Brutal Legend is the latest effort from Tim Schafer, the guy behind 2005's Psychonauts, and several other highly-acclaimed games over the past twenty years. The game stars Jack Black as Eddie Riggs; a roadie who's having trouble grasping the realities of today's music outside of true metal. After a mishap at a concert, Eddie is thrust into a fantasy world filled with heavy metal, demonic hordes and plenty of other interesting characters. Right away Eddie is forced to pick up an axe and an... axe, and fight alongside an army of headbangers to reclaim the world from the hair metal and goth rock oppressors.

Visually, Brutal Legend fits the theme perfectly with its creative landscapes and imaginative character models. Traversing the land and seeing all it has to offer, from the many landmarks inspired by metal culture and mythology, to the dynamic weather effects that manage to give everything an entirely different feel at any given time. It does have its little problems, such as screen tearing and slowdown during certain sequences, but for the most part it looks and performs just as intended. The game isn't gritty and realistic, but neither is the world around you. It ranges from green fields, to snowy mountains, to dark swamps, but everything is meant to look more entertaining than realistic, and it works well.

Jack Black does a fantastic job as Eddie, and unlike most celebrity video game appearances, he thrusts himself into this role completely. From the comedic and witty dialogue, to the more serious segments, he absolutely nails it, and for many, he's the reason you'll want to keep playing. As far as voice acting goes, you really couldn't imagine a better match.

There's also plenty of other high profile talent from a host of musicians and actors, such as Tim Curry, Lemmy, Rob Halford, Lita Ford, and even Ozzy Osbourne. They all put their best efforts forward, and although it's clear that most are only there to bring the metal world to life, a few really manage to stand out.

Being a game that revolves around metal, you can probably guess what the soundtrack consists of. Thankfully, the quality of the tracklisting is phenomenal, featuring the best that Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Rob Zombie, Tenacious D, and tons of others have to offer. This is probably the most extensive and fully-featured soundtrack I've heard in a very long time. Typically I only enjoy metal when I'm really in the mood, and aside from a live show, there's nothing better than this game to get you into the spirit. For those who have never gotten into metal before, the music in this game could very well make a fan out of you.

Visuals and audio aside, the gameplay in Brutal Legend offers a pretty good mix of different gameplay styles. Originally I was anticipating something more along the lines of a straight up action/adventure game, but in reality this game is more of a hack-and-slash/real time strategy hybrid, that also incorporates a decent amount of genuinely fun vehicle segments. It doesn't particularly excel at any of these, but they work well enough to keep things enjoyable.

The melee combat is pretty straight forward. You hack your way through enemies using Eddie's giant axe, and attack from afar using the electric shock-inducing Flying V. You get a small amount of combos and guitar solos, which I prefer as opposed to pages of them, that manage to add a bit of variety to the otherwise straight-forward button mashing. Occasionally you'll team up with your army of metal heads and can order them around to attack obstacles and other enemies to make your job a little easier. At this point it's all pretty standard as far as action games go.

When the RTS elements are introduced, some may be thrown for a bit of a loop as it's so drastically different from everything else. These segments consist of two stages (literally), with a number of geysers in the middle that spit of ghost-like fans that you have to build merch booths on top of in order to gather resources. Yeah, I didn't really get it either. Still, this part works out well enough.

When these battles begin, Eddie sprouts wings which you can use to navigate quickly across the battlefield to command your troops. For a game like this it's handled pretty well, and can be fun if you get into it, but it does have its little problems. As it's mostly one army against another, Eddie himself is next to useless in battle. Sometimes you can get lucky and ambush a small amount of weak enemies, but 90% of the time you need to rely on your army to get things done. The problem here is that the enemies can still attack you in the air. If you get close to the enemies that hurl projectiles, you'll be put out of commission pretty quickly. It's a bit frustrating seeing as you're just trying to get your allies from one point to the next, and sometimes they just won't let up. Another issue is the inability to effectively split up your troops to defend or attack different areas. You need to be close to them to give orders, so you can sort of call away one group at a time and tell them to attack a certain area when they're far enough away from the rest of the group, but that's always more trouble than it's worth.

The main story in Brutal Legend only lasts about eight hours, and unfortunately there isn't much variety to be found. Once you've done everything once, it's just rinse and repeat through different environments and enemies. The story does keep it moving along nicely, however. It goes from simple and funny, which is what pulled me in, to more serious and thoughtful. As it turns out, that works well too. Like I said, the gameplay isn't the most diverse, but there are so many other elements that keep the game a mostly enjoyable experience from beginning to end.

There are other things like side quests, which are what most of the open world consists of, although these too suffer from repetition. There's a good number of them, although it's mostly just the same three things over and over. The racing, however, I did find quite enjoyable, which for me is really saying something.

Multiplayer is another addition that could potentially extend the life of the game quite far. It's basically the RTS segments from the single player, only it's you and your friends against other players. If you liked it in the main game, you'll love it here. If, like me, you didn't get much out of it originally, it won't last you too long.

Overall, Brutal Legend manages to take action games of its type and set itself aside as something more. The gameplay doesn't stand out too much, but there is so much more to Brutal Legend that keeps it going. Even if you just want to cruise the landscapes, hitting roadkill and blasting Slayer, I'd recommend at least giving it a try.

Visuals: 8.0
Audio: 9.5
Story: 7.5
Gameplay: 8.0
Entertainment Value: 7.5

Overall: 8.4

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