Zero Punctuation: Brutal Legend

[BlueInkAlchemist]

This is more a rant about Yahtzee-fanboyism then the man's condemnation of today's game. (the rant has been cut for time but you should still read it)

There's a difference between being a fan and a fanboy. A fan of Yahtzee's holds onto their opinion but appreciates what he does - deliver fresh, well-written and funny content every single week, which is more than most American sitcoms can claim. A fanboy clings to his every word be it spoken very quickly into a headset microphone or stated somewhat quietly in person. For example, I enjoyed Mass Effect very much but I still smiled at Yahtzee's commentary on the wordiness of the game. Yahtzee isn't going to convince me to buy a game I hadn't considered buying - unless I hadn't heard of it, vis a vis Trine - nor is he going to convince me to stop liking a game he dislikes, such as the aforementioned Mass Effect.

Yahtzee himself has little patience for sycophants. From Mailbag Showdown [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/37-Mailbag-Showdown]:

"Do you really need somebody in authority giving you a simple Yay or Nay before you buy anything? Why don't you roll over so they can stomp on the other side of your face?"

 

[knight56]

By ignoring the shoehorned sandbox portion by only buying minimal upgrades I'm about halfway through and still enjoying it.

Plus I have metal to listen to.. Which is a very weak excuse.

 

[ObnoxiousPotatoe]

Yay for correct German pronounciation

 

[Fallopian_Faust]

Wow, lots of brutal legend hate here.

I greatly enjoyed brutal legend, and it's really about the whole package. It's easy to nitpick at this game because the gameplay is definitely weak in places and the main quest could've stood some serious beefing up, but everything for me came together to make something fun and original.

The RTS sections do start to grow on you after awhile, skimpy as they are.

 

[Tsaba]

Good review, I just think the whole short as heck story kind of makes the game feel lacking a whole lot, I feel like there should be something else if I do all the silly side quests but I just don't care enough to do them, at all.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I ended up with French but now can hardly remember any of it.

why bother remembering it? It's a stupid language anyway

You're very offensive to me....

 

[Dectilon]

That didn't sound so much like a umlaut as you saying 'brutal' while doing your drag queen impression.

I'm having a good time playing Brütal Legend, and I'd say it's like Psychonauts: flawed, but charming and funny. It's unfortunate that the demo didn't feature the RTS-bit of the game since that would've been more sincere.

I do agree with most of the review still. Finding the motor forges is easy since they're all surrounded by red flowers visible even from a distance, but the story and guitar solo-stones really should've been marked on the map or introduced some other way. Then again, there was a great deal of that in Psychonauts too, so if it didn't bother you then it really shouldn't bother you now.

If you want some excellent acting, an original and funny script (for a game), unique visuals and decent action, sure, get it. It's flawed without question, but still enough of an experience to be worth the asking price.

 

[Highlandheadbanger]

I loved Brutal Legend. One of the best games this year. My only gripe with it is that the main story is a bit to short, and you have no way of seeing the cinematics over again.

A bit sad to see that people worship Yahtzees words, which in turn makes them pass over great games which he didn't like. These "reviews" are fun and all, but hardly proper reviews. Oh well, sucks for you worshipers I guess.
*dreams himself off to the Age of Metal*

Thank God man, I thought I was the only one who saw the development of a Yahtzee-worshiping cult. I hope it doesn't take a degree in Sociology or Religious History to see the Protestant Reformation parallel of it all.

It's one of my favorite games of all time, of course, thats along with games like Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, and the Total War series*, so I'm pretty much an infidel to the Yahtzee-faithful.

*I recognize there hasn't been any offical dogma official denouncing the Total War series or the RTS genre in general, but if you've seen some of the forum chatter since Halo Wars and Darkest of Days, some elements of the RTS community fear that we may end up as the next scapegoat to be burned at the stake by these Gaming Zealots. If that day comes, I shall join you in Ironheade, as fighting a war against Trolls and Gaming Zealots is a lost cause.

 

[Tmcmistress]

and i have a hard time seeing the resembles between tim and jack, they look alike in the pictures you choose but in all the others pictures and clips ive seen they look nothing alike, also theres a video of them together on double fines site.

...I'm not sure if this counts as observance, or lack of it...?

A disappointing review for sure. I'll still pick up the game eventually as I'd like to encourage Schafer to continue making games, and I'm sure there's enough of a good game buried in there to overlook the RTS stuff, but still.

 

[CyberKnight]

Did anyone catch the umlaut he didn't pronounce?

It's at 2:29.

What do I win?

 

[Buccura]

The RTS aspect could have worked if they gave you the ability to pause the action and organize your troops, for the single player at least.

I also don't think there is anything wrong with sandbox games just as there isn't anything wrong with linear games, so long as the former gives you plenty to do and a fairly easy means to get around.

