Call Me Demoman: Brütal Legend
by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn
What, two Demoman images in a row?!? Must be Multiplaying’s Team Fortress 2 night.
If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming scene even one iota, then you’ve heard plenty about the upcoming game Brütal Legend. The game that features Jack Black as the voice of heavy metal loving roadie Eddie Riggs, and has the backing of legendary game designer Tim Schafer (seen here holding a very potent substance). Most likely if you’ve read what I just wrote and thought to yourself, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen videos, screenshots, the commercials, Tim and Jack both on Jimmy Fallon, blah blah blah.” Then you are like me, and have been unable to avoid the onslaught of information about this game. I was getting to the point that I didn’t care about the title anymore because it seemed that the hype train was building up such a momentum that there was no way it was going to be able to stop at the station of good games. But then a demo hit the other day, and I forgot about all the hype for a moment, and got to downloading.
There’s good and bad in the demo. I’ll get the bad out of the way quick by saying I wasn’t really wowed. There was nothing in the demo that I hadn’t already seen a handful of times while getting my Gametrailers.com or X Play updates. I already knew exactly what was coming around the corner, and most of the lines that were to be delivered. On top of that, the fighting didn’t seem to do anything new past the fact that you’re using a guitar as a weapon. Which is badass, don’t get me wrong, but when the last action game I played was Batman: Arkham Asylum, the God of War style fighting seems like a step back. It’s not that the fighting is bad, it’s just that it’s one of those comparisons I have to make now. Like whenever I play the single player story of a first person shooter, I have to compare it to Half Life 2, or Call of Duty 4. It’s a simple fact of the bar being set.
That’s honestly about the only bad part of the demo, and it’s mostly attributed to me simply having prior knowledge of the games opening. I am now curious what happens after that. I already got a glimpse of that Tim Schafer charm that I’ve longed for since the days of Psychonauts, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango. It’s one of, if not the biggest reason to own this game. You can forget about the meh combat once you hear some of the best dialog in gaming delivered exquisitely by Jack Black (love him or hate him, he is Eddie Riggs).
There’s a lot of gaming competition this holiday season, it’ll be interesting to see how Brütal Legend does alongside the likes of Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2. I’m thinking all three as early personal Xmas gifts. You?
