Murdoc Posted October 16, 2009 ohnobruno said: Here go. It's basically the title screen, and I'm considering finding a price sticker to put on the top of it so that it matches. Damn thats cool, I'm tempted into trying to pick one up on ebay for a lot of money; would be cool if they released a soundtrack in a record sized cover like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted October 16, 2009 FUCK YOU, royal mail. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted October 16, 2009 I'm actually getting a little nervous for this game. Between the fact that it's getting reviews all over the place and the fact that I'm currently replaying Psychonauts, I'm worried that after finishing the current playthrough, Brutal Legend just won't compare to the wonder and majesty of Psychonauts. I'm already fairly certain it won't be as good, but most of my worry comes from the proximity that the two experiences will have in my mind. Knowing it isn't as good is different from having it explicity shown to you in the space of a couple of weeks through personal experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vimes Posted October 16, 2009 Wait for a few weeks then, it's not as if the game will become suddenly crap because Rocktober is over. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted October 16, 2009 Very true. I'll also better be able to know if I can afford it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noyb Posted October 16, 2009 Red ring of death as I turned on my 360 to start playing Brutal Legend. Wonderful. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gdf Posted October 16, 2009 Man alive this game is fucking awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vimes Posted October 17, 2009 Ooooo, I just discovered you could mount most of the wild beasts. Riding a laser panther and a thunderhorse? Fuckin' done! Apart from that, I've had my ass handed over several times by Reveal hidden contents Ophelia in the Dry Ice Battle , so I'm currently spending some time roaming the land to find new spells (found 4 new ones, I'm still missing one) and get some fire points. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vimes Posted October 17, 2009 Patters said: I love this game. I like it a lot, and then I hate it. Right now, I'm frustrated : I've spent the last 2 hours trying to Reveal hidden contents beat Ophelia on a Battle stage , and the game never gives me a hint of why I'm losing. Plus, the shortcoming of the game are really showing : how come I don't know how long the debuff are lasting or when a spell is going to be available again ? How come even though I threw a Rock Block at the beginning of the game, the opponent still manages to throws bunch of troops at me in the first 30 seconds? How come the Merchbooths from the opponent takes age to crumble down (even in DoubleTeam) but mines falls like match buildings? How come it took me fuckin' ages to notice I could defend the stage by myself, and why isn't it bloody efficient ? If there are reasons - and I guess for 75% of these, there are - then the game fails to convey those. Writing a letter with advices day 1 after launch is cute , but it means something is wrong in terms of game design. Aren't there betas and test to notice that it's a big mess and then fix it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted October 17, 2009 vimes said: I like it a lot, and then I hate it.Right now, I'm frustrated : I've spent the last 2 hours trying to Reveal hidden contents beat Ophelia on a Battle stage , and the game never gives me a hint of why I'm losing. Plus, the shortcoming of the game are really showing : how come I don't know how long the debuff are lasting or when a spell is going to be available again ? How come even though I threw a Rock Block at the beginning of the game, the opponent still manages to throws bunch of troops at me in the first 30 seconds? How come the Merchbooths from the opponent takes age to crumble down (even in DoubleTeam) but mines falls like match buildings? How come it took me fuckin' ages to notice I could defend the stage by myself, and why isn't it bloody efficient ? If there are reasons - and I guess for 75% of these, there are - then the game fails to convey those. Writing a letter with advices day 1 after launch is cute , but it means something is wrong in terms of game design. Aren't there betas and test to notice that it's a big mess and then fix it? Haven't done anything on the RTS element as yet. So far this game just clicks, and hopefully the RTS aspect will too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Horticulture Tycoon Posted October 17, 2009 vimes said: I like it a lot, and then I hate it.Right now, I'm frustrated : I've spent the last 2 hours trying to Reveal hidden contents beat Ophelia on a Battle stage , and the game never gives me a hint of why I'm losing. Plus, the shortcoming of the game are really showing : how come I don't know how long the debuff are lasting or when a spell is going to be available again ? How come even though I threw a Rock Block at the beginning of the game, the opponent still manages to throws bunch of troops at me in the first 30 seconds? How come the Merchbooths from the opponent takes age to crumble down (even in DoubleTeam) but mines falls like match buildings? How come it took me fuckin' ages to notice I could defend the stage by myself, and why isn't it bloody efficient ? If there are reasons - and I guess for 75% of these, there are - then the game fails to convey those. Writing a letter with advices day 1 after launch is cute , but it means something is wrong in terms of game design. Aren't there betas and test to notice that it's a big mess and then fix it? I've had similar frustrations fighting the Reveal hidden