Challenge

Hard to gauge the challenge of this game, because it's really all over the place. Brütal Legend has an unfortunate habit of not telling you how to do things. Some missions and battles will be very straightforward and will be very easy to beat, maybe with one run of trial and error. Other missions however, one in particular that stands out halfway through the game, are very confusing and give you no clues on what strategy to use or what enemies to attack or anything. Having three difficulties is nice, but for a Real Time Strategy game, once you know how to win a battle you should be able to win it regardless of the difficulty level.

Graphics

A highlight of Brütal Legend. The heavy metal fantasy world the game takes place in is very colorful and lifelike. Graphics and animations are sharp, and there are almost none of the graphic glitches you find in some open-world games, with the walking-through-bulidings glitches in GTA4 being a good example. Customizable graphics for your monster car just adds to the pure awesomeness of the environment, if you're into the whole modern/medieval idea.

Replay Value

Other than going back to get achievements and beat the game on a higher difficulty, I don't see any reason at all to come back to Brütal Legend. The multiplayer is just more of the same way-too-simplistic RTS battles you are already doing in the campaign, so it's pretty much useless. Also the game is so easy I would imagine some experienced games might even be able to get all the achievements and beat the game on Hard in one playthrough...this game desperately lacks in replayability. At least it has alternate difficulties, so it doesn't completely fail.

Narrative

Surprisingly great storyline on this one! Pretty straightforward war/battle story with a romance thrown in, but it's fashioned in a way that really appeals to the audience of metalheads. Boy meets girl, attracts her by slaying demons, then...girl becomes half-dressed half-demon seeking vengeance? AWESOME!!! m/

Ease of Controls

Not easy. Everything from the button combos on attacks, to the troop commands, to the “solos” you play, similar to what might be called “spells” in a less metal and more magical RTS, are all based on very complicated two-button combos. Especially noticeable with the attacks. For example, one attack seriously requires you to hit A, X, A, A. NONE of the attacks use Y or B. Why on earth couldn't you just use B? I'm still at a loss on these controls, and I've been playing it for a solid 10 hours at least. At least the driving controls are normal...

Social Playability

With the multiplayer being useless, and no co-op in single player, this game seems impossible to be integrated with socializing. I do however know a friend of mine that often has Brütal Legend get-togethers with another friend of his, don't know exactly how those work. At the very least, your friend could at least jam out to the game's faaaaantastic heavy metal sound track while you romp around killing dudes.

Overall

If you're a heavy metal lover, you will equally love Brütal Legend, it is really the ultimate metal fantasy world. If you aren't a metalhead, this game is really nothing special, and does have some pretty big general gameplay flaws.

OVERALL GRADE: C-

Replay value

Not much replay value at all, the campaign is really a one-time thing and the multiplayer is very dull. Fortunately, this game has been out for awhile so it can be found for cheap, so the “value” aspect is still there.

Social Playability

With boring multiplayer and a solo-only campaign, this game has very, very little potential for social play.

Objectionable Content

Brütal Legend's setting is in a heavy metal fantasy world from the imagination of Jack Black, clearly not a family-friendly environment. Profanity and gore are prevalent, and the main character is generally very aggressive and violent. Violence and gore can be turned on and off, which is a nice saving grace, but even if you turn it off yourself, don't count on your son to keep off all the “awesome” blood and guts. The violence is mostly not towards humans; or normal looking humans at least. This can reduce aggression and hostile behavior. Overall Brütal Legend I would consider pretty bad in terms of content, but I doubt too many kids would be interested in the themes anyway.

Addictiveness

I didn't see this game as addicting at all until the very end. For the most part, missions and battles are short, and there is ample time in between action to save and quit. The last three or four hours of the campaign is really the only spot of non-stop action. I found myself unable to pull myself away from those last few hours, but that really isn't uncommon amongst games with good story lines. There's potential for one too-long session at the end of the game, but other than that there really is no issue with addictiveness here.

Academic Perspective

One major aspect of Brütal Legend is obviously the very prevalent soundtrack of metal, everything from 70s Black Sabbath to newer acts such as 3 Inches of Blood. There have been lots of studies on the affect of different genres of music, and also lots of studies on the affect of different video games, and Brütal Legend shows us another example of when video games and music collide. I would propose and experiment to study the interaction of video games and music, do they build on each other, like drinking and smoking, or do they cancel each other out?