I personally like the game, however, I am not blind to the issues of it. I guess you really have to be a metal head like myself to get the most out of it. For what it's worth though this game did make me feel a bit worse about never buying Psychonauts, though I did try to get it on Steam but the damn thing won't work.

I agree though the demo is a bit deceptive.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

So what, Yahtzee's review is invalidated by the format rather than the message? If he wrote his opinion as a series of paragraphs and gave scores for gameplay and graphics it would somehow become more valid? All reviews are simply opinions, and some people who have responded in this thread share his opinion. Just because your opinion is different doesn't invalidate Yahtzee's.

Of course not. But the amount of people thinking "Oh, he doesn't like it. Guess I won't buy it then" is quite big. When you should at least read around some more. There are also several things in the video which was plain silly. Cannot find Motor Forges? Seriously? If you cannot see the top of them surrounded by the red flowers you are told grows near things you can raise... then you just don't read the manual or in-game help enough. The thing about RTS is also quite funny. When he asks his "friend" if it is good RTS... the whole "amass a big army and throw them at the enemy" is the way you are supposed to play it. And because that is what you do in the RTS segments, this is not a good game?

The only thing I think is wrong is calling these videos proper reviews. 'cause they are more a rant about every little thing which irks Mr. Croshaw about the game. Even when he talks about games he love he manages to get the "this sucks" vibe out there. Hey, I love these videos as much as everyone else here. I just think it is wrong calling them reviews. Rants is more like it.

This is more a rant about Yahtzee-fanboyism then the man's condemnation of today's game:

I'm sorry he didn't like the game, but frankly, I don't give a toss what Yahtzee has to say when it comes to buying a game. I loved Mirror's Edge, Halo 3, Call of Juarez, Mass Effect, Oblivion, and Brutal Legend. I may take a grain of salt from Game Informer or the like, but really I only go to Yahtzee for the entertainment value. Yahtzee ripped into pretty much all these games, but I still had tons of fun with them, some of which are my favorite games of all time (Brutal Legend featured prominently as one of the frontrunners).

I'm a bit disappointed seeing all the comments with people deciding not to try the game at all because Yahtzee said so, thats the exact kind of thing the man talked about in past reviews before: silly cultish little people who wait for their Oracle's guiding word in any of their gaming preferences. In a seemingly incredible, but not so predictable turn of events for anyone with a basic knowledge of Religious History and/or Human Sociological tendencies,
Yahtzee has convinced a population of console fanboys to throw off the chains of their oppresive dogmatic religion, only for them to convert and worship his word in some sort of bastard microcosm of the Protestant Reformation.

I of course don't speak ill of those who tried the game, didn't like it, and then causually posted about it. I merely refer to the unpleasent growing trend I've started to see of people blindly following Yahtzee's word, not just in forums, but talking to some in person. So much so that I was relieved after Yahtzee admitted he didn't really have a taste for the RTS genre (a favorite of mine) and refer to someone else's respected opinion, rather then the somewhat expected over-the-top condemnation several like-minded fellows concerned themselves with a few weeks ago when they sent an email to Yahtzee, asking for the official dogma of the "Church of Ramblomatic" concerning RTSs', which I begged my RTS faithful not to do, since I refused to have my beloved Total War franchise burned at the stake by ignorant Yahtzee faithful who, on forums and in direct contact in the real world, wholely denounce Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, and [now] Brutal Legend without ever having played any of them.

My thoughts exactly.
EDIT: Posted this before I saw your comment quoting me
But yeah, I love a lot of the games Mr. Croshaw has stomped all over. But then again, I really dislike a lot of the games he dislikes And I love the Theif series, which is one of the few games he really likes.
RTS is awesome, and I should really get into Total War again.
And while the RTS in Brutal Legend isn't so in depth as proper RTS games, it sure is fun! IRONHEADE!

 

[chaosraiden]

BL didn't have enough Lemmy parts. It was like, 'Yeah man I'm fuckin awesome look at me heal' and then he has about 2 more lines in the entire game. Ozzy was the same screaming profanities at Jack. ( I will not call him Eddie, because it is fecking Jack Black)
The combos with your teammates in the RTS is pretty funky like combining with the Sound Guy to become invisible, or with the other NPC's for different abilities.
Also the combat lacked alot of combos for jack himself, I think I counted around 6 different combos including mash X, Mashing Square, holding X, Holding Square each with their own piss weak damage that couldn't be upgraded to anything more than a accidental wet fart, likewise the weapons were only like 8 choices and 4 weapons for the Deuce.

 

[Fallopian_Faust]

I'm amazed people take Yahtzee seriously as a reviewer, his views on a game mean even less to me than the so-called "professionals" at IGN and the like.