contents Drowning Doom , but I think it's just a case of the game relying too much on the tour book to explain which enemy unit does what. Most RTS games (I know Tim says it's not an RTS, but it totally is) introduce units one at a time so you can learn what they do, and Brutal Legend does that for a while with the Ironheade units. But some of the enemy units they just throw at you all at once without explaining what they are, I've only gotten far enough to be fighting the Reveal hidden contents Drowning Doom, and the first battle with them in the snow, there were suddenly five or six unfamiliar units attacking me all at once, plus I had one new friendly unit, and I had no clue what any of them were. I knew something was reducing my units' attack speed, but I didn't know what or why, so I had a really frustrating time. Of course, that matches Eddie's experience of being attacked by an unknown force for the first time, so maybe some of that is semi-intentional... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thrik Posted October 17, 2009 Shit man, I'm well into this now. I've just spent hours doing secondary quests and finding stuff. My jaw kind of dropped when I first saw the wall of amps doing its stuff — awesomeness! I have to confess I was getting a bit worried for a while, but it's like Fable 2 for me in that once the game gets its hooks into you it's really addictive and a massive joy to play. Similarly to Fable 2, it's mostly because of the fantastic world, characters, story, etc rather than the gameplay itself (although both games have pretty good gameplay, just not outstanding). Also, is it me or is this game fucking hard? I'm barely managing a lot of the earlier stuff on normal, and am massively tempted to drop to 'Gentle' — I can see it being more fun. However my 9-year-old sister is pretty much waltzing through, not dying once during stuff like the spider boss whereas I lost like 50,000 lives. :~ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moelman Posted October 17, 2009 Thrik said: Shit man, I'm well into this now. I've just spent hours doing secondary quests and finding stuff. My jaw kind of dropped when I first saw the wall of amps doing its stuff — awesomeness!I have to confess I was getting a bit worried for a while, but it's like Fable 2 for me in that once the game gets its hooks into you it's really addictive and a massive joy to play. Similarly to Fable 2, it's mostly because of the fantastic world, characters, story, etc rather than the gameplay itself (although both games have pretty good gameplay, just not outstanding). Also, is it me or is this game fucking hard? I'm barely managing a lot of the earlier stuff on normal, and am massively tempted to drop to 'Gentle' — I can see it being more fun. However my 9-year-old sister is pretty much waltzing through, not dying once during stuff like the spider boss whereas I lost like 50,000 lives. :~ Yeah I am finding it pretty hard. Even things like a few of the ambushes I tried I found hard, where I wouldn't die but everyone else on my team would. I was also tempted to drop to Gentle but surely I can finish it on Normal or whatever, I have gotten pretty frustrated though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Horticulture Tycoon Posted October 18, 2009 Just finished, and I'm mildly disappointed. Disappointed as in I was possibly setting my expectations too high, not disappointed as in "this blows", but still... Although I enjoyed much of the game immensely, I think it's safe to say Brutal Legend is my least favorite of Tim Schafer's games so far. And I actually like heavy metal. Simply put, the RTS battles just don't work that well. Since it's nearly impossible to give individual orders to units, you have no choice but to command your army around in one big group. So every stage battle turns into my giant army fights your giant army, and the winner of that first skirmish takes control of all the resources and digs in. This is slightly mitigated by the fact that your player character can pretty much lay the entire enemy army to waste by himself, and also by the unit cap. But generally speaking, the stage battles all play out the same way almost every time, and unless people start coming up with some crazy out-of-the-box tactics in multiplayer, I can see it getting dull awfully quick. I was getting pretty tired of it by the end of single player, since I more or less knew if I was going to win or lose the battle within the first five minutes, and the rest of the battle was just a long slow march to its inevitable conclusion. That said, you don't finish a triple-A game in under 3 days unless you're enjoying it, especially if you're me. And saying that Brutal Legend is Schafer's weakest game is still to say it's superior to most titles out there. I do have some misgivings about the story, but I'll save those until more people finish. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted October 18, 2009 (edited) Here are my impressions so far (I'm currently Reveal hidden contents battling Ophelia in the Goth swamps having befriended the Kiss ladies ): Firstly: OMFG, this game is BEAUTIFUL. The world is so wonderfully realised. The characters, the lore, everything. I've never been a fan of metal, but I love the universe that Schafer has created from it... when the right song kicks in you can really feel it. This is some awesome stuff. Secondly: Arg! Stop telling me I've unlocked concept artwork! It's irritating and distracting! Also: I don't care! Thirdly: The "side missions" are incredibly dull. They're nothing like you'd expect from a Bioware game, for example. No new characters or stories and, as a result, it makes the game-world feel a LOT smaller. They're essentially the same mini-game... over and over (with occassional