So I’ve had enough time with Brütal Legend now to have an opinion.

It’s everything I expected, which means, among other things, that it defies classification.  If I was forced to try and liken the game to something else I think I’d have to say Warcraft 3 + Zelda: Wind Waker + Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing + Tim Schafer.   Warcraft 3 is the principle ingredient there for a reason; the game has long been purported to feature “RTS elements”; this is kind of a massive understatement. About half the time the game is an RTS and its multiplayer focuses solely on this facet.

Jerry Holkins mentioned this but controlling something that is unquestionably an RTS with a console controller is awkward.  I spend about half my time in a given stage battle selecting the wrong unit, or selecting all the units, or issuing orders that are precisely the inverse of what I wanted to happen. This is often hilarious as it’s thematically in keeping with the Brütal Legend tale — i.e. Eddie Riggs, roadie extraordinaire, attempts to organize clueless misfits — but it’s frustrating just as often.  It’s also easily forgivable in the context of a game this ambitious and this tailored to my own personal preferences.  It’s hilarious, it’s gorgeous, it’s deep.  It’s totally metal, man.

Categories: games

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.