Brutal Legend came about when Tim Schafer got the idea to make a game in which all the fantasy imagery prevalent in heavy metal music and album covers was taken literally. Eddie Riggs, roadie for a lousy tween-oriented numetal group, is transported to an alternate dimension in which mountains are made out of amplifier stacks, chrome spiders spin webs of guitar strings, and endless war exists between people that follow particular subgenres of metal. Much like John Carter arriving on Barsoom and finding his true place in the universe, Eddie quickly takes the skills that have made him a great roadie and uses them to build an army to free humanity from the rule of demons and their glam metal sellouts.
Like all of Schafer's work, the game is comedic and features an exaggerated cartoon sensibility, but it's sincere at the core. It follows the rule that while the world seems silly, the inhabitants don't know that. They build hot rods reminiscent of Big Daddy Roth's work because their gods left the blueprints and materials for only those cars and that's all there is to it. The game also isn't watered down for the sake of a hypothetical family audience - metal tends to be edgy so the game honors that with plenty of gory combat and rough language.
Schafer was also interested in the relationship between bands and their fans and the feeling of them all being united while charging into combat, which lead to the game's most controversial feature and its commercial downfall (or at least its near-term disappointment). Influenced primarily by Herzog Zwei for the Sega Genesis, a game that combines action with real-time strategy elements, Schafer wanted the gameplay to culminate in scenes of Eddie commanding large numbers of troops while also actively participating in the fighting. The game starts by teaching the player basics of fighting alone, then introduces the idea of issuing commands to small squads running with you, and then the game gives Eddie to power to sprout bat wings and fly high aboveground where he can call forth different units and send them out to fight. The problem is that many players assumed that once Eddie took flight he had to stay there, essentially acting as a cursor without much connection to what was going on far below. The intention was that players would realize that the battle would go easier if they returned to earth and lead troops to victory by diving back into the fray. Contrary to many reviews, the game doesn't "suddenly switch from a hack-and-slash to an RTS"; it remains an action game that simply adds some RTS aspects to the third-person brawling. The easiest path to winning the game is to remember that your character is best used directly in combat.
Schafer also had some issues coming from a PC adventure game design background. Adventure game players are accustomed to constantly tinkering with the environment to solve weird puzzles and Schafer seemingly expected Brutal Legend players to act similarly with respect to finding collectibles scattered around the game world, but many action game players were expecting the game to explain everything that could be done through in-game tutorials and thus missed out on many benefits of exploring the game's gorgeous environments.
Although the gameplay is entertaining once you get on its level, the main appeal to metal fans is that it features the greatest soundtrack in history. Over 100 songs from 75 bands that cover almost every part of the genre. Major names like Motorhead, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Slayer are included, along with excellent but obscure names like Brocas Helm, Omen, and Slough Feg. The most noteworthy omissions are Metallica, who were apparently too expensive and were working on their own Guitar Hero game around that time; Iron Maiden, who have dabbled in video games but have never been very savvy about the medium; and Ronnie James Dio, who was originally to participate but abruptly dropped out for still mysterious reasons.
Dio's performance of "The Mob Rules" was used to help sell the game when it was first unveiled and he was cast as the game's arch villain, Lord Doviculus, but the part was recast with Tim Curry as Schafer explained that they felt Curry was a better fit for the part. Although it's true that Curry did a great job, the fact that Dio had been cast as Doviculus at all was peculiar. Dio made his name singing uplifting songs about believing in yourself and overcoming adversity in a classic metal style. Why cast him as an S&M-themed industrial metal demon? Dio seems a better fit for the role of the Guardian of Metal, but that part went to Ozzy Osbourne and Dio's exit from the project seemed to coincide with Ozzy's hiring. Dio had a notable rivalry with Ozzy and many fans have speculated that Dio may have taken offense to Ozzy being more heavily promoted as part of the game's cast. Schafer later acknowledged that "things did get a little complicated with that whole set up," which seems to indicate that it wasn't just a simple matter of Dio being recast and then deciding to do something else. Not only is his music not in the game, there are no references to him at all. You can't visit the Man on the Silver Mountain, there are no rainbows in dark places to be found, and you can't go to the shore and observe priests diving in the ocean. AC/DC's music isn't in the game, either, but there is at least a character clearly based on Brian Johnson.
The graphics are lovely and fulfill the goal that anytime you pause the game will result in an image that could pass as an album cover. Vast graveyards, eclipses rimmed by lightning, temples of dark priests, etc. Graphics that go with a more stylized look over realism tend to age more gracefully. Schafer's story is fun, although the game ends right as it starts getting particularly interesting. Schafer apparently had to cut quite a bit of material that would have gone into a sequel had one ever been made.
Supplemental reading: The Art Of Metal: Five Decades Of Heavy Metal Album Covers, Posters, T-Shirts, And More
No comments:
Post a Comment