variations). Fourthly: The RTS game-mechanic can be frustrating and annoying. At its absolute best it manages to be neither, but it most certainly is NEVER fun. It just feels like it's getting in the way of stuff I want to be doing. If I were trying to be slightly more constructive about it, I'd say that I'd rather the main game was a hack n slash OR an RTS, instead of an uneasy mixture of both. Lessons learned: Tim Schafer is an absolutely genius when it comes to creating wonderful, unique, incredible worlds. The world's artwork is stunning, yes, but it goes beyond that: The entire experience feels so cohesive. The music, the characters, the mythology... I love watching the "Legends" when I find them as they add so much depth to the universe. I also love Eddie Riggs and all the other characters, too. LOVE them. Tim Schafer should not be inventing new types of gameplay. Ever. He should leave that to a fellow genius/team of geniuses that know how to create that wonderful balance that makes something fun and playable. Or he should stick to adventure games. I think that sums up my experience. Now I want to dip back into the wonderful world that is Brutal Legend... Yes, despite its flaws, it's still wonderful. Also: Lemmy cannot act. Rob Halford can act a bit more (and seems to get a little better as the game progresses). Ozzy is actually really good. Edited October 18, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted October 18, 2009 ThunderPeel2001 said: Also: Lemmy cannot act. That due to the fact he is a billion years old and has taken far too much coke. Am I the only one who really enjoys the RTS aspect, the only thing I don't like is the turret parts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Karimi Posted October 18, 2009 Well, I can't decide if I like Brutal Legend or not. Having completed the main campaign, I've been reflecting on what has overall been an odd experience. The gameplay isn't that bad, I wouldn't say its the most graceful combination of modes but certainly not the most convoluted. After a few battles it makes complete sense and is fun to play. The storyline is pretty straightforward, but i feel like there were points where i did not know what was going on. It seemed like i missed a cutscene or some conversation at times because they'd talk about certain characters as if they had been introduced (they hadn't). I think the things this game really had going for it were setting and storyline, both of which seemed really compromised by the end. Lets address this as a Tim Schafer game, not just any game. The game was too short, dialogue was disappointingly sparse (thats what you get when you have celebrity voice actors i guess) and the character development lacking. I didn't love Psychonauts's gameplay, but that was by and large glossed over by the amazing storyline , characters, and overall awesomeness. Thats what Brutal Legend lacks the most I feel, it does everything except what you want the most from Tim Schafer - a story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vimes Posted October 18, 2009 Karimi said: The storyline is pretty straightforward, but i feel like there were points where i did not know what was going on. That happened to me once, Reveal hidden contents when someone says to Eddie that the Sea of Black Tears had been used and he answered "No, impossible ! It's been sealed a million years ago". How could he possibly know that since none of this stuff was mentioned before ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Murdoc Posted October 18, 2009 (edited) Ok I'm at the end, haven't beaten it, so don't know the ending, but kind of tired at this point after just having a big ass battle 2 seconds before it... Overall I really like the game, but the last 1/3rd of is really poorly laid out. It still has all the open world features, but gets very pathy/linear, so when ti was open fields I was just driving around looking for shit, but give me a bunch of hallways and I'll roll through the story pretty quick. Another dissapointing faction(edit: I have no idea what I was trying to say here, but I ment feature, maybe?) we're on a mission on our way to the end and it happens to be kind of the end, so meh to that. While the world is awesome, the characters are kind of bland and the story is fun enough to keep going, but pretty typical hero stuff. Theres some cool moments that could have probably have been boosted up better if they had a better cutscene director, the music lyrics fit the epic moments, but the music itself didn't go with the direction. Also near the close end, I'm hearing kind of modern music, I think? Not sure what was going on there but I swear it was white zombie(actually I think it was Rob's solo career stuff) and something else I'm familiar with.... this felt really really off from the rest of the game where I pretty much assumed most of it was old stuff or really obscure stuff, so it kind of put me off. Overall (and again I'm not done yet, but I get the jist) I really love the world, the gameplay is fine if you're not expecting a super specific rts or hack and slash, I thought at the best of times it was a great combination of both as I had a lot to do in battles and it was fun as hell. The presentation, aside from the more "epic" cutscenes was rock solid and I loved the mood and feel of the whole game. The downsides was the poor map layout and pacing after lion whyte. EDIT: Oh and as someone who explore a lot, I did find the story of the Sea of Black Tears before Eddie mentioned when it was sealed up, so my Edward knew enough to make that comment. Edited October 18, 2009 by Murdoc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rez Posted October 18, 2009 vimes said: That happened to me once, Reveal hidden contents when someone says to Eddie that the Sea of Black Tears had been used and he answered "No, impossible ! It's been sealed a million years ago". How could he possibly know that since none of this stuff was mentioned before ? he knows it if you've been scouting for "legends". