ThunderPeel2001

Brütal Legend overload...!

Recommended Posts

You know what, I still haven't got my original copy of brutal legend...

Isn't there a postal strike in England?:erm:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Isn't there a postal strike in England?:erm:

I ordered it before there was, but there were disruptions. 23 days is pretty ridiculous though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I ordered it before there was, but there were disruptions. 23 days is pretty ridiculous though.

Where did you order it? Most online shops will send you a new copy if it doesn't arrive after a certain number of days...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Where did you order it? Most online shops will send you a new copy if it doesn't arrive after a certain number of days...

shopto.net, I waited the amount of days till I could get a refund (I picked up a copy in the city centre), so just want a refund at this point.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is such an awesome game and I'm sad that it doesn't reach it's full potential due to being a bit shallow. Not as shallow as Assassin's Creed of course, but in some aspects it's not so far from that.

The side missions, except for a few, are lacking variety. Even when only the girls are left alive after an "Ironheade Ambush" or whatever-it's-called, the same four guys celebrate and say the same damn lines.

A lot of the story seems skipped, Eddy is talking about things I haven't heard about as if he knew them, although he is just as much a stranger as I am. Maybe part of that is because of the dialogue lines during missions that aren't always very audible or are cut short. But I'd really like there to be more background story.

The Guardian of Metal seems totally disconnected from everything else, he's just a merchant. He could at least comment on what's going on outside or something.

Still, I like this better than Zelda: Twilight Princess mainly because the world is more interesting to me.

I do like the RTS part somewhat, but they are a bit too frequent for me, that's why I use the side missions as an excuse to drive around a lot in between main story missions. I've completed all the side quests so far, and I just beat O by the lake. That was fucking hard, I failed three times and finally had to use basically everything in my arsenal to win. 85% done, the game isn't quite as short as I feared at first. Also, I played it for 8 hours straight today... ugh.

PS. Is there going to be something that tells me how to ungag those dragons or do I have to figure it out myself? I've tried doing all kinds of things to them but nothing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hahaha, I can't believe how many people have difficulty with those. All you need to do is hold down the guitar button to burn them. ;(

Also with regards to your backstory stuff, have you been discovering the legends? They're the bigger statues knocking around, which are opened with the earthshaker and are similar to the mental vaults in Psychonauts except instead of psychological trauma they reveal awesome narrated backstory.

I just finished the game today, and I definitely give it an overall thumbs up. It's probably not as accomplished and tidy a tale as Psychonauts IMO, but it is nonetheless a really captivating experience and I really felt drawn into it during the 19 hours it took me to finish it (still missing a legend and loads of concept art though).

I actually thought the RTS stuff was great, but then I've always liked RTS games. It did a fantastic job of bringing the principles of RTS gaming to a more action-orientated context, being nowhere near as tactical as something like Command & Conquer. In fact for someone like me used to such complexity, it was a bit of a walk in the park and I didn't fail a single RTS sequence on regular difficulty.

The main criticism I would level at the game is the slight roughness to certain things: car engine sounds could be better, lack of variety to side missions and their included dialogue, etc. The actual length of the game wasn't too bad for me and about on par with any Schafer game, though I think it's easy to expect more due to the epicness of the world and amount of time we've been waiting for the game.

Overall, it's great. I'd definitely be up for seeing more of the world via some serious DLC though, and even a sequel could be pretty awesome — though not at the expensive of an original Schafer IP.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Yeah the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, in a way I am glad that there is No Maiden, it wouldn't fit to the game quite as well, plus they are fairly mainstream; I am also very happy that there is no Metallica. Although it is a pity that there is only one song by both Anthrax and Slayer, to me it seems that they should have more of them, particularly with 'thrax being pretty much perfect driving music.

Yeah, I'm really glad there's no Metallica. But I think there are a few Maiden songs that would have fit. Also, I would have liked to see some older stuff from Manowar (anything from up to and including Kings of Metal) instead of the two songs that are there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hahaha, I can't believe how many people have difficulty with those. All you need to do is hold down the guitar button to burn them.

:frusty:Doh! Thanks for the tip. Now I have another excuse to drive through the entire world again :)

Also with regards to your backstory stuff, have you been discovering the legends?

Yes, they are awesome, but I've only found a few and I might have forgotten about those while writing the previous post. Anyway I would have liked some more background about the characters in the main story.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
PS. Is there going to be something that tells me how to ungag those dragons or do I have to figure it out myself? I've tried doing all kinds of things to them but nothing.

You know, I was thinking about how I actually liked that in this one, isolated thing, no one tells you how to do it. I started thinking back to, for instance, games like Ocarina of Time. There you have absolutely nothing telling you how to do stuff. You might come across some weird artifact, or a temple, or a bunch of scarecrows, and there's nothing telling you 'press A' or 'use this item'. It might be that you need to progress further in the game to get some item you can use this on. Or perhaps you just need to figure it out. But whatever the solution, it always added enormously to the atmosphere of mystery.

