Brutal Legend Review: What big teeth you have, grandma

Brütal Legend was one of those games that when I first heard about, I just couldn't understand the hype building around it. Then I slowly realized the only people hyping it were just a few particular shows. The demo came out and I had hoped I was proven wrong by it.

Was I?

Pros:

Rocktacular: This game mimics Grand Theft Auto IV in the sense that when you're driving around in Deuce (yes, Jack Black actually thought it was a good idea to name his car Deuce *facepalm) you get to listen to a soundtrack of classic Metal to accompany the Metal image it was going for. It also features Ozzy Osborne, one of the Gods of Rock as a hilarious go to guy for upgrades. If anything, Tim Schaffer and Jack Black nailed the total metal theme of the game.

The mighty Axe: This game has fun hack and slash elements. While I expected originally to be swinging my guitar around and bashing enemies heads in with it, instead they give you a real axe and let your guitar take care of long distance, magic attacks. Upgrading both is funny and inovative.

Cons:

That is NOT what you lead me to believe: Brutal Legend suffers from a classic and infuriating aspect of past bad games: The demo is NOT a true representation of the game. When you play the full game and get past the demo part, you quickly realize that the game is really a poorly disguised RTS game instead. While the developers did a decent job of making a "satisfactory" RTS game, this is in no way what we were lead to believe by the demo. The fun hack and slash elements are quickly tossed aside to instead focus on commanding your units instead. What's worse is that you can TRY to attack buildings on the battlefield yourself, but you're prevented and FORCED to use your units instead! What good is an axe if you can't use it?

One sitting and you're done: Brutal Legend is incredibly short. Really. I sat through this game in one afternoon and beat it. I did ONE side mission and couldn't get any entertainment out of it. The campaign can be finished in as little as 6-8 hours if you're focused on it. You might not get all the upgrades along the way, but you'll realize you really don't care by the end of it. You'll also realize towards the end of the game (without giving spoilers) that the ending DOES feel rushed and robbed of a 3rd act. Could this have helped the overall experience? Maybe, but considering 90% of the game was RTS, I probably would have just been frustrated anyway.

It's not shelf worthy: Personally, I like putting games on my shelf and watch my collection grow with each new addition. I didn't feel that pride with this game due to the gameplay, story and characters. Don't get me wrong, the story isn't "horrible" (although predictable), but about 2/3 of the way through I realized that I just really wanted to finish this game and sell it on Amazon first chance I got to try and get back what I actually spent on it while I could. It's sad because I NEED a good story and campaign when I play a game, and this game just couldn't deliver a satisfactory one. Also, while Eddie Riggs is a funny protagonist, he's just not that great of a character. While he does sport Jack Black's comedic nature, he seems to have just a little bit too much insight story-wise for a guy waking up in a world he's totally alien to, regardless of how they try to explain it in the story.

In short, Brutal Legend suffers from "Wolf in sheep's clothing syndrome." I don't think it would have been as frustrating if the demo was more indicative of the final product like it's supposed to be, but you'll quickly realize this is worth little more than a rent in comparison to the big-name games this season.

Recommended buy price: The $20 bin.
Game Score Ratings - HORRIBLE - Pass - Meh - Good - EPIC
Meh