Double Fine's Brutal Legend may at first appear to have all the makings of a dumb and dumber videa game cliché: a heavy metal band's roady called Eddie Riggs. Somehow you have been thrown back through time only to land in the fabled Age of Rock. You have to escape. See, add to the fact that Eddie is voiced by Hollywood's favourite comedy actor in Jack Black and this game, from the mind of Pyschonaut creator, Tim Schafer could have ended up as bleakly dull as say... Dumb and Dumberer.
Thankfully, Schafer is a deft video game maker who packs both humour and gameplay into his creation.
So, this open world action adventure game is not simply aimed at the hairy adolescent who wants to rock out. In fact, Eddie finds himself having to lead a set of the local residents who have been repressed by evil, supernatural masters. All this plays out in a richly realised world that could have featured on a million album covers.
Joining Jack Black and his Flying-V guitar ('Clementine ), super-charged hotrod car (The Druid Plow), and battle axe are the voices of Motorhead's Lemmy, Rob Halford from Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford of the cult girl-band the Runaways, and Tim Curry of Rocky Horror Show fame.
The whole escapade is played out in a huge game environment of some 64 square kilometres with the player in charge of Eddie from the third-person perspective. Rather than a straight-up hack and slash, Brutal Legend borrows a little from games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, with Eddie having to play tunes such as 'Earthshaker' in order to defeat his foes and save the humans.
All in all, it's an engrossing outing that requires something more than button mashing: yes, you need a sense of humour, a keen brain and, of course, the spirit of Rock!