Now compare that to the heavy-handed way in which Brütal Legend plays its cards: ,,These flowers tell me this relic needs to be raised." Do they now? It's not entirely the same thing, but I hope you see where I'm getting at. Why is there no mystery in gameworlds anymore? Why spell everything out at the first convenience? Something's getting lost here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I agree. I love it when a game makes me figure out some things by myself.

If the relics in Brütal Legend were also a mystery at first, then I probably would have spent more time trying my luck with the dragons. Right now as most other things were explained and I tried aboud 10 different moves/solos, I ended up thinking the method to ungag them would unlock after a quest in the main storyline.

But I guess no-one explained the legend statues as well. It's just that the move for that was more used (was it called Earthshaker?). For some reason I actually never used the set-on-fire move in the game until Thrik said that's what's needed to set the dragons free. I had even forgotten that I knew such a move. I actually had tried giving the dragons an electric shock. Had I remembered I could set things on fire with just one button, I'd have tried that. BTW, I think I did use some other combo that sets things on fire, but that didn't work (But 'emergence' isn't something one would associate with a Tim Schafer game anyway)

I also now realized that the final battles would have been easier had I freed the dragons earlier. But I'm glad I didn't as it made the last battle really challenging and now that I finished the game I can just drive around in that incredible world, free the dragons and find other hidden stuff.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had the same experience only in reverse, since I never used the earthshaker and I got the dragons fine, but was baffled by the legends for ages and similarly assumed I would get something else further along the line that would sort them out.

As for the story, it felt like it wanted to be a classic three act thing but after the first act start lurching about horribly. I completely disconnected from Eddie at that point and felt it was pretty badly done. It was all set up very nicely and then wasted, I really wish they had followed through on the idea of a roadie never taking to the stage, making things work from the background. It could have made a much more interesting and satisfying conclusion to assist someone else fighting the end boss using stage tricks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It was all set up very nicely and then wasted, I really wish they had followed through on the idea of a roadie never taking to the stage, making things work from the background.

So do I and I found it utterly weird that the thematic was hammered in the opening and re-hammered at the end while being completely ignored in-between.

I was expecting something along the line of having to discover the prophecy and making it actually happen for others.

Was anybody surprised - as I was - that the game felt quite dull storytelling-wise ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought the story was great, but some so-so executed cutscenes, as well as insufficient explanation of some of the backstory (I didn't uncover a single legen; I didn't know there were legends until Schafer mentioned them in one of the dozen interviews I read yesterday), probably made the flavor a little more bland than it would have been. Not to mention the sudden final act. It almost felt like you needed to have a couple of more battles with Doviculous before earning the right to fight him. And...that beach scene was a little weird and out of place.

Gameplay, it was mostly fine, though boss fights seemed to miss the point of the world. You can't make a game about heavy metal and then have Zelda style boss fights in there. This is Hardcore Territory. I'm not saying turn this into the heavy metal version of God Hand's lovechild with Devil May Cry, but they should have sat down and thought about how to make the boss fights a bit harder. The Metal Gear Solid games ones struck me as a better template for this sort of thing than Zelda.

Some of the RTS elements needed tightening up.

Eddie's axe swing didn't feel hard or energetic enough.

But fuck it. This game was awesome. The world is mesmerizing, and a place I would probably like to visit (if I were immortal, I guess) and the atmosphere is incomparable. When the gameplay works, it is brilliant (the fights with Ophelia are intense and just so goddamn atmospheric, plus her troops are some hardcore motherfuckers). The art direction is fucking...man. And the animation? Holy shit.

That all doesn't matter as much as the fact that so much heart was put into this game, though. I fucking love that. This was a labor of love, and it shows. If Schafer ever makes a full-blown sequel or something (and I would love one, as long as it doesn't harm the next IP), then I hope they polish the gameplay and explain it better, but yes: for the most part, the game is fucking brilliant and I'm getting into obsessive fangirl mode over it. I think I'll be playing it over and over for the next few months. It was worth the wait.

(Finally got my copy on Monday, finished it last night.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Really interesting article in Game Developer this month...

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/12/postmortem_behind_the_scenes_o_1.php

"In June 2009, Activision Entertainment Holdings, Inc. filed suit against Double Fine, claiming breach of contract and seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the release of the game by Electronic Arts on Rocktober 13. Less than 2 months later, the case settled out of court. I can't talk about any of that in this article, or any article really. I bring up getting sued as something that went wrong because of the impact the between-publishers transition and subsequent lawsuit had on the development of Brutal Legend.

"Let’s go back a little bit. We had been working collaboratively and successfully with various groups at Vivendi for two years until Vivendi merged with Activision and we lost touch with both publishers while a lawsuit percolated. The merger announcement and subsequent diminution in publisher contact with Vivendi personnel, especially after such a previously harmonious relationship, caused internal unrest and morale dips among the team. Company meetings often included frustrating discussions about what little we knew about the current situation at our publisher, and what the various possible outcomes would mean for Double Fine.

