I was initially pretty excited about Brutal Legend. The 360 demo was fantastic. The heavy metal setting for the game had never really been done before. I had recently played Tim Schafer's other great, Psychonauts, for the first time. So it had a lot going for it.
Then the initial reviews came out. Lots of people were surprised how much of a real time strategy (RTS) game it was. It seemed to do a little bit of every type of gameplay and was only just okay at them all. But I forged ahead based on all the other things. Since the demo was just the first 15 min. or so, I still enjoyed that part of the game. As it quickly threw sqaud control and real time battles into the mix, I started to get bored and confused. I should have known. I've never really liked RTS games and consoles are sort of a terrible fit for them. I think the only ones I've ever really liked were the original Command and Conquer and the brilliant Lock's Quest on the DS.
So I played it for a few hours, but soon sent it back after talking with a friend that had played through a lot of it, heard my initial take on it, and figured I probably wouldn't grow to like it any more than I already did. So, sorry Tim, I tried.
Now I'm distracted again by the old favorites Burnout Paradise and Oblivion with some New Super Mario Bros. Wii thrown in.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Brutal Defeat
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2 comments:
Normally I keep silent, but I felt compelled to defend my GOTY ; )
I guess there is a lot to like and dislike about Brütal Legend, but one of my biggest surprises was how enjoyable I found the stage battles to be. I am TERRIBLE at strategy games in general ; I always lose track of everything after a few minutes, and fall behind in the growth of my army. What I liked about this one was that it streamlined the experience to more manageable measures (for example, by spawning every unit from the same building), and made things more personal by allowing the player to join the battle hands-on. It is indeed confusing and difficult to handle, but I think that once the chaotic nature of the combat is accepted as part of the "heavy metal" theme, it is possible to find pleasure in the pure sensory excess as well as the tension of the conflict.
I could go on and on about my love for this game, but that will have to do for now : )
(I enjoy reading your impressions by the way. I don't know what motivates you to keep doing so, but know that you have at least one faithful reader.)
Sweet. Thanks for reading.
You're right about the "lot to like and dislike" part for sure. I just got to the point where I seeing more frustration than fun. For a genre that's supposedly about control of your army I never felt like I could make things happen the way I wanted them to.
Oh, and I had heard that he was in there, but seeing what they did with Ozzy's character was actually one of the coolest things I'd seen in a game in a while.
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