Thursday, November 19, 2009

Brutal Legend Impressions


Does it have the best soundtrack in videogame history? Yes. Is the writing and the voice acting top notch? Yes. Is the overall world design and artwork mindblowing? Yes. Is the game epic? Well kind of. Its gives you that epic feel but it doesnt quite have the length or depth to be considered properly epic. The game isnt that long, which is a problem because the soundtrack is huge and you likely wont hear every song by the time you finish the game, even if you do all the side missions.

Overall I can easily recommend renting this game or buying it used. I played it on the PS3 and while I dont know how it compares to the 360 version, if they do make a version for the PC in the future that will be the one to own because of the higher resolution, framerate, and support for advanced features like antialiasing. The console versions look good technically speaking (the art is phenomenal), but never great. Hopefully the PC version will also support mods - this game world has serious potential for modders.

Brutal Legend is a game that almost fulfills its potential. I think the game just should have been longer and there should have been stuff to do in the world. For those that had concerns about the RTS elements, I didnt find them offensive or overdone at all. Yes they are simplified but they work well and sometimes make for some truly epic moments when you get down into the battlefield to help your troops fight hordes of enemies to the swinging sounds of Racer X.

I like the game world so much, I wish it was actually an MMO. I think I would play it a ton if there were RPG and coop elements to it, and simply more stuff to do in the world. As it is, I finished the game and all the side quests in under 8 hours and then sort of looked around and went, hmmmmmmm. I skipped around the soundtrack for a few hours, went for a couple of random trophies, and then put the game back in its box and sold it to Gamestop. I bought the game for $64 (including tax) and I dont have a single regret - this is Tim Shaeffer we are talking about here. Hopefully more people will buy the game and Double Fine's next project can be even bigger and better.

2 comments:

md galaxy said...

NEVER SELL YOUR GAMES TO GAMESTOP! Throw them on eBay! Gamestop rapes people when they buy back games. Fuck them.

Anyways, I look forward to checking this out for sure.

Chronic said...

Yeah selling it to Gamestop was dumb but I was feeling lazy and really didnt want to shell out $120 for NSMBW and L4D2. With the deposit credit for each and all the trade ins, I only paid $20 for the two games when I picked them up so it didnt feel that dirty, it felt like I saved $100, lol. Thats how they get you.