E3 09: I Don’t Get Brutal Legend

A lot of people seemed kinda excited about Brutal Legend after seeing it at this year’s E3, but I’m having a hard time understanding why.

The demo that was running at both the EA and Microsoft booths showed what looked like a pretty basic action-adventure game, one in need of both polish and sizzle. One level had you driving a car racing towards… well, I’m not sure, because I never saw anyone finish the level. People kept driving off the side of a cliff, into the lava, or simply ending up lost without any kind of waypoint arrow or compass to show the way.

brutal

The other level was a pretty straightforward third-person button-masher, with the lead character grabbing his guitar for special attacks and beating up enemies. After just 30 seconds, it already seemed repetitive, and everyone I watched play the demo just gave up after a few minutes and walked off.

Maybe I just watched the wrong people playing, but if Brutal Legend‘s main draw is a humorous story with Jack Black voicing the lead character, then the gameplay either needs to be more engrossing or lead you by the nose so you can experience the comedy. Of course, this requires that the game doesn’t get blocked by a current Activision lawsuit (which I can only assume is just ATVI lawyers looking to squeeze a few $$$ out of EA and nothing more). I think Tim Schafer is one of the most talented and certainly funny people making games, so I’d like to hope my impressions are way off, but what I saw at E3 seemed more brutal than legend.

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