SkullBunnie

First off I have to say this game makes me very angry. Angry because Brütal Legend is not a full fledged animated movie…. although it’s not far from it. I want nothing more than to throw it in the DVD player and allow my friends to experience the Glory of Metal. With amazing voice acting, great character design and movie quality animation, coupled with very funny dialogue and a tongue in cheek story, this game is almost more fun to watch  than it is  to play. But what else would you expect of a game from Tim Schafer?

Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts,  and co-designer of the early classics The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2. He is known in the video game industry for his story-telling and comedy-writing abilities.

The Story follows Eddie (the worlds greatest roadie) who after a stage accident is ripped from our reality by the Metal god Örmagodden(the Cremator of the Sky, the Destroyer of the Ancient world, the Lord of all things Brütal) to be the champion of the land of Metal.  With his mighty battle axe and lightening spewing guitar riffs it is your job to liberate the roving bands of captive headbangers and band chicks from the oppression of hair metal enthusiasts and Goth rock emo’s.

Helping you along the way are the gods of metal voiced by their real life incarnations including, Lemmy, Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford and Rob Halford. Believe it or not Ozzy is completely understandable and quite funny.

Game play is a fantastic bag of surprises as it is changed up throughout to keep it interesting. The game starts off as an open world hack and slash very similar to the Fable series, where you have your basic melee attacks coupled with magical ranged attacks. Throughout the game you are allowed to upgrade your guitar powers as well as edge your axe with magical elements that allow you to take on bigger and better enemies. The world is massive, so of course there are also vehicles to get you to where you got to go, and those are also upgradeable in the hellish motor pool.

About two hours into the game, (once you’ve built your army from Head Bangers, band chicks and bikers) you make your first siege on the Spoilers of Metal. This is where the Game turns into an RTS similar to Warcraft 3, and adds an entire new dimension to the game. You have to destroy enemy towers and build your own to gain more power in order to call more troops. You act as a general moving your battalions across the field attacking and defending at will.  The Battle ends when you have successfully defended your stage and destroyed the opposing forces defenses.In fact this is the point of the multi-player option and is A LOT of fun!

The Soundtrack is most certainly worthy of the title, and contains metal from Priest, Megadeth, Anvil, Savatage, Ozzy, Sabbath, Dragonforce, Def Leppard and more. This game is the ultimate tribute to the legacy of heavy metal and acts as defender of the faith, worshiping true metal and shunning the horrible offshoots like hair metal and the Tween Popular Nu Metal. In this world the old school metal filled with druidic lore and tales of viking battle reign supreme. By the time you’re done with this game you will be a metalhead, even if you never listened to a single Ozzy song beforehand.

This is hands down one of the most well thought out and executed games I have ever played. It’s never boring, the music is great, and Jack Black is actually funny (as opposed to big budget annoying).  This game was released at the end of last year but I never got around to playing it until now. The bonus is, that now you can go pick up a used copy on the cheap (I got mine for 10 bucks at Blockbuster [as they are slowly putting themselves out of business]). If you don’t pick this up you’re missing out on something great, that is until hopefully Brütal Legend is made into a full length animated feature.