In a rare twist, Brutal Legend succeeds largely because of its creativity, not its mixed bag of gameplay experiences.
Cons: Side missions are extremely generic, repetitive, and often even boring; Single player experience is extremely short
You have to hand it to Double Fine; they do not want to make games like anyone else. When Jack Black introduces you to a game menu takes the format of an album titled "Brutal Legend" you know you're in for something interesting for sure. The game oozes with style, but sometimes it uses it to try and block some glaring flaws.
The basic premise of this metal tribute is that you are Eddie Riggs, a roadie who was born in the wrong time period, working for a weird rap/pop/metal fusion band that doesn't respect him at all. One night a stage accident causes him to bleed into his strange belt, thereby transporting him to a metal world where he proceeds to help an uprising against the evil emperor Doviculus.
It's not a particularly deep story, nor does it become one as it twists and turns later (although background stories located in the main game world provide an interesting bit of depth in the lore department). Brutal Legend is instead a triumph of style over substance. It has some sharp and funny dialogue that will definitely appeal to fans of metal and fused with solid voice acting (featuring many recognizable names in metal) and direction, the cutscenes are always a highlight in the experience. You will want to finish this game.
Not that it will take you particularly long. One of the chief issues with the game is its extremely short length. I managed to clock in just under 10 hours playing the game on the highest difficulty and that was spending a good couple hours exploring the landscape for hidden goodies and completing every side quest (which I wouldn't recommend because bar a few of them, most of the side quests are simple, generic borefests that only completionists would really bother finishing).
However, as far as the main game goes, what is there is high quality stuff. Although the side quests fall on the repetitive side, the main quest knows nothing of that concept and constantly throws new experiences at you. Brutal Legend manages to mix a variety of genres including beat-em-up, action adventure, and driving into one seamless package that doesn't get tiresome in its short length.
Most remarkable though are the stage battles. These are RTS style fares where Eddie sprouts wings to fly up and command various troops such as headbangers, bouncers, etc. to try and defend his stage and defeat that of his enemy. However, to recruit such troops you need to capture fans, and Eddie and his opponent can intervene with the fighting at any time, mixing it up with the troops and playing guitar solos that have many negative effects on the enemy team.
This particular mission type has surprising depth (even more so when you compare the three completely different styles of the factions) and forms the basis of the game's multiplayer. Although single player is short, fans of the RTS portion of the game can jump online at any time (or fight an AI opponent) to fight on a handful of stages giving the game a dose of much needed replay value.
In truth, much of the reason to play this game is not rooted so much in gameplay as it is in the other qualities of the game. The game makes a remarkable infusion of metal into every portion of the game (except for the equally awesome gothic drowning doom team) and it really sets Brutal Legend apart from the rest, more so than gameplay. Just a sampling of what you see in the game: a giant blade monument sticking into the ground, spider webs made of bass strings, plants made out of cymbals, laser panthers, and more. Although certainly not the most technically impressive game out there, Brutal Legend constantly floors you with a strong artistic direction.
Also committed to this metal vision is the game's extremely robust metal track list. With 100 tracks covering all types of metal, each player is bound to find more than a few tracks they like (this is assuming that most players are the game's core audience: metal fans). Although there are certainly some big names missing (Iron Maiden and Metallica come to mind), the track list really does a great job covering all ends of the metal spectrum and complements the experience greatly.
Brutal Legend knows what it wants to be and it largely succeeds because it's extremely dedicated to that vision. Unfortunately with all the focus on creative direction, some compromises were made to gameplay. This is still an enjoyable game, but considering the thought and time put into the creative component one can't help but be disappointed by all the missed potential.