Brütal Legend Review

(Xbox 360, PS3; $59.99; Rated M for Blood/Gore/Intense Violence/Partial Nudity/Strong Language/Suggestive Themes; www.brutallegend.com)

(three and a half stars)

Tim Schafer is one of the most creative minds in game design.  The Susan Lucci of videogames, Schafer has never had a break-out commercial hit, despite his past games- "Monkey Island," "Grim Fandango," and "Psychonauts" to name a few- being beloved by critics and fans alike.

With the marketing power of EA games co-publishing the Heavy Metal action-adventure of "Brütal Legend," and the casting of Jack Black in the lead role of super-roadie, Eddie Riggs, one would think that Schafer and his team might finally get the hit they deserve.

Unfortunately though, while the acting, graphics, and trademark Schafer wit are top-notch in "Brütal Legend," the fun of the gameplay is only so rewarding.  "Legend" becomes a victim of including too many good ideas, without any real cohesion between any of them.

The story involves Riggs who is transported a fantasy world inspired by Heavy Metal tropes and album covers.  A small band of humans live in fear of leather-clad Doviculus (voiced by Tim Curry), the Emperor of the Tainted Coil, who has enslaved humanity with the help of the traitorous, glam-tastic Lionwhyte (voiced by Judas Priest's Rob Halford).  Riggs inspires the small band of resistance fighters by using his other-worldly roadie-knowledge of stage construction and mechanics, along with his enchanted guitar, "Clementine," and battle axe, "The Separator," to lead the humans against the forces of the Tainted Coil and the goth-inspired Drowning Doom.

The richness of the story and background of the world of "Legend" is classic Schafer, the amount of detail behind the "Legend" mythology is the reason to keep playing the game.  However, in what looks to be an open-world, Hack-and-Slash adventure game (which would have been thoroughly enjoyable if left there), "Legend's" main focus of gameplay is in the Real-Time Strategy events known as "Stage Battles" where players guide Eddie to gather resources, build and manage troops, and direct the flow of battle against the enemy.  In addition to being able to pull back and get a birds-eye view of the action, players have the option of dropping to the ground as Eddie and taking on enemies to help ground forces.

In concept, this sounds promising, but Real-Time Strategies rarely work well on a console that is constrained by the limited buttons of a controller.  "Legend" doesn't solve this problem, and so managing and commanding troops gets frustrating and often results in amassing forces into a huge blob and storming the enemy with little, actual, strategy.  Learning the intricacies of the "Stage Battles" take the entirety of the single-player campaign, making the story a lengthy tutorial for "Legend's" multiplayer mode that focuses on the "Stage Battles" entirely.

For a game that has so much potential for wide commercial appeal because of the source material, humor, star-studded voice cast, incredible heavy-metal soundtrack, and great visuals, "Brütal Legend" is likely to lose its target audience because of the awkward and niche Real-Time Strategy element.  If left to an open-world adventure, "Legend" could have finally become the break-out hit that Schafer's amazing mind is owed.  But in a sea of top-teir titles these months, this game will ultimately be left in the dust of other games that are just more fun to play.

Still, for the Metal-Head in your family, it's a worth-while gift, even if it's not as great as it should have been.