Brutal Legend

The good... Story: The DF storytelling is in full effect. Unit Intros: Some missions will intro your new units. The amazing... Atmosphere: Though I listen to orchestral and operatic now, as a person who was into metal, a world predicated on metal was a great idea. Music Cues: In an early battle, next thing I knew, I found myself rockin' out to Def Leppard's Rock of Ages. Or, racing away from a beast, Dragonforce melts your face. I can't believe a "smaller" studio like DF was able to secure the rights to over 100 tracks. Intro: Best ever? Characters: Some metal legends are characters in the game, with character models that may look like them, and voiced by them. Subtleties: Things like the DF logo that begins your exp has at least 7 different flavors with people like Rob Halford wailing out DOUBLE FIIIIIIIIIIIIIINEUH! If you wait at the "record menu", Jack Black's hand will appear and do things like give you the goat's head. \m/ And then the gameplay... Driving: Ok mechanics for exploring, but missions are pretty much everybody's fave - escort. Action/Adventure: Even less good. Play God of War, DF - this is how to build visceral combat mechanics. RTS: And the worst. Holy...did these devs not take cues from renowned RTSii? Cause these elements are just awful. I don't often play RTSii, but I did use to play a lot of StarCraft & WarCraft, so I know what good RTS feels like, and this ain't it. Gamepad: You can't select some from some of the radials avec D-pad, unless you switch over to analog. And how about things like a toggle for lock, instead of a button hold? Brutal Legend is very apropos name, as some of this game is brutal, and some of it is legendary... But, since gameplay is king, the overall exp ends up being mediocre... I think I admired this game more than enjoyed it. There was a lot of amazing in here to admire, which means the gameplay pained me. I didn't bother with any of the sidequests, as the gameplay just wasn't tight enough to entice me.

One thing I should say first off, I dont like metal that much, nor do I like the RTS/strategy type games which is what this game is all about. I LOVE THIS GAME! Its a game that made me smile and laugh when I didnt feel like it. The writing and Jack Black's presence saved this game. I love the style and world. The hack and slash gameplay is funtastic and the RTS type bits were even enjoyable. I played this game all the way through because it was fun and I couldnt wait to see what new fun parts were coming. And the story was just the perfect mix of humor and seriousness. Get it naow :)

Can't believe I've slept on this for so long. Even if you're not a fan of metal as a genre, the game's story, world and especially creature/character design makes diving into this Brütal world very worth it. And I even ended up liking some songs from the 107 that are in the game. Voice acting is definitely one of the highlights with some big names in the cast. If you are a fan of Double Fine/Tim Schafer, you should definitely play this You get a reasonably sized open world that is not too overbearing with collectibles and activities. Whether you are just running/driving around, there is always stuff to collect and do. The main story is surprisingly good and engaging with memorable characters throughout. The background lore of the game is also well thought out and original. If you don't care about the open world and just want to go through the story, I'd say it's still worth the price of admission. One thing that might not be to everyone's liking are the light RTS segments or "stage battles". The controls can take some getting used to and are quite different from regular play. You must capture resource hubs and recruit/manage units all in a 3rd person view of your character and destroy the enemy's stage. You luckily get the ability to fly in these segments, so you can get an overview of the situation. The tutorials don't do a very good job in these segments of properly explaining the controls, so keep that in mind it can take an hour or two to grasp well. Played through the entire game on a KB/M and completely without issues. It's actually a pretty decent port, especially considering the time the game released in when terrible PC ports of, well... everything were to be expected. A tip: you unlock a car upgrade in the shop after completing the campaign that detects collectibles. So don't stress hunting them down too much as you play the game. Also, enable "Hi-Fi Sim" in the settings, it removes the 30 FPS lock. Definitely a hidden gem. Giving this an 9/10.

Thank you for included Ozzy in the game. Now it can be called a memorial dedicated to rock music!

Basically, this is a fun single player game. Mulitplayer on Steam is as dead as a redshirt. I have played it a couple of times with a friend just to get the Steam achievements. Most of the time there wasn't anyone else playing mp.