buries the RTS portion of the game under several layers of action/adventure. Playing the rest of the game, you start to feel that most of the other components are shallow means to an end. The character combat, for example, isn't wildly creative. The animations feel stiff, the combos are slow, and for the most part, you're mashing one button over and over again. Guitar spells add some variety, but the few combos that mix it with regular attacks aren't very useful. You're either going to mash one button or the other.
Your vehicle, The Deuce, feels just as utilitarian. You can upgrade it to shoot enemies and increase its speed, but its main purpose is to allow you faster travel around the world. There are a couple of missions that take advantage of your car, but most will either place it in a turret, or have you following a convoy, which were probably the most frustrating missions in the game.
The game also borrows some other aspects from the action/adventure genre. The single-player portion of the game plays out much like any game in the action/adventure genre would. You play through key missions to advance the story, and open up optional missions that give you Fire Tributes (which can be used to buy upgrades for your character). Most of these missions are novel the first time around, but there are only a handful of unique scenarios, which are repeated several times over. You can avoid the brunt of these missions, sure, but for the completionist, it isn't really an option.
The game also features several kinds of collectibles. Because there are so many of them (easily over 200), and there is no way to keep track of them, to find them all you'll almost certainly have to use a map. However, most of these have a direct impact on the game (such as increasing your health) for finding even a few, so you aren't forced to hunt for each and every one to get a noticeable benefit.
The actual campaign missions funnel you through them at such a rate that you'll have to consciously have to make the decision to look for them. The story, while very much a re-tread (it employs such cliche's as "the chosen one", and uses predictable plot twists), but the execution is top-notch. Tim Shafer's humor and likeable characters are in full force here, and the soundtrack does a good job immersing you into the heavy metal scenery. Jack Black as Eddie Riggs is as full of energy and snarky as he should be, and the guest performances are all put to good use without feeling overbearing. Though the story isn't anything new, it's likely the biggest reason most people will play the game.
This focus on character personalities and the fact that you are in control of a single character for the entirety of the game are put in stark contrast by the fact that game's biggest aspiration is to be a Real-Time RTS game. In the single-player, the action/adventure portions far outweigh the RTS portions, yet the multiplayer is a completely different game. The RTS game will likely be a love it or hate affair, and for those who love it, it will seem as though the campaign is trying to hide it. For those who hate it, it will seem like the RTS game is interrupting its adventure aspects.
At heart, Brütal Legend is a really good RTS game and a decent action/adventure game. It mixes these two games in ways that might not jive with everyone, but both of these games are ultimately worth playing. Fans of Tim Shafer's previous work will be right at home scouring every nook and cranny, and the player who puts enough time into the RTS will find an surprisingly experience that may be a bit too simple, but ends up being a lot more fun once you put your expectations aside and enjoy what Double Fine is offering, rather than the game you thought it was going to be.