"This demoralizing uncertainty lingered for months, during which time the leads continued to motivate the team to hit their scheduled milestones while watching our coffers run dry in the absence of any publisher payments. We learned Activision was not going to be publishing Brutal Legend through an official press announcement issued by Activision that listed the games they would be shipping, ours conspicuously absent. Again, the team was abuzz with anxiety—and the official hunt for a new publisher began, distracting Tim, myself, and various team leads during an already intense development period.

"Even after the game was re-signed with Electronic Arts, we enjoyed only a brief reprieve before the legal communications began among Double Fine and Activision and Electronic Arts. Most of the team was shielded from the drama that unfolded between December 2008 when Electronic Arts announced that they had picked up the game for publication and July 2009 when the lawsuit settled. But Double Fine’s leadership was not, and the distraction and stress took its toll on individuals and on our deliverables.

"The lawsuit was filed just as the game went Alpha, with a stipulation that it be heard prior to Gold Master being submitted—relegating Tim and myself and a cadre of team leaders to the unenviable job of information gathering, declaration writing, lawsuit reading, witness interviewing and all around non-game-making during the crunchiest, most critical time of development. The lawsuit took its toll on the team, on the company, on our product and on our optimism. Wrong, any way you slice it."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yep, I read that last week and posted about it on Mixnmojo yesterday. It is an excellent read, and the exact kind of thing I'd like to see more of.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't, because reading that depressed the hell out of me. I haven't finished Brutal Legend yet (I haven't gone back after Ophelia trounced me in the second fight), and while I love many things about it, it feels unfinished in places. And I guess this is why.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
And I guess this is why.

Nah, that game needed a whole lot more work in general. That's months of extra development time, for which I'm guessing they didn't have the money.

Brutal Legend was a bit of a disappointment for me, in terms of quality. It didn't help that I just finished playing Uncharted 2, so my senses were a bit spoiled. :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I can actually easily see stuff like this taking a massive toll on the game design process. Don't forget this stuff dragged for months itself and according to the article/post mortem, the seniors and highest people up had to carry most of that burden. A law suit is something you can't just leave for the quaint hours of the working day, unfortunately.

Well, this is definitely sad to hear. It's pretty obvious there was more potential in Brütal Legend than what was apparent. I'm not knocking the game at all, I love it. But the singleplayer definitely could've benefited from some better thought-out content*.

* Especially racing. Man, if the game would've used the awesome car dynamics for actual races, multiplayer or otherwise, instead of the clunky ghosted Fletus bits... that could've made a game onto itself. Damn, that's my top wish for this game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
* Especially racing. Man, if the game would've used the awesome car dynamics for actual races, multiplayer or otherwise, instead of the clunky ghosted Fletus bits... that could've made a game onto itself. Damn, that's my top wish for this game.

Definitely. Considering they were racing around the map by month three (apparently), couldn't they have implemented some sort of two wheel drive physics by the end of their development?? The driving/racing in the game feels so fake and disconnected, even after playing something non-racey, like GTAIV. It's like Mario Kart physics or something. Quite unsatisfying.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't mean the physics persé, I mean more that I want to goddamn race against people, have more 'tracks' across the land. Multiplayer or otherwise. The car dynamics are fine in my opinion. I don't care about realistic physics. I just wanna VROOOOOOMMMMMM!! with de Druid Plow.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Haha, yes I'd definitely have appreciated more racing. The tour bus sequences were cool, but it just made me hunger for a proper Mario Kart-esque rumble through the world — particularly due to the delightful assortment of weapons you can attach to your ride. The Fletus races were great too, although it'd have been better if you were also racing against the Kill Master, the Fire Baron, Mangus, the big-ass-grinder-thing, and Glottis.

Golden material for DLC, of course.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, exuberantly so! The somewhat obligatory map pack and minor additions to weapons and skins is done. Now give us rrrrraces! =)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Haha, yes I'd definitely have appreciated more racing. The tour bus sequences were cool, but it just made me hunger for a proper Mario Kart-esque rumble through the world — particularly due to the delightful assortment of weapons you can attach to your ride. The Fletus races were great too, although it'd have been better if you were also racing against the Kill Master, the Fire Baron, Mangus, the big-ass-grinder-thing, and Glottis.

Golden material for DLC, of course.

I'd buy that one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I haven't seen anyone talk about the Hammer of Infinite Fate DLC, so I assumed it hadn't been released... but apparently it has?!

Although it comes with a ton of new material:

Three new outfits (Mountain Man, Black Metal and Zaulia Threads)

Seven new back patches

Four new paint jobs for the Deuce

Three new weapons for the Deuce

Six new Mount Rockmore heads (including Tim Schafer)

Four new multiplayer maps

Nine new achievements

But the main thing I'm interested in is the last addition: The Occulus of the Lost -- basically something that shows where all the undiscovered items left on the map are.

Any thoughts on this? As far as I'm concerned that's the main reason for getting this DLC... I don't really care about the rest of it (although I don't mind it). God knows I can't be bothered to search everywhere to collect everything!

The weirdest thing is that XBL only describes it as adding two new maps and an axe (if I was reading the right one correctly). Very odd.

Edited by ThunderPeel2001

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now