Game Review: Brütal Legend

This morning I finished my first game for the Playstation 3: Brütal Legend. And although I already posted about the main character in one of my recent Genre Character of the Week posts, I felt the game itself deserved a review.

First of all, here's what I loved about the game - the music, the humour, and the view. The game features 107 tracks from 75 different Heavy Metal bands, all the original bands doing their own music. This alone was one of the strongest features of the game as I loved being able to switch between songs throughout and the music added a really fun dimension to the game (which is inspired by Heavy Metal lyrics, imagery, and album covers). Secondly the game had a great sense of humour, adding a fun dimension to an otherwise standard action game (it sort of felt like Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver to me, but instead of being filled with grim intensity, enjoyed poking fun at itself.) Finally, the graphics are just freaking amazing - speaking as someone who has never played a PS3 game before this one, I cannot stop commenting on how beautiful this game looks.

The negatives can mostly be tracked back to my inexperience with more recent games: in later levels of the game you end up playing strategist in that you send out squads of your men to attack different armies in real-time, requiring a skill-set I don't have a great grasp of yet. There were a few glitches, but overall I loved how smooth the gameplay felt.

For the $20 I spent on this game, I loved it - it kept me busy for a months worth of weekends, and it's open-world concept (wherein you can follow the main mission, side missions, or explore as you like), allowed me to have a really big sense of control throughout.

Like Jack Black says in the opening of the game, "This is so epic, it won't just blow your mind, It'll blow your soul."

Genre Character of the Week: Eddie Riggs

A few weeks back I started work at a new job which included a pay increase - I've always followed followed the theory that you should take the difference between your old paycheque and your new one and spend that first chunk on something for yourself. In my case, I got the toy I've been waiting four years for, a Playstation 3.

Out of all the games I'd been waiting to try on the new system, the top of the list was definitely Brütal Legend, and a couple weeks in I've got to say that a huge part of the games appeal comes down to its main character, Eddie Riggs (pictured left).

The deal with Eddie is pretty simple, he's the worlds best Heavy Metal band Roadie, working for the worlds worst Heavy Metal band. These ungrateful whelps have no idea exactly how amazing their head roadie is, and when an ancient call is sounded and that roadie is sent to a strange new world, his deeds will become legend.

Voiced by comedian (and half of the band Tenacious D) Jack Black, Eddie is incredibly cool, very self aware of how magical journeys into other dimensions work and can whip together a show, a battle or even a car with only minutes to spare. He deafeats his enemies with both his battle-axe and through the power of rock.

As I'm not yet finished the game (I've defeated the first major villain at the pleasure domes), I'm not sure how the story will play out, but as I loved the game designers earlier game, Full Throttle, I know it will all be worth it.

Although I'm over a year late - the game came out last October, I've got to say that it is a lot of fun, the game works as an action game, a strategy game, and even a racing game. Also as it isn't the newest thing anymore the price is really reasonable (I paid $20), so if you like action-comedy games with a lot of heavy metal thrown it, I can't think of a better one.