Video Game Review: ‘Brutal Legend’ Rocks, But Misses a Few Chords

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Video Game Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Can a game be clever and beautiful to look at but not be fun? EA’s highly anticipated “Brutal Legend” tests this theory with some amazing design, a unique concept, and very funny storytelling, but with actual gameplay that can be remarkably frustrating. To paraphrase something a friend recently said about something else that seems appropriate here, I liked everything about “Brutal Legend” except actually playing it.

The game opens with a prologue that features roadie Eddie Riggs (Jack Black) being crushed by a massive stage prop for a metal show and being whisked off to a fantasy world clearly inspired by the world of metal album covers. From there, you have to use your axe, a guitar with electric powers, and a variety of other music-based fighting skills to help free an enslaved race of people who look vaguely like followers of Judas Priest circa 1982.

Brutal Legend
Photo credit: EA

Let’s start with what rocks about this highly anticipated title.

The world of “Brutal Legend” is simply beautiful. The design is essentially open world, allowing you to travel from mission to mission in Eddie’s souped-up, demonic Deuce. The world resembles something out of J.R.R. Tolkien if it had been reimagined by Dave Mustaine. It’s a heavy metal album cover circa 1985 come to life and you’ll get lost traveling through it and just marveling at the detail as day turns to night. It’s one of the most beautiful games to look at that we’ve seen all year and it contains numerous surprises around every corner. Even if you don’t play “Brutal Legend” for very long, you really should make an effort to see it. You’ve never played a game like it.

Brutal Legend Photo credit: EA

The audio for “Brutal Legend” matches the video. Not only has the soundtrack for the game been perfectly mixed, but the songs chosen for it play like a greatest hits of metal history. Hearing “Kickstart My Heart” as you work through a racing secondary mission or “Ace of Spades” as you’re kicking enemy ass gets the adrenalin pumping more than any score in years.

And it’s not just the music. Throughout the game, you’ll learn crucial guitar riffs, playable through the face buttons, and even they sound perfectly mixed. The music and sound effects are definitely a game highlight.

“Brutal Legend” is also straight-up funny. Black is actually better as a voice work artist than he’s been in a movie in a long time, playing comfortably in his Tenacious D-esque wheelhouse of metal deities. He’s having a blast and it can be infectious. The inclusion of real metal Gods like Lemmy, Rob Halford, and Ozzy Osbourne as plot-crucial characters, not just cameos, was a stroke of genius as well.

“Brutal Legend” is surprisingly short, running less than ten hours and featuring a multi-player design that’s more frustrating than fun (more on that later). And it can get surprisingly repetitive. The fact is that most of the secondary missions are variations on things we’ve seen before, whether they be racing missions, time trials, or minor attacks. And they’re not really secondary in that the player essentially has to do them in order to build up enough “fire tributes,” or points to turn in for necessary weapon upgrades. The main story missions are far more effective and interesting, but the game is over much more quickly than most players will expect.

Brutal Legend Photo credit: EA

Much more frustratingly, the basic battle structure of “Brutal Legend” can be a controller-throwing mess. You start by recruiting a series of headbangers, fantasy world dwellers who have been beating rocks with their heads and can now use them to beat enemies, and you continue to build armies of soldiers who will help you in your quests, including groupies, roadies, etc.

For major battles (and all multiplayer), the player has to balance an action structure with real-time strategy. Conceptually, it works. You build a stage, play a fan tribute to raise followers from the dead, and protect your merch booths against oncoming attackers. The player can instruct headbangers and other “soldiers” to attack, protect, or follow, and choose reinforcement as needed.

It’s much better in concept than execution. Victory seems nearly random, as most of the fighting is happening off-screen, and constantly having to replenish headbangers and run from merch booth to merch booth instructing your followers on how not to get their asses kicked grows tedious quickly.

Brutal Legend Photo credit: EA

Finally, the map structure of “Brutal Legend” is simply unforgivable. There’s no actual map on the screen, meaning that you’ll have to hit Select regularly to see where you are and where you’re going next. I actually recommend driving around for an hour or so just to get a lay of the land because the amount of “where do I go now?” frustration that I experienced in the first hour could send a player, especially a renter who wants to get into the meat of the game quickly, jumping for the power button.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on “Brutal Legend” because I so wanted it to be perfect but your reaction to the game will come down to expectations of your own with games in general. On one hand, “Brutal Legend” looks and plays like nothing else this year and originality should be rewarded. But the frustration level of the gameplay is unacceptable, especially given the long development time for the title.

What most “Brutal Legend” players will come to terms with after playing the game for a few hours is that even the most elaborate, amazingly designed metal stage show can’t hide all the flaws of a band that doesn’t quite have all the pieces in place. Ultimately, “Brutal Legend” is too unique and beautiful to behold that it’s impossible to completely dismiss, but it’s equally impossible to lavishly praise.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com