Brutal Legend MMOMFG Review

Posted by Dustin On October - 30 - 2009

brutallegendreview

Brutal Legend

With the release of a truly original intellectual property, Double Fine Productions and EA have rocked the foundations of epic-adventure gaming by adding a twist of humor. Jack Black’s voice talents lend a hilarious and cool angle to a game that on its own delivers sheer enjoyment in a mature setting. From the vast landscape of Ormagöden to the hidden gems placed throughout the game, Brutal Legend is a rock star.

What’s Good

For those about to rock, we salute EA – Eddie Riggs is an exciting main character that despite his original displacement in the game, pulls through as a real hero. Jack Black sticks to the script and delivers his typical genius quips and cracking one-liners. The amount of comic gold in this game is extraordinary with never a dull moment of dialogue. The inclusion of rock icons playing characters such as Lemmy and Ozzie feels appropriate, but not forced. I’ll admit that Ozzie can drive me insane at times, but his role in the game was humorous and not contrite. Even Lita Ford’s character Ophelia was corky and kept Eddie Riggs in check.

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To shred or not to shred – The combat system in Brutal Legend is fun and intuitive. With a plethora of guitar shredding options that can either melt the baddies’ faces or summon a horde of demon dogs, Eddie Riggs has an arsenal within a guitar’s distance. The controls work well whether you’re attacking a solo target, a group of enemies or controlling the actions of your minions, the Head Bangers. I never felt problems with the system, be it driving, tracking quests or checking the progress.

The world is full of beautiful things – The graphics in Brutal Legend are phenomenal. When I first heard about this title, I was extremely skeptical. An action/adventure game based in medieval times revolving around a roadie and rock and roll? Seriously? Yes, seriously. The graphics and character development in Brutal Legend really are the icing on the cake. The story in Brutal Legend is clever and keeps you interested in progressing the story while providing decent side-missions.

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Put in the disc, hit start and enjoy – The game’s learning curve is extremely quick and gets the player into the action without demanding a lot of time. The opening cut scene, as well as through the game, are well thought out and add to the background of Eddie Riggs and Ormagöden. The main story mode lasts a solid 10 hours; however, the number of hidden gems such as relics, monuments and gargoyles to unlock will keep Brutal Legend in your disk drive for weeks.

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What’s Bad

As long as there’s a record deal we’ll always be friends – Well you aren’t going to get a ton of gameplay with friends on the multiplayer. There just isn’t enough to do with it, although the upcoming DLC with new multiplayer maps is set for early November. This doesn’t sound like it will be enough to keep people playing online nearly as much as a game like Uncharted 2, but in all honesty, Brutal Legend is a single player title with a slapped on multiplayer near completion. This doesn’t really hurt the decision to pick up the game, however.

Haven’t I done this already? – The handful of side-missions provided allows the gamer the ability to gain more rock status for unlocking new gear and vehicle add-ons, which is nice. However, you’ll begin to feel like you’re repeating missions and the fact that they are spread out throughout a fairly large world, you end up choosing to skip some of them.

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Riggs is the man, but is he really that bad ass? – Playing through the game I never really felt like I could die. The only missions I failed were due to the minions kicking the bucket or I ran out of time. It was never about Riggs dying, especially once I learned the riff to melt face on the guitar. This may not be everyone’s impression, but the game kind of flew by due to limited resistance from bad guys.

Worth Remembering:

Just about everything. Brutal Legend delivers an incredibly fresh intellectual property, which is a welcome site here at MMOMFG. We love when a title is fun from beginning to end and doesn’t feel like a task to finish the game. I had a blast beating the title over a long weekend, but easily packed in numerous more nights tracking down the hidden bonuses and finding those final guitar riffs and add-ons.

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Worth Forgetting:

The multiplayer isn’t completely up to snuff, but it doesn’t truly hurt the game’s value. I bought the game specifically for the single player mode, so I haven’t really lost out having limited multiplayer enjoyment. No fault to EA or Double Fine as this epic title delivers the goods elsewhere.

If you’ve got the money, go buy Brutal Legend! If you can’t pony up the cash due to recent titles like Uncharted 2, Borderlands, FIFA 10 or Dragon Age: Origins, then rent Brutal Legend and fail to return it. Hats off to Jack Black and the entire voice acting cast as I’ve been laughing throughout even up until the end.