Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend is a third person action-adventure game incorporating real time strategy elements. The game uses an open world that Tim Schafer has described as being approximately 40 square miles (100 km2) in area. The player controls the protagonist Eddie Riggs, a roadie who one day finds himself transported into a heavy metal–themed fantasy world. a.

"The Deuce". Spells, referred to as "Solos", from Clementine are performed by playing a minigame akin to the note-matching aspect of Guitar Hero or Rock Band over a brief guitar riff; however, Eddie cannot use the metal generated by Clementine constantly, as prolonged usage of the guitar will cause it to overheat, and the player will have to wait for a cool-off period before using the guitar's power again. Eddie may also find more solos hidden throughout the world, ranging from support to offensive spells. The player can spend in-game currency called "Fire Tributes", earned from completing missions, at the Motor Forge to gain new abilities and upgrades for each tool.

Brütal Legend follows the story of Eddie Riggs (voiced by Jack Black), who is "the world's best roadie" for "the world's worst 'heavy metal' band", Kabbage Boy. Much of the game takes place in an unnamed world inspired by heavy metal music, created by, according to the game's mythology, Ormagöden, The Eternal Firebeast, Cremator of the Sky, and Destroyer of the Ancient World. In this alternate world, the human race is enslaved by a race of demons, led by Doviculus, Emperor of the Tainted Coil (voiced by Tim Curry). Doviculus is assisted by his glam metal human minion, General Lionwhyte (voiced by Rob Halford and based on David Bowie with the name being an allusion to glam metal band White Lion) whose hair is so big "and luscious" that he uses it to fly, flapping it like a pair of broad wings.

Leading the fight against Doviculus are a small band of human resistance fighters with whom Eddie joins forces: Lars Halford (voiced by Zach Hanks), his sister Lita (voiced by Kath Soucie), and Ophelia (voiced by Jennifer Hale), whom Eddie takes a romantic interest in. Their group is later joined by the stage manager and tour bus driver Mangus (voiced by Alex Fernandez), the bass-playing healer Kill Master (voiced by and patterned after Lemmy Kilmister), the motorcycle-riding Fire Baron (also voiced by Halford, as well as visually inspired by him too), and the leader of the Zaulia amazons, Rima (voiced by Lita Ford and based on Kiss characters). Also supporting Eddie is the Guardian of Metal (voiced by Ozzy Osbourne, who also lent his appearance to the character) that assists in upgrading his equipment.

Creator Tim Schafer has said that he has been a heavy metal music fan since high school, and roadies have long fascinated him. As Schafer said in 2007, "The name was one of the very first things I thought of, over fifteen years ago. I was riding a bus, thinking about a game that would be the complete opposite of what we were working on, The Secret of Monkey Island [a Lucasfilm Games title released in 1990]. And Brütal Legend leapt into my head.

I've been hanging on to that name ever since." The title, which he describes as sounding "like the hardest core fantasy thing out there", makes use of the metal umlaut. The idea behind the game first came to Schafer about fifteen years prior to its release, but its core concepts did not completely come together until after the completion of Psychonauts (2005); when he presented his idea for the game to the team, they became excited at the concept and decided to make that their next title.

Brütal Legend received positive response from gaming journalists, with reviewers praising the story and characters of the game, and driven vocal performances of the voice actors, particularly Black and Osbourne. Daemon Hatfield of IGN felt Black was "completely committed" to the role of Riggs, while Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis found it relieving that Black reined in his typical "loud-talking heavy-metal goofball" act that he is known for and instead performed well, "bringing just the right amount of working-man's matter-of-fact-ness to the role". Osbourne's role was considered "amazing (and surprisingly coherent)" by GameSpot's Giancarlo Varanini and "played brilliantly" by Computer and Video Games's Andrew Kelly. The full cast was commended for their roles; the heavy metal musicians were effective at playing themselves in the game, while the other voice talent performed well and "[did] their part to balance out the star power" in the game.

The strength of the characters was considered to be enhanced by the quality of writing of the story, and the use of facial animation. Eurogamer's Christian Donlan considered the characters of Brütal Legend to be the strongest aspect to the game, distancing the title from other video games due to "rounded, personable leads who are distinctly superior to the usual throngs of cybermen and super-vixens", and a facet of Schafer's signature work. Wired's Chris Kohler further attested the strength of the game's story to Schafer's skill, considering that "After Brütal Legend, he should be considered one of the best storytellers in gaming, period." com's Justin Haywald noted that the game lacks the ability to review cutscenes, forcing the player to restart the story if they wanted to see these again.