Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend is a video game that consists of 6 releases
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51 user reviews 3.8 / 5 avg score
3/5 stars Reviewed on Oct. 13, 2009

The heavy metal fantasy world of Brutal Legend and the characters that populate it are far more well-realized and engaging than the ambitious-but-flawed gameplay.

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Brütal Legend is a humorous heavy-metal, open-world, action-adventure game with light real-time strategy elements. As Eddie Riggs, lead the people of the Brütal World to rise up against the Tainted Coil demons who rule the world, and their leader, the sinister Emperor Doviculus.

Overview

Ozzy Osbourne voices the Guardian of Metal.
Ozzy Osbourne voices the Guardian of Metal.
Brütal Legend is a heavy-metal-themed open-world action/adventure game by Psychonauts developer Double Fine, led by Tim Schafer, and published by EA for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The game features the voice talents of Jack Black and rock legends Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne, and Lita Ford. The voice talent also includes comedians Brian Posehn, David Cross and Kyle Gass.

The player directly controls Eddie Riggs from a third-person perspective. The player fights using Eddie's battle-axe, the Seperator, and guitar, which is able to magically call forth lighting, pyrotechnics, and other special abilities.  Both the axe and guitar can be upgraded with special attributes as the game progresses.

Eddie also has a drop-top coupe named the Deuce (a.k.a Druid Plow) that he can use to travel the world (and run down enemies).  The Druid Plow can be upgraded over the course of the game.
 
As single-player progresses, Eddie builds an increasingly large repertoire of unit types for his army, which he names "Ironheade". Eddie can command these units during missions and "stage battles."

The world is inspired by heavy-metal album covers.
The world is inspired by heavy-metal album covers.

Stage battles are large-scale fights with light RTS elements, in which the player must harness the power of loyal Fans to create units and attack the enemy's Stage base. The RTS mechanics are intentionally simplified to encourage hands-on fighting, as opposed to sitting back and watching one's troops follow orders. Eddie can also utilize various magical Guitar Solos which have various effects. These Solos are learned by finding "Tab Slabs" in the open world. The solos include setting up rally flags for your troops and summoning your vehicle for all factions. Each faction also features signature Solos which only they have access to; for example, the Ironheade faction get the "Facemelter" Solo, which literally melts the faces off of nearby enemy infantry, and the "Bring it on Home" Solo which summons a flaming zeppelin to crash into the battleground, dealing massive damage to enemy units.
 
Multiplayer consists solely of stage battles, both 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 battles, with the players selecting from one of the three factions; the heavy metal Ironheade faction, the goth rock Drowning Doom faction, and the "industrial bondage" Tainted Coil faction.
 
The first downloadable content was made available November 3rd, 2009 on PSN, and November 5th on Xbox Live. it was called "Tears of the Hextadon", and cost $5. Downloadable content "Hammer of Infinite Fate" arrived on December 17th, 2009. It was released for $4.99 on the PSN and 400 MS Points on Live Marketplace.

Plot Summary

The game tells the story of a roadie named Eddie Riggs who, while working for a faux heavy metal band called Kabbage Boy, is crushed by a collapsing set, causing his blood to fall onto his enchanted belt buckle. The blood awakens the demonic spirit within, transporting him to a strange world of Rock, where half-boar, half-motorcycle creatures roam the land, head-banging warriors smash their faces into foes, and forests of chrome exhaust pipes are the norm. There he meets the beautiful Ophelia, and siblings Lars and Lita Halford, and together they form a resistance movement against the corrupt demon tyrant Emperor Doviculus, and his glam-metal lackey, General Lionwhyte. 

Factions

There are four factions in the game, three of which are playable factions in multiplayer.
 
  • Ironheade - Eddie Riggs' faction.  They are the fast, fiery, hard-hitting human faction used throughout single player.
  • Hair Metal Militia - General Lionwhyte's faction.  They are a glam-rock reskin of Ironheade.  They are not selectable in multiplayer. The HMM features the music of glam and hair metal such as Skid Row and Motley Crüe.
  • The Drowning Doom - Ophelia's faction.  A Gothic-themed faction, the Drowning Doom is a slower, physically weaker army that focuses heavily on various buff and debuff units, weakening enemies while strengthening their own troops.
  • The Tainted Coil - Emperor Doviculus' faction.  They are a demonic S& M faction.  The Tainted Coil specializes in "hierarchy" units that can create more units on the battlefield (as opposed to the other factions, which can only create units at their home stage). The Coil feature the music of industrial metal such as Static-X, KMFDM and Ministry.
 

