Brutal Legend is the creation of Tim Shafer and his own company Double Fine Productions, a third person action game that successfully combines adventure and strategy elements in a heavy metal universe. You will play as Eddie Riggs, a character partially modeled after the looks of Jack Black (who also voices the roadie), who has been transported in a parallel universe where humans fight against the demonic Doviculus and his apprentice General Lionwhyte.  While he was a simple scum in the real world, Eddie will become the leader of the human's army in this fantasy world, a true magical hero who can deliver justice with this axe and his 'Flying V' guitar. He is like a dark messiah for the human hordes.

Although the premise sounds dark, the game is nothing else but a comic adventure. We have to remember that Tim Shafer is known for his ability of writing good comic scripts and games like: Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and later Psychonauts, are remarkable examples from his past career. Therefore, he makes no exception with his latest game and brings a huge doze of humor and craziness which go perfectly with the overall ambience.

Characters not only are very well shaped after real celebrities, but are also voiced by these celebrities. Besides Eddie Riggs voiced by Jack Black, Ozzy Osbourne makes an exceptional job by voicing the 'Keeper of Metal', a storekeeper who can be found in special monuments in order to sell different parts for Eddie's  'Deuce' Hot-Rod. He can also teach him fighting abilities and can enhance his guitar and battle axe. His performance is surprisingly coherent and funny. Lemmy (Motorhead frontman) comes with a representation of his own persona voicing The Killmaster (a healer in Eddie's army). He rides a bike and with the help of his bass guitar he can heal anyone in his area. Rob Halford (Judas Priest frontman) plays two roles, voicing General Lionwhyte but also The Baron. While The Baron was specially designed for him showing his real image in the band, Lionwhyte is the opposite. The General looks more like David Bowie in the glam era with the ability to fly with his blonde long hair. Other appearances such as Lita Ford (ex member The Runaways) and actor Tim Curry complete the voice talents list.

With such an impressive cast, there's no wonder that this game has attracted enough attention. But let's see if Brutal Legend delivers the right gameplay. The game has an open-world environment in which theoretically the player can travel anywhere from the beginning. The only limitation is that you have to progress through some primary missions in order to gain access to the other half of the remaining realm. You can choose to play primary or secondary missions from a map by setting a beacon on the mission's checkpoint. The only motivation to play the secondary missions is that you will earn fire tributes (some kind of point awards), which can spent afterwards on parts and abilities at The Keeper of Metal stores. The secondary missions deliver checkpoint races, ambush and defend objectives, target shooting, etc, at a lower difficulty, which makes the player to earn quickly enough cash to buy all the upgrades from the store. Besides the secondary mission, cash can be earned also by discovering hidden monuments or vista points.