Zero Punctuation: Brutal Legend
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
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Going back and watching this now that I've played Psychonauts, it suffers from one of the same problems: it doesn't tell you where anything is. Go see Ford Crueller to get your merit badge: which one? There's twelve of him! I just happened to stumble down a tree stump and find his secret hideaway without the game giving me any kind of hint what to look for. Much like how I played the first two hours of Brutal Legend without a Motorforge available. I think this actually is part of the charm of these games, you get the satisfaction of finding these things without the game holding your hand.
Honestly I was surprised about the whole idea to mark Jack Black over the fact that it was a console RTS. As a big fan of Sacrifice on the PC, I was excited for pretty much anything that resembled it (turns out the game is pretty much a sequel with worse controls and better graphics, set in heavy-metal land rather than dark-floating-island-fantasy land). However as I realize I'm in the minority, I do really think advertising the action elements over the actual game was a despicable marketing move to save a game from selling about as well as, umm, the last Tim Schaffer game.
After many hours happily driving around staring at Megadeth album covers, and many more struggling with an xbox controller trying to get my melee guys to go without my ranged guys, or at least to move in a formation that was slightly less cumbersome, I realized that quite possibly the biggest problem with this game is the total lack of control. However, this may just be because the lack of control is hiding the even bigger flaws that I am unwilling to see due to my deep love of Sacrifice. Seriously, they're horrible.
If I ever play this game online, and lose to someone who actually looks like they're playing an RTS with a mouse, I will know it is Mr. Schaffer himself, playing it with a custom UI with a USB keyboard/mouse combo, and he created the control scheme the rest of us have to use specifically so he'd be the highest-ranked on Xbox Live (which is also why it's not on PS3. Who has time to dominate two leaderboards?)
After many hours happily driving around staring at Megadeth album covers, and many more struggling with an xbox controller trying to get my melee guys to go without my ranged guys, or at least to move in a formation that was slightly less cumbersome, I realized that quite possibly the biggest problem with this game is the total lack of control. However, this may just be because the lack of control is hiding the even bigger flaws that I am unwilling to see due to my deep love of Sacrifice. Seriously, they're horrible.
If I ever play this game online, and lose to someone who actually looks like they're playing an RTS with a mouse, I will know it is Mr. Schaffer himself, playing it with a custom UI with a USB keyboard/mouse combo, and he created the control scheme the rest of us have to use specifically so he'd be the highest-ranked on Xbox Live (which is also why it's not on PS3. Who has time to dominate two leaderboards?)
I want to love this game so damn much, but I can't.
I thought the RTS stuff was actually pretty damn cool, and stylish factions and the special attacks all of them have and everything are very, very awesome (Drowning Doom's my favourite) but they've put the RTS in an open world with vehical sections and beat-em-up combat, and tried to disguise the whole thing, and... it doesn't work.
Possibly the worst thing for me was the lack of world- there's only one story quest you complete at a time, instead of the usual pick-out-of-one-of-a-few-missions GTA style thing. The world is the best part of brutal legend, and the only thing to explore in it is repetitive racing/turret dufense/ambush side missions.
Perhaps the real problem was the hype? The game isn't what it promised it would be, promised even all through the first part. Honestly, I like the RTS style thing, but I would've prefered having it Jak 2 style: Ride around the overworld to get to missions that you complete through quirky hack-n-slash gameplay. THAT was the game brutal legend was claiming to be.
I thought the RTS stuff was actually pretty damn cool, and stylish factions and the special attacks all of them have and everything are very, very awesome (Drowning Doom's my favourite) but they've put the RTS in an open world with vehical sections and beat-em-up combat, and tried to disguise the whole thing, and... it doesn't work.
Possibly the worst thing for me was the lack of world- there's only one story quest you complete at a time, instead of the usual pick-out-of-one-of-a-few-missions GTA style thing. The world is the best part of brutal legend, and the only thing to explore in it is repetitive racing/turret dufense/ambush side missions.
Perhaps the real problem was the hype? The game isn't what it promised it would be, promised even all through the first part. Honestly, I like the RTS style thing, but I would've prefered having it Jak 2 style: Ride around the overworld to get to missions that you complete through quirky hack-n-slash gameplay. THAT was the game brutal legend was claiming to be.
I love Brutal Legend and i would love a sequal, but you are right at some points...
Is there anyone on this f*cking planet that got the 100% crap achievement/trophy
WITHOUT searching 4 stuff on the web cuz' its f*cking impossible!!!
Is there anyone on this f*cking planet that got the 100% crap achievement/trophy
WITHOUT searching 4 stuff on the web cuz' its f*cking impossible!!!
Haha nice review. Also I didn't read all the posts but did anyone else notice the StarCraft reference?
I like to eat combination foods like pizza, sushi, and hamburgers. That's similar to how I like this game. Mainly there's the simple "bread" of RTS "go there, kill that, bring more help" gameplay, but the hack-and-slash gives it flavor while the driving gives it texture. The story's fine (not quite "Double Fine", lol).