Brütal Legend arrived on my doorstep Friday afternoon, and I managed to finish it early this evening after work.
That means two things, one good, one bad:
1. The game is awesome and engrossing. It's well paced, and involves you with a continuing progression of challenge that means you can play it for 6 hours straight and not get bored.
2. The game is really really short.
No, really really short. I got about 12 hours of game play out of it; and that was half sandbox time. There was only about six hours in the main storyline.
Oh and the side missions are pretty pointless and repetitive, so you can't really extend the play value with those. There's basically no replay value in the single player mode.
The game is kind of an odd fusion of genres; a combination of arcade style melee combat, the ever popular GTA style sandbox drive and fight mission gaming, and resource/unit management based real time strategy.
Oh and of course, METAL!!!!!
If you aren't a big fan of heavy metal, you're going to hate this game. EVERYTHING about this game is metal. The character names, the artwork, the dialog, and of course, the soundtrack; which is a world tour of the history of metal, with 108 songs from 75 bands, spread across the major metal genres (including two songs written just for the game)...
...Though admittedly, the list is heavily weighted towards early 80s metal (which I consider a GOOD thing).
Also, the voice actors are totaly metal; featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Lemmy, Lita Ford and (debatably metal, and seriously irritating to many people) Jack Black as the main character.
Oh, and continuing his long tradition of kinky bastards, demons, and deliciously evil bad guys; Tim Curry voices the big bad.
If on the other hand you LOVE metal, as I do; the game is great fun.
Is it worth the $56 (for the PS3 anyway)? It was for me. 12 hours worth of entertainment is three fairly long books, 6 movies, maybe 3 dinners out... all of which are roughly comparable more or less in cost (unless you go for library books or rental movies anyway).
There's a different debate out there, as to the escalating costs of video games in general and as to whether those costs are justified; but that's an argument for a different post.
I say, if you like metal, don't hate Jack Black, and like sandbox games; go for it.
Oh, and "The Superfluous Umlauts" would be a great name for a rock band.
