What is Console Command?

Quick and to the point, Console Command concentrates on short and sweet reviews to help readers wade through the endless console releases so they can enjoy the titles they would truly appreciate with the limited time they have to game. The column has a three-pronged rating system: Buy it, Rent it, or Skip it. We told you this would be quick and to the point!

Brutal Legend

• Developer: Double Fine Productions
• Publisher: EA Games

I find heavy metal pretty funny just by itself. It’s like its own parody – how can you honestly take a band name like Megadeth seriously. Don’t get me wrong, I love Megadeth – they’re talented musicians that make pretty awesome music. But, come on, MEGAdeth? Brutal Legend tries to take the badass-ness of heavy metal, couple it with Jack Black, and make a tongue-in-cheek heavy metal video game peppered with solid comedic moments. The game’s continual attempts to be funny are largely successful, but other than that Brutal Legend is a giant dud.  

The game is organized into two components: a RPGish third person view where a Jack Black likeness marches around a fantasy-like world of metal and smashes virtually everything he encounters with a massive axe; and a real time strategy battle mode where the player tries to protect their stage and accumulate fans (glorified resource nodes) to purchase units while simultaneously destroying the enemy’s stage.

The third person RPG mode is straight up boring. Double Fine tried to incorporate a combo system between light and heavy attacks which came up pretty flat. In addition, the player’s character can cast spells by playing a magical electric guitar. To cast a spell the player must play a very brief Guitar Hero-like minigame. Basically, one has to press the right button at the right time in the magical riff to correctly complete the spell. This is a neat idea but it ultimately got on my nerves. I ended up casting the same spells so much that having to replay the same riffs made me want to embark on some megadeth of whoever came up with this system. The singleplayer campaign primarily takes place in the third person RPG mode but thankfully it’s very short – even by modern console game standards. I wouldn’t really even consider the story mode a singleplayer campaign; it’s more of a tutorial with plot. At least it was pretty funny.

Having defeated the evil metal forces of blah blah from wherever land in the singleplayer the player is offered the two equally unpleasant choices of either strolling around the singleplayer map and collecting the ten billion different bland collectable items or playing the real time strategy component against a human or computer opponent.

As I mentioned before, the real time strategy game mode centers around a stage where the player can construct new units by spending fans and several “fan geysers” spread around the map from which adoring fan spirits perpetually rise. If the player can “claim” a geyser with a special guitar riff they will increase the rate at which they accumulate fans, thus increasing the rate at which they can afford units. Basic RTS stuff, really. Predictably, the enemy can take these geysers from you and vice versa. The real time strategy element to this game may be strategically interesting but I wouldn’t know, I couldn’t get past the clunky and formidable user interface. Ordering units around is a complicated mess. The player issues orders by flying around as a hero-like avatar that leads their respective “faction.” Not only does this make travel time between battles a stressful affair, but it adds to the complexity of ordering one’s troops around when the player’s avatar also needs to be babysat. If an enemy ranged unit arbitrarily decides to start shooting at your avatar in the middle of a battle you now have to avoid their attacks while simultaneously issuing a complicated set of commands. If the player’s avatar is killed the opponent gets a massive fan bonus. If the player so desires, their avatar can even land in the middle of the fray and start hacking away with their minions. This is about as much fun as spamming the A or B button over and over again, which I had just done in the singleplayer campaign, so I wasn’t thrilled by this.

Unless you really like heavy metal and you find Jack Black hilarious, this game is not at all worth the time.

Skip it.