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ohnobruno Posted October 18, 2009 I finished this afternoon and overall I had a great experience. After reading the Giant Bomb review, I was scared as to the length of the game (I believe they said the story missions could be finished in only four hours) but it turns out that it took about 11 hours for me to finish it. Murdoc said: Overall I really like the game, but the last 1/3rd of is really poorly laid out. It still has all the open world features, but gets very pathy/linear, so when ti was open fields I was just driving around looking for shit, but give me a bunch of hallways and I'll roll through the story pretty quick. I agree with this. Although I explored a lot towards the end, it did feel like you were being funneled towards the end. Narratively, it makes you feel like you have to chain smoke missions and the design of the forest keeps bringing you back around to spotlight. When I went off to explore I felt like I was abandoning everyone. There were a few times I did a mission only because I was tired of driving past the camp for then tenth time in as many minutes. But I don't want to complain too much. Was I expecting more? Yes, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what more I was expecting. The game is fun and makes probably the best first impression of any game I have played this year. It never topped those first impressions but it never made me regret playing it. It got its hooks in me and probably unleashed the latent love of Metal that I have always suspected was in me. No game before has made me write down a list of bands I wanted to check out. I'm pretty sure this was part of Tim Schaefer's evil plan all along. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Horticulture Tycoon Posted October 18, 2009 Murdoc said: Another dissapointing faction we're on a mission on our way to the end and it happens to be kind of the end, so meh to that. I... agree? If you're saying that one of the multiplayer factions is Reveal hidden contents suspiciously absent from most of the game , then yes that is definitely disappointing. And odd. Also, I hope that goatse-esque Reveal hidden contents cave leading to the Sea of Tears was unintentional. Double Fine seems too classy a joint for something like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Murdoc Posted October 18, 2009 ohnobruno said: But I don't want to complain too much. Was I expecting more? Yes, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what more I was expecting. The game is fun and makes probably the best first impression of any game I have played this year. It never topped those first impressions but it never made me regret playing it. It got its hooks in me and probably unleashed the latent love of Metal that I have always suspected was in me. No game before has made me write down a list of bands I wanted to check out. I'm pretty sure this was part of Tim Schaefer's evil plan all along. Yeah, same boat here, I'll nit pick until the cows come how(I just finished the final mission off just incase it wasn't the final one and I had to comeback and go "I suck, I thought it was the end" but yeah it was the end. Yeah overall great, play it. Nitpicky stuff, read above, and ohnoburno pretty much hit it with what's the problem with the second island. Also, Reveal hidden contents Ok this back to nitpicking, but this is kind of where it was cool but ended up kind of lame, but the sea of black tears I was hoping to be a side mission on the road to Diviculouses kingdom. I really kind of wanted a Rune/God of War thing where Eddy had to go to the bottom of that thing and try to actually fix the problem with that god chick that was causing all the problems. Then after that back on the tour to diviculous country; its just after Lars died it had 3 months later for really no reason; I was kind of hoping for a Grim Fandangoness here where the story kind of twists and turns into multiple areas, but it was pretty straight forward from start to end. Again, maybe with a map layout change to make the first area a little more like a hub(since there was stuff to actually explore and do there) it could have worked a bit better. Anyway, would love to see a sequel to polish up the rough bits and get more of this world; I keep citing Korgoth of Barbaria and even Jason Forrests War Photographer( )as possible additional influences, hehe. Horticulture Tycoon said: If you're saying that one of the multiplayer factions is Reveal hidden contents suspiciously absent from most of the game , then yes that is definitely disappointing. And odd. I think I ment feature, not faction... oops. or at least another dissapointing thing, lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted October 18, 2009 Hmmm. I may have been too harsh in my criticism of the RTS stuff. I played a multiplayer practice against the CPU and it took me a while to realise that I haven't really been playing it properly (despite having not lost a battle in the game itself). I have to say, at the end of finally beating the most gentle AI (which took ages) I felt like I'd learned an awful lot... it really is a lot more structured than I previously thought. I'm liking the RTS stuff a lot more now... or at least understanding it a lot more. It certainly made me feel like giving it another go. If you're disappointed with the chaotic feel of the RTS, like I was, I suggest playing against the gentlest AI to check your tactics. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