Publisher Difficulties and Legal Problems

On July 28th, 2008 Activision Blizzard released a statement that suggested the only Sierra games they would be publishing would include Prototype, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Ice Age and one unannounced title.  The statement said all other projects were being reviewed.  On July 29th, Tim Schafer updated the "Double Fine Action News" blog stating " Brütal Legend is fine."  Schafer had mentioned previously that they would be showing more of the game off after E3 2008. Variety had reported that the game will not come from a traditional publisher and there is a "unique arrangement" for the game.

On December 12th, 2008 Double Fine and EA announced a publishing deal that would see the game released on October 13th, 2009.

On June 4th, 2009, Yahoo! reported that Activision was filing a lawsuit against Double Fine, stating that they had invested $15 million dollars in the game and that they still had a valid contract to release it, despite Double Fine switching their publisher to Electronic Arts. Tim Schafer responded in his usual facetious tone by saying that Activision should have "put a ring on it". 

A countersuit was filed by Double Fine citing that the suit was malicious, done in an attempt to sink a competitor's product during a critical production phase.

Before the scheduled August 6th, 2009 ruling a settlement was reached between Activision and Electronic Arts and Double Fine.  Activision received reportedly minimal compensation in the agreement according to the L.A. Times, though the exact amount was not disclosed.  It is suggested in the linked article that Activision ended the suit in this matter to avoid losing the case.

Promotion

At the UK Download Festival 440 fans broke the Guinness World Record for “Most People Playing Air Guitar At One Time” to the tune of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades" at the EA booth in order to promote Brütal Legend. The previous world record was 318 people set in 2008.  

Brütal Legend was the main game showed off at Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2008, where a trailer was shown of the game.  

Leading up to the release, the game was promoted by Jack Black on public TV shows such as the MTV VMA awards.  Jack Black appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, while Tim Schafer appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon before the game releases. 
 
There were also a number of viral marketing videos featuring Jack Black in a muscle suit pretending to have gotten so into the role of Eddie Riggs that he gained an absurd amount of muscle mass and became tougher.  In some cases Tim Schafer accompanied him to play along.  
 

Content Filter

Brütal Legend has a content filter, similar to the one in Gears of War 2.  Players have the option of censoring language and gore. The options will show up on screen in the first scene of the game with the option to change the content filter settings later via the in-game pause menu. Censoring language simply results in bleeping over obscenities, while the gore censor removes blood and slightly alters some cutscenes (for example: with the filter off characters may be decapitated, while the censor being on leaves them securely headed). 

Pre-Order Bonuses

Retailers offered two different pre-order bonuses for  Brütal Legend,  Gamestop & Gamestation (a UK gaming store) pre-orders rewarded customers a Tenacious D in-game guitar, replacing Eddie Riggs' guitar in multiplayer, and being selectable as a free guitar upgrade in single player, though only a superficial one.  Best-Buy pre-orders came with special packaging of the game in a vinyl sleeve similar to the one seen in the main menu of the game.
 
In addition, a Brütal Legend t-shirt was given to the first 666 people who pre-ordered the game through GameStop back when the title was being published by Sierra. 
 

Licensed Soundtrack

Tim Schafer announced Brütal Legend's official soundtrack via a viral video.  In the video he solves a Rubik's cube while Emily Ridgeway, the game's Musical Director, reads the list of every band and song in the game, accidentally skipping two in the process. Schafer finished the Rubik's cube just in time. 
 
 There are a total of 107 songs on the track list:
 

Original Soundtrack

 The original soundtrack was composed by McConnell and was released on October 30th, 2009. This also includes "Girlfriend" by the fictitious in-game band "Kabbage Boy."
  1. The Chosen Roadie
  2. 11 O'Clock is a Direction
  3. Raptor's Veld
  4. Lamprey Attack
  5. Spirit of Bladehenge
  6. Ruins
  7. Time to Break the Chains
  8. The Big Kiss
  9. Blades of Serenity
  10. The Spider's Lair
  11. Thunderhorn
  12. Betrayed
  13. Sea of Black Tears
  14. A Creature Shall Rise
  15. Pile of Skulls
  16. Gather This Great Army
  17. Rescue from the Sea of Tears
  18. The Pleasure Tower
  19. Girlfriend (Kabbage Boy)

Xbox 360 Hard Drive Installation

Installing Brütal Legend on the hard drive takes up 5.9 GB of space.
Brütal Legend 165 images
General Information Edit
Game Name Brütal Legend
Platform(s)
Publisher(s)
Developer(s)
Genres
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Action-Adventure
Real-Time Strategy
Themes
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Fantasy
Comedy
Original US Release Oct. 13, 2009
need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release Q3 2009 know the real date?
Aliases Brutal Legend
OFLC
OFLC: MA15+
BBFC
BBFC: 18
ESRB
ESRB: M
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