Brutal Legend review

Introduction

Brutal Legend is open-world with elements of a strategy game. It was made by Double Fine Production, a small company. This game was released on 10/13/2009. This game about a roadie Eddie Riggs who get in an alternative reality, where all power in Doviculus hands. Eddie needs to stop him for the glory of people and METAL!

Gameplay

The gameplay is a mix between open-world beat'em up and strategy game. When you play in the open-world, you can complete side quests like racing, helping your hordes to kill enemies and find some relics. You also can upgrade your weapons, look, and the car in Motor Forge where you will meet an Ozzy Osbourne. When you play strategy you have several types of the army: Headbanger (most common), Metal Beast, Roadie and so on. You need to destroy the enemy base before he destroys yours. To spawn some of your armies you need to build a merch booth for fans. More fans you get - more people you can hire. To build a merch booth you need to kill Fan Leech and play your solo.

Open world gameplay:

Motor Forge:

Stage (in strategy gameplay):

Story

The main story is about Eddie Riggs who was a roadie of the Kabbage Boy group. He watched group performance backstage and suddenly stage decoration started to fell off. Eddie tries to save a group member but dies himself. Some of his blood spills on his belt buckle and because of this, a large metal beast comes to life. He destroys the stage and kills fans and then the game shows us Eddy lying on a pedestal, after which the game begins. In my opinion, the plot in this game is pretty good (not the best of course, but pretty decent). And some of the plot twists are really nice, so if you want a good story, you can try this game.

Main fractions:

There are 4 main fractions: Ironheade, Drowning Doom, Tainted Coil, and Hair Metal Militia (not playable fraction)

Ironheade

Ironheade is a fraction of the Eddie Riggs. We collect troops during the passage of the plot. This fraction is average, it has pretty good power, speed, and average HP, also the warriors are expensive in comparison with other fractions. When you get close to your stage you will hear a classic heavy, speed, thrash metal.

Drowning Doom

SPOILERS ALERT!

This is the fraction of Dark Ofelia, that betrayed Eddie (or he betrayed her, you will decide by yourself). Units of the fraction are very weak but very cheap, also the largest in a number of units. This fraction has the ability to make enemies weaker, so the difference in power will be minimal. When you get close to your stage you will hear a gothic or black metal.

Tainted Coil

Tainted Coil is a fraction of the main antagonist - Emperor Doviculus. This faction is characterized by a large force, small speed and a number of units and it is very difficult to unlock them. To unlock all the units you need to spawn certain assistants, that will spawn the next type of units. Also, these units cost a lot of fans. Not my favorite fraction for obvious reasons.

Hair Metal Militia

This is the fraction of Lionwhyte, whom you will meet while passing the main story. Even if it's not a playable fraction it's simply glam version of Ironheade so stats are simply the same, they just look different.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is simply amazing. In this game, the main soundtrack was played by a lot of classic metal bands, but if you like more metalcore and nu-metal there are also a few bands. I know that this is pretty individual, but if you don't listen to metal then you simply will not enjoy playing this game, because there is a lot of metal references that you wouldn't understand and the main story based on this type of music. So if you like metal, you will definitely like the soundtrack of this game. I personally learn a lot of interesting metal bands, which I didn't hear before.

Verdict

Pluses:

Very interesting story. The connection to the main character is unbelievable.
Pretty decent gameplay. There are a lot of things you can do after finishing the main plot.
The soundtrack is very great.

Minuses:

If you don't like strategy, you'll be pretty bored, because the main plot moving only after strategy fights.
If you are a completionist and want to get 100% of achievements, you will be pretty upset, because to get 100% you need to go to multiplayer, but in this game multiplayer is dead.

Personal thoughts: This is a very good game, I like it very much because of the great story and of course music. It's so rare to find type of game that related to music that much. And that's why I love it.