E3 Hands-On Impressions of Brütal Legend

While Activision tries to file a lawsuit against EA over this property, we who got to go to E3 where also bombarded with this game at the major booths much like Batman Arkham Asylum. Only there was no booth all to itself for this one. Also there was no Jack Black on site pimping the game like he did at the Brütal Legend infomercial pretending to be the Video Game Awards.

That all aside, I waded through the line to get my dirty and sinful little hands on this title to give it a good go before the Demo comes out. Granted, it was only my hands and eyes that got to sample any of this game. It was way too loud in the EA booth where they had speakers built under the entire stage and game trailers playing non-stop, sans the Old Republic one. But that's a different article. But the point I'm making here is that the vocal humor is what was suppose to be what made this game stand out from every other God of War style game.

As expected, the controls and HUD are just that of any other brawler. Although, as I only got to play it on the PS3, they did make use of the touch sensitive buttons for some of the attacks and combos. I could have also been on crack at the time to. Which could also explain why the driving part I got to in the Demo was a little lacking in the control system.

Well let me re-phrase that, the car you get to drive, and not the giant mechanical spider thing, has some very unforgiving controls. There was a lot of the driving in the Demo as well. Which was rough outside of the Boss fight, and required to progress through a storyline I couldn't hear. It felt like you had to pretty much be on the verge of snapping the left stick off to make the car turn one way or another. Which worked in the boss fight as you needed to drive in circles to defeat it, but when it is part of the level design, it is quite a let down. But hey, there is still some time until Rocktober for them to get that under control.

There is one newish type control that is employed in this game that was kind of a cool addition that didn't require hearing something that I couldn't. Although it would have been nice to. This feature is the mini game to play a rock solo Parapa the Rappa style. You know, you have the buttons you have to press and the scroller moves over them when you are suppose to press them. By doing this, it unlocks new things for use in the game. At least that is the assumption here as it unlocked the car you have to drive in the demo. I just wish there was more of it to see how it progressed in difficulty.

Now if I haven't bitched enough about not being able to hear anything in the game, let me dedicate this paragraph to it. When showcasing a new game that has it's story and humor as the innovative part of the genre, you would think that they would give you some headphones or a quieter place to give the game a go. I mean it's cool when you want all the action to be dictated (heh) to the player to keep them immersed in the story, but let them hear it. It is also cool when you want to bring a comedic-style-epic story to market, but when showing it off, show scenes that people can hear or make sure they can. It is not an issue with the game though, just the presentation of the game.

I do want to say that hearing issues aside, the few clips I did hear made me give a school girl giggle hardly, manly laugh. Jack Black haters aside, the script that I heard was done pretty well for the game. That and since the characters are pretty much Jack Black and Kyle Gass, there is no loss for voice acting and the look of the characters. I mean, they fit for each other and the styles.

I will say that I am going to pick it up when it does come out. Even with some of the shotty thing I did talk about, but that is mainly because I am a fan of Jack and his brand of humor. (Hate comments expected now) For the main consumer, I would say to give it a rent or at least watch a friend buy and play the game. At least based on what was shown at E3 2009. They could pull some crazy stuff out of their ass in the next few months that could impress even those who hate Jack. I'll keep ya up to date as I am.