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.

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Primary missions include all the mechanics in the game challenging you to complete objectives relying on Eddie's own powers or by controlling a complete army. Here is where the strategy aspect comes into action, a good portion of the game featuring real-time-strategy mechanics. The so-called Stage Battles usually occur when facing an evil character: either General Lionwhyte, or Ophelia. In these battles each side has access to fountains of fans which are needed to build units. On each fountain, the player has to build merch booths from which he can later summon different types of troops. These troops can be specialized on melee attacks, range attacks or stealth attacks. Every unit can be easily controlled from the Eddie's point of view by giving direct orders with the directional keys from the ground, or from above using a target system. The second option brings a general view of the combat situation by giving you the chance to view the enemy's camp.

Eddie can also perform special moves through his solos which can cause big losses in the enemy line.  These solos can be learned by discovering special shrines on the map and can be applied anywhere in the battle. In order to perform them, you need to push a correct sequence of buttons. In this time you will become vulnerable to the enemy so you have to determine the right moment to activate the solo. In the beginning this combination of controlling troops and performing special moves can be difficult but gives an original feeling to the battle and a good dynamic.

The Stage Battles are excellent in the singeplayer but nothing compares with the fun delivered in the multiplayer where your counterpart will be a human player which can apply different tactics to destroy your base. While in singleplayer winning a battle depends on how fast you can summon your troops and take control of the fans fountains, in multiplayer the goal of winning can become much more difficult. Because the troops move always in groups and have a moderate speed, some of them have to be sacrificed in order to strengthen others and win strategic points on the map. Like in the singleplayer campaign, in multiplayer you can fly over the enemy's camp in order to see what he's doing. Taking this ability into consideration, you can use units to bait your enemy into thinking you will attack from one point, while you prepare stronger troops which will hit the enemy from the opposite direction. This way the gameplay becomes tactic and the stakes of winning a multiplayer match can become very high.

No matter where you are looking in this virtual world, there's always something that will delight your eye. From huge statues representing Viking figures and V8 engines coming out from the ground, to huge walls of amps and vast hellish landscapes, every detailed environmental object creates an overall metal picture. The developers have chosen a colorful graphics style inspired by old heavy metal and rock album covers from the 70's and 80's but also from the works of Frank Frazetta.  There is an interesting combination of cartoony textures and detailed ones, displaying each character's face clear while exaggerating other mimic features.

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Conclusion

Brutal Legend is the best tribute to the metal music and its culture surrounding it. If you are a fan of this music, this game will definitely become your favorite. If not, you will appreciate the real-time strategy combined with the action elements. Its amazing cast featuring living legends of this musical genre and the humoristic talent of Tim Shafer will propel this game into the hall of fame. What I despise overall is the fact that although Brutal Legend was catalogued as action/adventure, the adventure moments can be found only while roaming in the open-world environment without a clear purpose.

Gameplay: 85

Great combination between action and strategy. The characters are very well profiled with lots of similarities from nowadays metal legends. Good story told through cinematic animations with a good portion of humor. The adventure aspect is not sufficient profiled. The secondary missions will become repetitive after a while and the player will lose interest in exploring the open-world environment. Singpleplayer campaign is too short.

Graphics: 86

Cartoonish and colorful graphics inspired by metal and rock albums. Grandiose statues and monuments scattered on the map will attract your attention at every step. Diverse landscapes provide you with enough distances to travel with your hot-rod. Face animations mechanics were studied in detail by the developers, creating expressive characters. Frame-rate problems will appear while traveling across the map with the 'Deuce'.

Multiplayer: 89

This is where the game shines. The Stage Battles are head-to-head confrontations between two teams from 1v1 to 4v4. These battles can become very tactical similar to a chess match. Unfortunately the special moves performed by your characters in combination with other units can become difficult and their effects are not so devastating as it might appear. A minus for the slow movement speed of your troops.

Sound: 90

This game is all about metal music, so I really don't care about the ambient sounds. The neverending soundtrack is so impressive that I actually stopped from playing just to listen to the music. Bands like: Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Michael Shenker Group, Motorhead, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Budgie, Black Sabbath, Manowar, Accept, Anvil, are just a few names that are present in the playlist, bands that truly made history in the metal music.