Brutal Legend won't just blow your mind....It's gonna blow your soul
The story is propelled by cool characters and a star studded cast of cameo appearances. Ozzy Osbourne plays a surprisingly good role, and famous funny-guys like Kyle Gas and Brian Posehn. One of the main villains is a hilarious parody of glam metal bands like White Lion and is suggestively named "Lionwhyte". The story is parallel to the struggle of the original heavy metal against lame sub-genres that later emerged. Though consistently funny, the plot is taken seriously at times- but this never ruins the entire humorous and heavy metal attitude of the game.
The gameplay is a patchwork of different genres, intended to make a unique experience. What's good about this is the game constantly feels fresh. The bad part is that no individual part of the game really feels fleshed out enough to take center stage; the RTS gameplay feels a bit too watered down, and the hack-and-slash gameplay is pained by a rather limited effectiveness and small repertoire of moves.
Gameplay parallels the theme in every way imaginable. Combat is the best example of this. You can defeat enemies with face-melting guitar solos, that will ACTUALLY melt faces. Range attacks consist of you electrocuting your enemies with your high voltage rock. Along with your axe, you also carry a literal axe- for the basic hack and slash that compliments the unique use of guitar-based attacks.
The RTS gameplay, though a bit underwhelming, does introduce some new ideas to the genre. You command legions of headbangers, heavy-metal babes, and roadies by basic point-and ordering, but there are also commands that are given via guitar solo. You get out your guitar, and press several buttons at the right time in a little quick guitar-hero-like mini game, to set rally points, rally, give a boost to, or even summon extra support for your troops. This integrates seamlessly the heavy metal theme of the game into the actual gameplay. It will never feel like a flat out RTS though, since selecting individual units is such a hassle, your orders will almost always be to your army as a whole to attack or defend a single point, there is simply not much strategy involved, and brutal force is often the only key to success. These "stage battles" mix in the hack-and-slash, by allowing you to use the classic flying-view of the battlefield to issue orders, or go to the ground yourself fighting and issuing orders yourself from there. Overall, it's a very creative combination of RTS and hack and slash, but these two elements don't always blend together quite right. It does, however, make multiplayer much more interesting when you've got 4 vs 4 stage battles.
Brutal Legend looks great. The creators definitely took what they had in mind, and translated it perfectly onto the console. The landscape is a heavy metal paradise, filled with cool looking creatures roaming the land, as you cruise by free-roaming on your heavy-metal themed car. From the free-roam, you can choose to move on to your next quest or side quest. There's also roaming hordes of allies and enemies for a few good fights here and there, and plenty of things to find like vistas and fire dragon statues, both of which award you with points to be spent on upgrades. None of the elements you'll see in free roam are particularly exciting, but it keeps the game from getting boring since there's always something to do, and you get to choose the pace at which you progress through the campaign this way. You can rush through the campaign in 6 hours, but if you take the time to enjoy some of what the game has extra to offer, you can easily fill in 8-10 hours on the campaign. Multiplayer is also some very decent fun and extends the experience, giving brutal legend a decent overall value.
Sound in Brutal Legend is where the game really shows its roots. The large selection of heavy metal music is very impressive. You can play the game for hours and not listen to the same track twice. The tracks are all metal classics- even those not particularly into the genre should appreciate that the best of heavy metal is here. Many of the tracks you'll hear are sung by heavy metal legends who do their own voice work in characters in the game. You can customize your own playlist to listen to when riding around the land of Brutal Legend. You'll never have to go through a minute of playing the game without some music to listen to, and this really adds to the quality of the game as well as it matches the prevalent heavy metal theme.
Brutal Legend is a creative masterpiece. Gameplay doesn't always live up to what was obviously a grand vision of a superb game, but the effort put into making this a well-rounded experience is evident. There's no other game out there quite like Brutal Legend, so people looking for an RTS, Hack and Slash, or adventure games will all be disappointed- Brutal Legend is overall, it's own game and genre, and appeals most to those who want something different out of a game that's very fun. The game delivers, though there's nothing that stands out as particularly superb, there's nothing that stands out as anything less than great either. If you're interested in a game as creative as this, I'd suggest it. If you're a Tenacious D fan (like me), Brutal Legend is a must-have.