Trash and Treasure: Gaming on a Budget RETURNS! Featuring Brutal Legend!

Hello, kidnappers and kidnapees, and welcome to the return of Trash and Treasure: Gaming on a Budget! I am your long-time absentee host, FishHook. I truly do apologize for the lack of writing for this column, but I honestly stopped buying games for awhile, or at least games that would fit into this budget gamer category. Also, I've been doing some rad stuff for preparation for college and getting something of a "production company" together called Machinery Making Modern Music Productions (or 4M for short), which will be the banner I will post any of my future projects under. I had a blogpost about that earlier though, so I won't waste time talking about it here. I'll just get right into the rating scale explanation!

I use a simple scale that will take into account not only the quality of the game with the standard measures of Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, and Replay Value, but also the fifth value of Affordability, how well the game stacks up at its current price point. The final rating of a game is not an average of these individual ratings, but a subjective rating that falls within one of three categories. The categories are as follows...

Pawn Shop Paraphernalia (The Low End)
- These are games that are either simply horrendous games that aren't worth any amount of currency no matter what or games that are hideously overpriced for their value. As the budget gamer, these are titles to avoid.

Decent Value Deal (Middle Of The Road)
- These are either merely OK games at a great value or great games at a value that may not be affordable to the budget gamer. These are games that the budget gamer should consider, but they aren't completely must-buy titles.

Tremendous Gaming Treasure (The High End)
- These are great games at great values. Tons of fun to be had at a low price point, these are the budget gamer's Nirvana and should be picked up at any cost. Even the gamer with a ton of expendable income should look into these high-class titles.

Now then, let’s move things along to our next review, Double Fine Productions’ latest work, the action RTS Brutal Legend!

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The boys at Double Fine Productions have created another underappreciated work of gaming art. After 2006’s phenomenal Psychonauts (which, if you’re wondering, is totally a Tremendous Gaming Treasure), Tim Schafer’s company began work on something very near and dear to Schafer’s heart: metal! The end result is a very unique action/RTS game that will give you neck cramps from the amount of headbanging you’ll be doing.

In Brutal Legend, you play as Eddie Riggs, rock and roll roadie caught in the wrong generation of pop rock. After some idiocy from the band that leads to the set falling on Eddie and trailing blood on supposedly magical belt buckle, the set comes to life, rips the band apart, and sends Eddie into a world made of heavy metal album cover motifs: car parts growing from the ground like flowers, grandiose pillars of amps, and guitars that fire lightning and literally melt faces. In this mystic world, the roadie is a commander of battle, the organizer of combat. Eddie finds his calling with Stonehenge, a rebellious human group fighting against devilish creatures and glam-head humans that sold out to the dark overlords. In fighting for the Stonehenge resistance, you’ll guide Riggs through a twisting story based in (of all things) love, loyalty, and vengeance. The story, while not seemingly as good as some of Schafer’s other works, is still very funny and engrossing and the characters really come to life.

Speaking of engrossing, Brutal Legend’s free roaming world is an absolute wonder to play around in. Animals freely roam through the country-side (and by animals, I mean boars with chrome wheels and flaming tailpipes and hedgehogs with steel quills), majestic mountains with rock gods carved into the face, garages that go straight into the depths of hell, and headbangers moshing around abandoned sets, just waiting for the next show. The world is beautifully crafted. It may not be the most technically wondrous as far as graphics goes, but it’s one of the best when it comes to style and feel. The characters are creative and ooze metal motifs and enemies really feel like enemies of metal, and when you actually take control of Eddie, you’ll quickly find death is indeed their reward.

The gameplay is very different from what people expected from Brutal Legend…and I’m failing to see why that’s a bad thing. People just expected God of War with a guitar and the game was actually bashed in reviews for having RTS elements. I just don’t understand it. The ‘Stage Battles’ as they’re called are an absolute blast to play. Setting up your stage, assaulting fan geysers with merchandise to take control of them to gather more troops for your metal crusade, they’re all done incredibly intuitively through the in-game mechanics. You never feel like you’re never in control of your legions, as the complexities of RTS gameplay have been simplified to 4 main controls: hold position, defend, attack, and follow the leader. It works well despite its simplicity. The only problem, in my opinion, with the game is what you get to do in between the Stage Battles. While these battles of the bands are extremely fulfilling, you don’t get much in the side-missions. Race the same guy in your bad-ass street rod; defend a position with a mounted machine gun; blow some shit up, wash, rinse, repeat. Don’t get me wrong, the action sections are fun, it’s hard to feel unfulfilled when you’re slicing Poision-style glam rockers in half with an ax while powersliding into dozens of unruly minions and blowing them up with the sheer force of your rock, but it’s simply repetitive. Another problem with the gameplay is the difficulty. It’s nearly non-existent throughout most of the game, but as soon as you get to the last couple of Stage Battles, it gets unbelievably hard. That gap in difficulty is off-putting, and led me to some very frustrating moments where I wanted to smash my 360 controller like a Les Paul.

The thing that kept me from doing so was the incredible sound design. The soundtrack is a perfect set piece to the game, with legendary riffs and powerful drums creating the perfect atmosphere. Music is integral to every mission, with the metal setting the mood for every single one of your exploits. The music is also an awesome distraction: if you get frustrated with those last few Stage Battles like I did, just hop in the Druid Plow and listen to "The Mob Rules" while smashing into everything in your path for a little while. I guarantee it will keep you playing. The voice acting is top-notch as well. Stars like Jack Black, Lita Ford, Rob Halford and Lemmy Kilmeister lend surprising depth to their characters. Topping the charts in voice acting is Ozzy Osbourne's depiction of the demonic master of the Metal Forge where you buy upgrades; the Prince of Darkness never fails to force a smile upon your face. And while enemies and allies have repetitive voice samples (you'll hear Headbangers say "We're on patrol!" more times than you'd ever want to hear), nothing every feels annoying or takes you out of the universe the game creates.

In terms of replayability, Brutal Legend offers one major victory: online Stage Battles! These are incredibly fun and keep the good times rolling for quite awhile in this game. There's little incentive to play through the single player mode again though, all you really get is a harder difficulty level. And, of course, it is an Xbox 360 game, so you will get some replayability if you are an achievements whore. Other than that though, the game struggles to recapture your attention if you aren't Live-enabled.

So how does this package come presented to the budget gamer? Despite a much heavier advertising campaign than Double Fine's last work, the backing of Electronic Arts, and a superstar voice acting crew, Brutal Legend still didn't sell that well. While this is disappointing for the industry, it's great news for the budget gamer, as you can pick up the game for a mere $20 new, and around the $17 range used. That is an incredible deal for the amount of enjoyment you'll get out of this game.

So, where does it fall in the ratings scale? If you've been reading, it's pretty obvious that I view this as a Tremendous Gaming Treasure. The game simply exudes charisma and charm from the second the opening video with Jack Black walking into a record store and finding the mysterious Brutal Legend record that leads you into the main menu. It's simply a creative masterpiece, and while the side-missions can be repetitve, the difficulty is out of whack and the lack of replayability if you're not an online gamer is concerning, it's all worth it to come to this mystical world of rock and roll.

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That'll do it for me this time. Tune in next time for more of the trash and treasure from the bottom of the bargain bin barrel!

- FishHook