Erm, Hi there. New round these parts. First off, Mr. Editor In Chief, have you ever been told that you sound a lot like Agent Smith? Quite disconcerting that.
Anyway, to the game at hand. I have to say that after a couple of days with Brutal Legend I've had to give up on it.
It comes as a bitter blow as I had been really looking forward to this one. I'm not a metal fan, was always more of a Radiohead type music fan (which will probably result in snorts of derision from the metal faithful) but I was a big, big fan of Double Fine's previous work on Psychonauts.
The first major disappointment is that even after following this game through internet sites and physical media I was not prepared for what the actual game actually turned out to be. Even the demo didn't hint at what the game would turn out to be: a heavy metal tinged tutorial for a hack 'n' slash/RTS hybrid set in an open world.
The idea must have seemed exciting and different on paper but in reality it has turned out to be a clumsy unfocused mess. The controls are not tight enough, nor the mechanics sound enough for the game to pull off hack and slash combat with any conviction and the fact that it manages to make all aspects of micro managing troops and resourcing more convoluted in this new guise makes the game completely ineffectual as even a watered down RTS.
It really is a shame as a lot of love has obviously been poured into the world, the characters and the lore and as an homage to metal it really is unmatched. The writing snaps and fizzles along and it's got loads of nice little touches. The problem is that video games are a tactile experience and although Schaffer's time served in point and click adventures has given him a great canvas for expanding his story telling it hasn't given him much training in how to create a great gameplay moments. Great games are built on satisfying controls and mechanics, not on great story telling and it's that which needs most focus for the next Double Fine adventure. As it stands the gameplay elements seem superfluous to the creative vision and not as an intrinsic part of it's DNA.
I await the masterpiece that the studio is capable of creating, given the right focus.