The reason for this is he's a comedian; a damn good one at that. I laugh my ass off even when he's blasting one of my favorite games.

 

[Samoftherocks]

After reading the posts here, I feel I fit into the minority of people who like Jack Black, Metal, RTSs, and don't mind a heavy-handed mix of all three in the same game. Listening to Dragonforce while driving around a crumbling castle and being assaulted by unmentionable evil is fucking awesome...but it's a niche. I get it. So what?

Lately I've just been setting the game up to sit there and play music, which I suppose isn't much of recommendation, but then again, when you do play, you get a guitar that rains lightning from the sky. I defy any of you to top that!

Note: Painkiller, gun that shoots shurikens and lightning, I remember...

 

[Gutterpunk]

I do agree with most of the review still. Finding the motor forges is easy since they're all surrounded by red flowers visible even from a distance, but the story and guitar solo-stones really should've been marked on the map or introduced some other way. Then again, there was a great deal of that in Psychonauts too, so if it didn't bother you then it really shouldn't bother you now.

Yes, there is flowers, but you don't know that before you find a location. I remember seeing one of so many damn popup telling me about the flowers, describing how we could use them to find ancient artifacts, but frankly, I didn't realize that a "MotorForge" was an ancient artifact before I got the quest to go to the MotorForge (right before the first Tour) and there was no Motorforge at the end of the cinematic. I had to enter the Motorforge twice to continue my quest, as there wasn't any weapon to buy the first time because I was apparently in "New Forge Found, Play The Cool Ozzy Cinematic" mode.

So yeah, it's a fair description IMHO.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Personally, I won't be getting Brutal Legend... I just couldn't get along with the demo (got as far as the big gate at the bottom of the ramp you descend with the spider-walker-thing). I love the old metal music's and the hack-and-slash and open world stuff I can cope with, but I really, really, really hate Jack Black, he very much gets on my nerves.

(And just in case any of you call me a "Yahtzee Cultist", I played Pyschonauts when it originally came out and got bored during the Military Bloke's War-torn Mind, but decided after Yahtzee's comments on it to try it again... Still came up bored and not enjoying it :-/ I thought some of the ideas were interesting, but for me the game was lacking some crucial component to keep my interest.)

 

[solidstatemind]

I loved Brutal Legend. One of the best games this year. My only gripe with it is that the main story is a bit to short, and you have no way of seeing the cinematics over again.

A bit sad to see that people worship Yahtzees words, which in turn makes them pass over great games which he didn't like. These "reviews" are fun and all, but hardly proper reviews. Oh well, sucks for you worshipers I guess.
*dreams himself off to the Age of Metal*

Thank God man, I thought I was the only one who saw the development of a Yahtzee-worshiping cult. I hope it doesn't take a degree in Sociology or Religious History to see the Protestant Reformation parallel of it all.

It's one of my favorite games of all time, of course, thats along with games like Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, and the Total War series*, so I'm pretty much an infidel to the Yahtzee-faithful.

*I recognize there hasn't been any offical dogma official denouncing the Total War series or the RTS genre in general, but if you've seen some of the forum chatter since Halo Wars and Darkest of Days, some elements of the RTS community fear that we may end up as the next scapegoat to be burned at the stake by these Gaming Zealots. If that day comes, I shall join you in Ironheade, as fighting a war against Trolls and Gaming Zealots is a lost cause.

I've been hanging out on these forums for a long while-- at least a year before I bothered to register and post. While I understand your concern, it's always been like this: there is a segment of fanboys who take Yahtzee's word as Gospel, and are very vocal in their adulation. That said, I don't think that is so much different than any forum- you're going to deal with a certain amount of fanboys. I think the real issue here is that it's impacting a game which you enjoy.

So I guess what I'm tryin to say is: don't stress about it man. It's not going to make any difference in the long run. Smart people will enjoy the reviews for their entertainment value and perhaps take into account any complaints Mr. Croshaw voices that align with our own pet peeves of games (I intensely dislike bad controls, so I take notice when he says a game has difficult or unresponsive input), but otherwise make our own decisions... but the sheep?

Well, sheep will be sheep, and there really is very little you can say to change that...

 

[bachterman]

oooh, how i hate jack black. AND shitty sandbox games. and rtses.
and not because yahtzee told the same.

 

[Firia]

I'm rather surprised Yathzee didn't like this game (as opposed to any other game he's reviewed and didn't like). Basicly for all the points leading up to the part about RTS elements.

I'm not a diehard metal fan. I enjoy me some metal, now and again. The demo (all I can afford at this time) put a big stupid grin on my face. It's a shame to hear that it all bleeds away into an RTS sandbox. Maybe I can just reply the demo over and over? And learn the ways of French Kissing? (Big stupid grin.)