I guess I'm done with Brutal Legend. Took about thirteen hours to finish, and that count includes every single side-mission. It does not include finding all the collectibles. I understand one of the two DLC packs includes a GPS tracker to locate all the hidden collectibles... so, you know, maybe I'll get that someday.
I went through the entire game without opening up a single "Legend" collectible. I saw the statues but had no idea how to crack them open. If the game ever specifically told me, I missed it. So that was stupid.
Luckily, Brutal Legend lets you keep playing. Even though I (more or less) defeated the game's big bad guy, there are still enemy minions roaming the map for extended play. Nintendo, what say you consider that concept on your next Zelda game?
And I am astonished that Ozzy Osborne's audio was so brilliantly crystal clear. Was his mumbly old sot schtick totally a put-on? How did they get him to genuinely act for this game. I would have put money down that Brutal Legend employed a soundalike.
Oh, and I COMPLETELY missed whichever character had David Cross's voice. Anybody know what he did for the game? Also Wil Wheaton. Is Wikipedia making this up?
Spoiler talk.
So, uh, what happened? I found the cutscenes to be mostly vague and cliche-ridden... the angry girl hates the new girl... the boy and girl fall in love only to be torn apart... the initial leader guy of course gets killed at the first real confrontation with the true enemy.
And since I unknowingly skipped all the Legend collectibles, I had no idea who or what was Ormagoden. If the game named Ormagoden as the big Ghostbuster Zu'ul dog you see at the very beginning, I missed that... and even though the name keeps coming up in random places, the dog guy has nothing to do with the big fight between Lars Halford's group and Doviculus. Unless that's all explained in the Legends, of course.
I was also really fuzzy on the whole backstory of Ophelia and the goth group. Lita is convinced that Ophelia is the traitor because her parents were from the Black Tears or whatever. Then Ophelia becomes super-determined to prove she is trustworthy... but then becomes the Tear leader about two cutscenes after falling for Eddie and being falsely accused by Doviculus. Not well developed. Way too fast.
And if Eddie actually IS the traitor, which comes from an eyeroller of a sudden revelation about his parentage, how exactly is he traitor'ing? Just by simple virtue of his being dragged to this world in that unexplained Ormagoden opener? Doviculus says something to the effect that Eddie's ability to form an army taught Doviculus how to do the same... but how? It never occured to Doviculus to forge alliances with other demonic races? He never thought to put a bunch of uglies together at one part of the battlefield and tell them to go attack the other side? What precisely are the secrets of the Titans?
And wait a minute, if Drowned Ophelia wasn't really Ophelia, then what the hell was she?
I imagine some of this was expected to be addressed in a sequel, but that is a dangerous game to play.
All of which shows again just how low the bar is when it comes to video game storytelling. Brutal Legend was one of last year's nominations for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Story" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. The other noms were Assassin's Creed II, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Uncharted 2 won, which might be an okay choice if the game did not include magical exploding tree resin as a key plot point.
You can open the Legend statues by doing the earthquake attack you used at the beginning of the game to "bring the house down"; they explain a lot more about how Ormagoden is basically the god of rock; Eddie's set depicts him, as does his belt buckle, and getting blood in the mouth summoned him forth. He was "killed" by envious dark things in the early days of the world and his various elements--blood, metal, fire, and noise--were then used by the Titans to craft incredible wonders, as Ozzie tells you.
As for weaknesses in the story... I imagine that's what happens when your developer keeps losing funding and has to find new publishers, excise almost a third of the game including what would have been another playable faction, and rush the game to market to avoid going broke. Is it any wonder that Double Fine has decided to stop going all-in on big projects for the time being to make smaller, "safe bet" games?
I remembered the belt buckle thing, I just thought it weird that Ormagoden was almost never mentioned again in the core storyline cutscenes. Interesting.
Especially interesting is the elements of blood, metal, fire and noise. Doviculus' group was based on blood, and Eddie's on metal... or was Doviculus fire and Ophelia blood? Whatever way, it sounds like the basis for four interestingly balanced factions. Like I said, I liked the unique RTS units... the means of controlling and organizing them is just really slipshod.
That Costume Quest trailer looks really nice.