Way’s Mini-Review #1: Brütal Legend
Based entirely on the hype, soundtrack, and meta-scores, I picked up Brut-- I mean, Brütal Legend yesterday. After about a 4-hour session, I have two primary observations:
-This game is easy to play
-This game is fun to play
I can already tell, Brütal Legend is a game for people who do not play games. There are two attack buttons sharing limited combo possibilities. The axe is controlled by one button for melee attacks (X on PS3), and the guitar is used by another (the Square button) for ranged elemental attacks and guard-breakers. While there are juggles and potentially advanced fighting methods - lock-on, varied air and charge attacks-the player primarily finds each battle to be the same formula: Square, X, X, X, X, X until the enemy becomes dismembered and dies. When overwhelmed, press Square + X for a knock-back attack, rinse and repeat.
Where the game adds variety, though, is the nearly 2/3 of the game that you do not spend attacking on foot. There’s a lot of vehicle use when in the open hub world, which I can’t help but consider to be Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time-esque. To continue the comparison, it’s fun (the vehicle) in a more-fun-than-riding-Epona-and-shooting-arrows sort of way. I can see that they tried to make it more than a means of transportation by adding rewards for sweet jumps and roadkill side-quests (It’s OK, PETA, the creatures are demonic, hostile, and carnivorous. Also, explosive). The other portion of the gameplay is interspersed with Pikmin/Overlord-like minion control. You can “liberate” headbanging fans by impressing them with a sweet rallying guitar riff, then control their behavior using the D-Pad.
The guitar riffs, I must point out, are just one more Zelda 64 similarity. You select a song from a list of tablature, and a mini-game comes up. Anyone who’s played DDR, Guitar Hero, Ocarina of Time, Brittney’s Dance Beats, Parappa the Rapper, Umjammer Lammy, Frequency, Para Para Paradise, or even whack-a-mole will be familiar with the “Press the button when the indicator hits it” method of strumming. It’s better than the “Press X to not die” quicktime events in most modern games, but only marginally.
While playing, I only “died” once. Rather than fall in the brütally easy combat, I fell off a cliff while driving on a blind corner; which I guess if you have to die, riding a sweet car into a pit of molten metal is one of the more awesome ways to go. I use died loosely because our hero reloaded at the nearest Ozzy Ozbourne garage with all quests and current “Gotta catch ‘em all” achievements in tact. Also, yes, Ozzy is "the Keeper of the Metal” or something and sells you upgrades once you've unlocked them. He joins a celebrity voice cast (Jack Black, Tim Curry, Lemmy, Rob Halford) that’s generally above average with the noteable exception of one chick’s voice which while not terrible, struck me as poorly timed. Additionally, Brian Posehn essentially plays himself while giving assorted side-quests. I'm looking forward to finding other noteworthy voices
Lastly, because it’s clearly the headliner in this show, is the soundtrack. I forgot the actual count, but it’s upwards of 100 licensed metal tracks ranging from Judas Priest to Mastodon to Anvil. The game begins with 40-or-so tracks available and gives you the ability to change them while in the vehicle in a GTA sort of way. As you progress and/or find hidden secrets around the world, you will unlock more available tunes for the road. It’s a cool way to reward you for exploring the world and enjoying the fantastic album cover inspired landscape and scenery - much better than simply doing it for achievements.
PS - Speaking of landmarks in the world, there’s a place called “Beerhenge” where bottles of beer grow on trees. The whole time, besides thinking how sweet that is, I was thinking of an Eddie Izzard quote:
“Stonehenge, one of the biggest henges in the world. No one's built a henge like that ever since. No one knows what the fuck a henge is! Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them down.”
-This game is easy to play
-This game is fun to play
I can already tell, Brütal Legend is a game for people who do not play games. There are two attack buttons sharing limited combo possibilities. The axe is controlled by one button for melee attacks (X on PS3), and the guitar is used by another (the Square button) for ranged elemental attacks and guard-breakers. While there are juggles and potentially advanced fighting methods - lock-on, varied air and charge attacks-the player primarily finds each battle to be the same formula: Square, X, X, X, X, X until the enemy becomes dismembered and dies. When overwhelmed, press Square + X for a knock-back attack, rinse and repeat.
Where the game adds variety, though, is the nearly 2/3 of the game that you do not spend attacking on foot. There’s a lot of vehicle use when in the open hub world, which I can’t help but consider to be Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time-esque. To continue the comparison, it’s fun (the vehicle) in a more-fun-than-riding-Epona-and-shooting-arrows sort of way. I can see that they tried to make it more than a means of transportation by adding rewards for sweet jumps and roadkill side-quests (It’s OK, PETA, the creatures are demonic, hostile, and carnivorous. Also, explosive). The other portion of the gameplay is interspersed with Pikmin/Overlord-like minion control. You can “liberate” headbanging fans by impressing them with a sweet rallying guitar riff, then control their behavior using the D-Pad.
The guitar riffs, I must point out, are just one more Zelda 64 similarity. You select a song from a list of tablature, and a mini-game comes up. Anyone who’s played DDR, Guitar Hero, Ocarina of Time, Brittney’s Dance Beats, Parappa the Rapper, Umjammer Lammy, Frequency, Para Para Paradise, or even whack-a-mole will be familiar with the “Press the button when the indicator hits it” method of strumming. It’s better than the “Press X to not die” quicktime events in most modern games, but only marginally.
While playing, I only “died” once. Rather than fall in the brütally easy combat, I fell off a cliff while driving on a blind corner; which I guess if you have to die, riding a sweet car into a pit of molten metal is one of the more awesome ways to go. I use died loosely because our hero reloaded at the nearest Ozzy Ozbourne garage with all quests and current “Gotta catch ‘em all” achievements in tact. Also, yes, Ozzy is "the Keeper of the Metal” or something and sells you upgrades once you've unlocked them. He joins a celebrity voice cast (Jack Black, Tim Curry, Lemmy, Rob Halford) that’s generally above average with the noteable exception of one chick’s voice which while not terrible, struck me as poorly timed. Additionally, Brian Posehn essentially plays himself while giving assorted side-quests. I'm looking forward to finding other noteworthy voices
Lastly, because it’s clearly the headliner in this show, is the soundtrack. I forgot the actual count, but it’s upwards of 100 licensed metal tracks ranging from Judas Priest to Mastodon to Anvil. The game begins with 40-or-so tracks available and gives you the ability to change them while in the vehicle in a GTA sort of way. As you progress and/or find hidden secrets around the world, you will unlock more available tunes for the road. It’s a cool way to reward you for exploring the world and enjoying the fantastic album cover inspired landscape and scenery - much better than simply doing it for achievements.
PS - Speaking of landmarks in the world, there’s a place called “Beerhenge” where bottles of beer grow on trees. The whole time, besides thinking how sweet that is, I was thinking of an Eddie Izzard quote:
“Stonehenge, one of the biggest henges in the world. No one's built a henge like that ever since. No one knows what the fuck a henge is! Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them down.”