Brutal Legend Demo Impressions

September 25th, 2009

Tim Schafer is a genius. With point-and-click adventure classics like Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island games, as well as the much ignored 2005 action adventure Psychonauts, no man has been better known for funny, fun, addictive, and charming video games. It’s not often the games industry has a single man behind a game like so many films have directors, but Schafer is in a small group of people alongside Will Wright, Hideo Kojima, and Shigeru Miyamoto who are sole visionaries for gaming classics. His new game, Brutal Legend, is out soon, but the demo is available for Xbox Live Gold members until October 5th. And you need to download it.

Brutal Legend is a game all about heavy metal culture. If you were ever into heavy metal bands, especially in the 80s, this game is a tribute to it all. With environments ripped from Iron Maiden covers to characters voices by metal legends such as Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy, this game is not just a love letter to heavy metal culture, it’s a part of it. The game stars Jack Black as Eddie Riggs, a roadie for a terrible nu-metal band, as he gets thrust into an alternate dimension full of characters, enemies, bosses, and environments all inspired heavily by this culture.

The game stars Jack Black, someone who I can’t stand. Even as a performer on Mr. Show, one of the greatest sketch comedy shows of all time, he managed to annoy me to no end. On top of that I am someone who is strongly against the use of actors as voice actors in games and animation. And yet, somehow, Jack Black manages to do a fantastic job in this game. He’s quiet, down to Earth, friendly, and funny in this game. He’s not the loud and obnoxious Jack Black people are normally used to seeing. The writing, as well, is absolutely fantastic if the demo is any indication, with great jokes and dialog. Writing is very important to me in all mediums, and this game does a fantastic job.

I actually don't want to punch him.

The gameplay, of course, is what will make or break this experience, and it’s definitely there. While it’s not awesome or bringing anything new to the table, what’s there works great. Traditional hack ‘n’ slash gameplay domintaes a majority of the playtime, going back and forth between an axe and an axe. One of those axes is a guitar; the other, an axe. The actual axe slashes bad guys, whereas the guitar uses the power of rock to electrocute enemies. Doing the two together creates an earthquake that destroys enemies and the surrounding environment. The two used in conjunction create very satisfying combos.

There’s a bit of driving in here, too, with Eddie’s vehicle capable of running over dozens of bad guys at a time. It’s even used in the demo’s uninspired but artistically satisfying boss battle, as a way to remove the boss serpent’s giant fangs from the ground. But the best bit of driving comes just before the introduction of Eddie’s vehicle, where you drive a giant creature-ish vehicle down a hill made of skulls and bones. It gives you a look at the breahtaking scenery, something I couldn’t even come close to appreciating with my standard definition TV.

The demo gives you a solid feel for the game, and while it omits a demo of the strategy portion of the game that consists of Eddie overseeing an army to take on legions of foes, you get a great idea of how this game will be. The writing and character interactions are outstanding, the animation is Pixar-quality, the environments are wonderfully inspirted, and the gameplay, while, simple, should be able to stand the duration of the full game’s length.

Pop this demo up on your 360 while there’s still time, but if you can’t make up your mind even after that, this demo has proven to me that this game is a must-buy. Tim Schafer, you’ve done it again.

Entry Filed under: Video Games