mozidesign.com Unorganized Thoughts of a Game Designer

Brutal Legend Impressions

Today I beat Brutal Legend. Was it Brutal? For the most part yes but only at the start (which is featured in the demo) and the end of the game (which I won’t spoil). Everything else in the middle is good, but not ‘brutal’ by any means. Now what I mean by ‘brutal’ (I’ll stop saying that) is that from the E3 and xbox live demo I got the impression that the game was a comical hack and slash with a heavy metal theme. Well as I am sure most gamers know by now, the game has hidden RTS elements.

I enjoy RTS games (Starcraft 2 where are you!), however it’s not hardcore RTS as in build a base, expand the base etc. It’s more like Overlord, as long as you have enough resources (in the case of the game ‘fans’) you can build units. This concept is expanded into something known as “Stage Battles” your crew vs. one of the other factions. The end goal, destroy the other stage! I have to say, stage battles were a lot of fun, even though I was hoping that the game would offer up more hack and slash sections. I could write a lot more about stage battles but watch this clip. Hopefully it will make more sense.

Oh yeah and you can fly (slight spoiler…my fault)

On to visuals, basically they were pretty solid. As Tim Schafer said in some interview, the world resembles and is  inspired by the art work of metal albums. Nothing says, “METAL” like a pile of skulls!

Finally the music. I have to say hands down this game has the best soundtrack ever. And yes I am being totally biased as I am a metal head!  There were times where I did nothing in the game except sit back and listen to the sound track on my speaker system. Full soundtrack list here.

Now for what I did not like. The game is lacking some serious player communication elements. For one, a mini map would have been nice, half the time I could not find my quests. The only way to figure out where to go in the world was to look up in the sky and find the big ass beam of light. Or open up the map screen. Both felt very disconnected and unhelpful when I needed to get from A to B.

Now this next point is sort of a 50/50 split. I am all for HUDless gameplay. Less bars and meters showing me everything on screen the better. However, in Brutal Legend one thing that is hard to tell is your health. You can take a serious ass kicking before the feedback kicks in. The feedback given to the player is that screen turns red and you hear a loud heart beat. That means your boned. Does it work, yes. But a little more could have been done. Gears of War has the same thing no health bar, however the skull icon at least shows you how much more you can push your limits before you die. Brutal Legend lacks that one missing piece of feedback. But like Gears of War as long as you run and hide from the danger your health comes back. So not totally frustrating but hard to gauge. So I can’t say it’s bad but the health mechanics could have been better.

Overall, I’d recommend trying out Brutal Legend beyond the demo, it’s a good game. If you don’t want to buy it, rent it or borrow it from someone that has it. In the end I am sure like me you’ll have a good time with the game.