Before we begin the review, I will first make sure you are all acquainted with the game’s main creators. First of all, there is Jack Black. Known on the music scene as one half of Tenacious D, a comedy rock duo, and the movies School of Rock, and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. On the non-musical scene, he has provided a few roles and voices, most prominently the voice of Po from Kung Fu Panda. Then there’s Tim Schafer, the genius behind Psychonauts and Grim Fandango. Well-versed in comedic story-telling and presentation, his mastery provides the foundation that serves to hold Jack Black’s metal touch.

That said, the story unfolds as Eddie Riggs, a normal roadie for a rather…”out there” band, sets up for the band’s next show. Of course, the band, being pretty idiotic, decides to do something that’ll endanger them…Eddie runs in, saves the singer, and ends up dead in the process. However, as his belt fuses with his blood, Eddie is revived and teleported to a magical world of music. Specifically, rock (the best kind of music, if you ask me). Armed with a magical guitar and a burly axe, Eddie must now find out where he is, why he is there, and to fulfill his job as roadie by helping out his crew.

For the primary characters, we have, of course, Eddie Riggs. Voiced and modeled after Jack Black, he’s a witty, rock-loving roadie, who will do anything for his crew. He soon meets up with a small band of humans rebelling against the human enslavement by the evil Emperor Doviculus (Lars Halford), the leader of the crew, his sister Lita (incidentally, not who Lita Ford voices), and Lars’ girlfriend, Ophelia (who Eddie takes a noteworthy, if not awkward interest in). Later on, they meet Mangus, who becomes the crew’s manager, and the magical bass-playing healer, ironically named the Kill Master (based on the last name, voice and likeness of Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead), and then later on the Fire Baron motorcycle gang, long thought to be extinct, as well as the Amazonian Zaulia forces are linked to a key part to Eddie’s origin. Playing role as shopkeeper for general upgrades and moves is the Guardian of Metal, voiced and modelled after the one and only Ozzy Osbourne, complete with fitting dialogue and style.

The bad guys are some of the more interesting and innovative stylings of this game; you’ll definitely see Tenacious D thinking in this (if you’ve ever heard their song The Metal [which you probably have, since it's on Guitar Hero 3]), you’ll know what I’m talking about. Early on, you’ll be contending with Lionwhyte’s forces, notable for wearing pink and having really long hair. Lionwhyte himself has such long hair, he actually uses it to fly, obviously a parody of hair metal. After taking him out, things happen that’ll ruin the story if I say something. A new villain appears, who controls the Drowning Doom, a take on goth nature. Enemies of this faction are pretty gray, shadowy. Think Children of the Corn, and have them listening to too much Linkin Park. Or something. More things happen, and then Eddie takes on Doviculus himself at the end. Who would’ve thought? I know, pretty bland description, but I’d rather you see it for yourself.

As far as general gameplay is concerned, there’s a lot of stuff to do. Through the world, you will find solos. These are your spells. By pressing buttons on the controller in sync with what it shows you to play, you will play a riff that summons the power of that particular solo. From buffing your crew to literally melting faces off, to summoning a flaming zeppelin to destroy everything in your path. One particular solo, you’ll be using a lot. It summons the Deuce, the car that Eddie constructs in the beginning. This is going to be your primary mode of transportation, for obvious reasons. General hand-to-hand combat is fairly simple. One button uses the ax, one button uses the guitar, the latter of which is capable of summoning lightning and explosions. Of course, you’re not going to rock the world alone. You’re going to have help. Enter the Real-Time Strategy style that sets this game apart from the rest.

You’ll ally up with quite a few people through the game, all of which share your goal of freeing the human race from its enslavement. When you’re allied up with them, you can choose to make them follow you, take out a chosen target, or stay and defend the current location while you do something else. Double team attacks are also very useful in certain situations. The “Roadie” class, for example, is a big guy with a set of huge speakers on his back. They’re quite strong, and despite their size, are very adept at stealth (as Eddie explains it, any roadie needs to be good at that kind of thing) and can avoid detection by sensor-based threats to take out remote targets; its double team attack has Eddie simply climbing on top of the speaker, becoming invisible in the process, as well as being able to manually control the movement and attacks of the Roadie. They all have their own unique double teams, and they’re all very useful in certain situations. Now, this game doesn’t have typical boss battles. They’re referred to as Stage battles, where a stage is created for Eddie’s crew, and a base (or in some cases, another stage) for a foe. You’ll see geysers here and there in these battles, called Fan Geysers. There’s a solo to please these geyser-bound fans, which is then used to create a merchandise booth, which will supply you with more ‘fans’. These fans are “spent” to spawn your crew, and buff them and your stage up. From there, you guide the crew into battle, steal opposing merch booths (“angry” fans will hurt you, so you have to rely on your crew to destroy it so you can play the solo to steal it), and work together with your crew to take out the opposition, and whatever spawned crews they spend their fans on, as well. It’s a lot simpler than it sounds, thankfully. Tim Schafer himself made a pretty helpful guide to it, if you feel a bit overwhelmed.

Despite its style, Brutal Legend has a surprisingly deep storyline, full of twists and turns, some more foreseeable than others, all while still retaining the comedic tone it’s presented in. The soundtrack consists over 100 of the best songs rock and metal have to offer, and though the overall campaign is fairly short at about three ODSTs (for those who don’t know, or aren’t quick to the humor, Halo 3 ODST’s campaign lasts about 4 hours…so 3 of those is about 10-12 hours), there’s a plethora of sidequests to do. There are a few quests to help out your fellow crewmates to take out enemies in a few different ways, as well as collectibles throughout the world. In addition to the solos you’ll be looking for through the game, there are over 100 serpent statues to be freed all over the place (use the Pyro move in range to give them the strength to free themselves), a few Legends to unveil and watch (the Earthshaker is what cracks them open) that explain the origins of the world all the way to Eddie’s birth, pieces of Buried Metal that unlock songs to listen to in the Deuce, a few Motorforges to rise in order to gain access from all over the world to Ozzy’s shop to buy upgrades (both these forges and the pieces of Buried Metal are indicated by “devil’s horns” roses; use the Relic Raiser solo to unlock them), a bunch of jumps to make in your car (shown by glistening flies over a jump), and metal-influenced landmarks that are unlocked by looking through nearby viewer scopes. They’re all over the place, and they might seem a little overwhelming, but they all do what they do quite nicely, serve as just a little extra content, for the little extra effort. Besides, who can turn down Achievements and Trophies for them all?

Overall, this is a pretty standard adventure game, spiced up by well-done RTS elements, a blasting soundtrack, and general battle system, solos and all. With an all-star cast, you’ve got a game not only worthy of the Double Fine logo, but a game that raises the expectations of that logo. You can do stage battles online with your friends, as well, but I didn’t get to try those out. I thoroughly enjoyed this game, from start to finish, and I have a feeling that all fans of anything represented in this game (platforming, RTS, rock music, Tenacious D, etc.) are all likely to enjoy this little gem as well.