Platform/s: X-box 360, Playstation 3(reviewed)
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Publisher: EA (Electronic Arts)
I think it is safe to say that everyone’s earliest memories of music are gleamed through their parents or older siblings. Being the oldest child and my father’s apparent musical disregard my tastes were molded reactionally from my mother. My mother loves music. I have several early memories of her blasting songs on the radio singing along with such a look a glee on her face. I can easily flashback to sitting on the floor of our living room, franticly rummaging through her massive collection of cassettes, slamming one after another into our entertainment system like some ADHD afflicted hummingbird.
Although, like most mothers, her musical tastes, while diverse and integral to my future music appreciation, did not satiate or resonate with the mind of an angst-ridden youngster. It was only later as a pre-teen-skateboarding-would-be-delinquent that I would be introduced to the music that I could claim as my own. The first two albums that I bought were NWA’s Straight Outta Compton and White Zombie’s first major LP La Sexoricisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1.
Most mothers would not have allowed their impressionable child access to such explicit material, and for this mom, I thank you. My mother’s love of music allowed her to see my choices for what they were a way for me to express myself and learn about music however different it was from hers.
Even when my father eventually found and confiscated some of my explicit choices she would liberate them and return them to me along with instructions to not let him find them again. One time I even remember The Offspring playing on the tape deck until inevitably the speakers spewed forth the words “god damn mother fucker,” at which point my father ejected the tape and threw it from the window at 65 miles and hour. My mother’s response to me later? “Don’t worry I’ll get us another copy.”
While long winded in execution, the point of this tale is to show you how important music and specifically metal was to my childhood. White Zombie gave birth to Metallica which begot Iron Maiden and so forth until you get a man screaming and flailing amid a teeming mass of sweating bruised power cord junkies at a Converge show some twelve years later.
Music is powerful.
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Brutal Legend is a childhood love letter written to metal in all it’s many melodic or discordant forms. When viewed as such, I can’t help but appreciate and thank the game’s director Tim Shaffer for providing me such an experience. Its hard to put into words the sense of nostalgic bliss that moments of this game creates. There is a simple joy of blasting full tilt through a landscape populated by monuments that before only seemed appropriate when viewed on an album cover.
Brutal Legend’s greatest strength is in it’s atmosphere. Combining Shaffer’s patented comedic stylings within a setting so steeped in heavy metal. It expertly borrows from so many sources while not diluting the finished product. The team over at Double Fine have found a way to include so many aspects of metal and blended them into a narrative that is not only a means in which to pay homage to any specific source but rather in a way that paints with broad brush strokes in order to maintain a strong sense of self.
While this idea is contained in every aspect of the experience it can be most keenly seen through the history of the world as viewed in the “Legends of Metal” portals found about this mystical world. Tales of the Titans, the great god of metal Ormagoden and the lamentable tale of the Sea of Black Tears root the history of this metal world in it’s own mythos which is not merely fluff for the truly devoted or the collect-a-holic.
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Branching away from atmosphere, up until this game was released I had little idea of what type of experience, gameplay wise, I should expect to have. A third person action adventure reminiscent of Pychonauts? A real time strategy? An open world metal influenced Grand Theft Auto?
The truth is that Brutal Legend is all three of these. Most of the time when a game tries to incorporate seemingly unrelated genres into a single experience each part seem to become progressively watered down with each addition. Brutal Legend tries to avoid this common pitfall by purposefully simplifying the RTS or “Stage Battles” sections of the game with an astonishing degree of success. Before this title, I believed that the enjoyment of the RTS genre was gained from the tactical fast-paced decision making that it forces upon you. While this belief has largest stayed unchanged, I can appreciate Double Fine’s blending of third person action and real time strategy into something wholly unique and surprisingly entertaining.
However, the other parts of Brutal Legend are both comparatively lacking. The open world aspect works only so far as setting mood and adding to the overall immersion. The world itself is largely unused. Populated only by roaming minions locked in perpetual combat, indigenous heavy metal themed wildlife, collectibles and repetitive yet necessary side quests. The land of Brutal Legend only seems to really work when viewed at flamebelchingly fast speeds aboard your vehicle, the Druid Plow. I wish there was more of a reason to explore the scattered points of interest other then the meager ten fire tribute points awarded for finding their mounted binoculars.
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The action adventure aspect while functional loses it’s flair quickly due to it’s repetitive nature. Sure, you can do a running power-slide that summons pyrotechnics to scorch your foes. But you quickly realize that all this added variety is merely window dressing that holds no discernible advantage. Blindly smashing the attack button will suffice just as well in most if not all situations. Also curiously absent is the ability to jump. Considering that this game is from the same studio that gave us Pychonauts I can’t help but wonder why they did not stick to your platforming roots.
Brutal Legend’s worst flaw is it is too short. I don’t mean that I had so much fun that I did not want it to end sort of way, either. Brutal Legend just ends early. Without going into spoiler territory, you are led to believe that this game was to have a three part narrative arc. Each section was going to have it’s own corresponding zone in which to explore along with all of the additional missions and stage battles. This just isn’t the case. For the majority of the game the pacing seems well thought out, deliberate and even gradual until suddenly the final boss makes his unannounced appearance and the game ends. I can’t help feeling that this game ends in the second act. Its disappointing and frankly unexpected from such a well respected studio.
I hope that this doesn’t dissuade people too much. Brutal Legend has any equal amount of admirable qualities as it does disappointments. Everything from the superb voice work to the expertly crafted animations make this title a viable purchase for the metal enthusiast. Although for the uninitiated, the sheer amount of inside jokes and homage coupled with the spartan design might prove to be too much of a hurdle. I just expected more from one of my favorite development teams.
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Final Grade: B
~Aaron Rivers, read at The Sophist, heard at, Sophist Radio