Systems > Xbox 360 > B > Brutal Legend > Staff Review
Sign up for a free user account and you can leave feedback for this review or even submit a game review of your own!
Review by Zigfried
November 14, 2009
Feeble old man: "Back in my day, children spent hours admiring record album artwork. That thrill is over now."
Sympathetic young'un: "Aww... why?"
Feeble old man: "With the digital revolution, there's no physical media. Record albums had front and back covers, but you could often flip the sleeve open to see artwork of a massive sprawling landscape, with demons and lava and volcanoes. Maybe even demonic metal faces with lava pouring from their mouths. Sitting on top of volcanoes."
Brutal Legend, billed as "a Tim Schafer game", pays tribute to such memories of desolate demonic wastelands. I don't give a Ratt's ass about Tim Schafer, but I certainly appreciate the sentiment. For an hour, I was prepared to herald this game as a work of genius.
Upon awakening in a magical land, hero Eddie spilled much druid blood with his BATTLE-AXE. After dispatching an enormous fork-tongued beast, Eddie and the distressed damsel drove off like bats out of hell to take down Emperor Dovinculus (who steals mens' souls and makes them his slaves).
Brutal Legend quickly introduced its real-time strategy (RTS) elements. During Exploited in the Bowels of Hell, Eddie led disgruntled workers to overthrow their hooded foreman. It wasn't a quiet riot; he inspired them with the power of ROCK. After enduring several electrical guitar shocks, the taskmaster was knocked into lava by the spinning wheel of pain (think Conan). More guards showed up, but the workers who toiled on the wheel of pain (think Conan) leapt down and begin banging the crap out of the guards with their iron heads. And so, this army became known as . . . IRONHEADE!
The energized feeling wouldn't last. Between missions, the overworld is large, drab, and sparsely populated by beasts that would look tame on an Iron Maiden album. Brutal Legend is a game stuck in the past, back when simply being 3D was new and exciting and provided enough reason to scour the world for collectibles. In today's world, it's a boring game with sporadic spikes of excitement.
RTS elements are plentiful and introduced at a reasonable pace. Unfortunately, even when Eddie learns to fly and survey the entire battlefield, guiding the camera and ordering troops to perform specific tasks is cumbersome and unpredictable. Furthermore, by the time I did start to cotton on to a winning methodology . . . the game ended! The single-player campaign is basically a multi-player tutorial. I'm all for epic online battles, but the single-player mode was advertised as a humorous heavy metal adventure (hence the hirings of Jack Black and Ozzy).
Despite some high points, Brutal Legend doesn't take the concept anywhere meaningful, ends abruptly, and ultimately feels like the developers didn't know what they wanted to accomplish. The game reminded me of an inspirational era in music. Now that I've been reminded, I wouldn't mind if someone channels that inspiration into gaming. Perhaps that metal-loving bastard Hagiwara should give the concept a shot; I'd welcome an adventure in Metallicana.
//Zig
|
|
|
Most recent video game reviews written by Zigfried
One Chance (PC) [February 26, 2011]
Canabalt (PC) [February 23, 2011]
Splatterhouse (PlayStation 3) [December 09, 2010]
Rad Mobile (Arcade) [November 21, 2010]
Super Sprint (Arcade) [November 07, 2010]
|
You can click the tabs on the above bar to choose whether you wish to read comments from visitors who have posted on Facebook, or from registered site users who have left feedback on the forums. Please leave a comment of your own if you have anything to say!
|
|
|
Follow Us |
Advertise exclusively for 1 month... only $1000!
Recent Forum Discussions
+ Where's SkyWard Sword's review ? And please bring back the rating feature.
+ playstation vita, yo.
+ RotW January 29 - February 04 2012
+ Games to be added to the database...
+ The Final Fantasy XIII-2 thread
+ [News] Final Fantasy X HD will be a remaster, not a remake
+ [News] Schafer has pitched Psychonauts 2, Minecraft dev says 'let's make it happen'
+ [News] Naughty Dog explored making a new Jak and Daxter, made Last of Us instead
+ Magical Mystery Tournament!
+ disco's SoulCalibur V review
+ nickyv917's Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door review
+ HonestGamers review bounties topic (February, 2012)
Staff Game Reviews
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| SoulCalibur V |
| The Simpsons Arcade Game |
| Quarrel |
| Star Ocean: The Last Hope |
| Pushmo |
| Medal of Honor: Airborne |
Site Staff
 |  | ||
 |  | ||
 |  | ||
 |  | ||
 |
Featured Reviews [+]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Rayman Origins |
| Othello |
| Scarface: The World is Yours |
| The Last Express |
| Golden Axe II |
| Assassin's Creed: Revelations |
Exclusive User Reviews [+]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| White Knight Chronicles |
| Dragon Wars |
| F-Zero GX |
| Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door |
| Pokemon Snap |
| Final Fantasy X-2 |
Info |
Help |
Privacy Policy |
Contact |
Advertise
© 1998-2012 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site--from reviews, guides, cheats and editorials to message board posts--may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Brutal Legend is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Brutal Legend, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors.
