Review
The brainchild of game designer Tim Schafer (The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle), Brutal Legend melds heavy metal rock with medieval-style warfare to create a totally bitchin' Jack Black adventure.
Black voices the hero of the game, a rap-weary rock roadie named Eddie Riggs who finds himself transported to a parallel universe, where rock groups battle for supremacy in a world gone mad. It's the kind of place where Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy from Motorhead pop up as Yoda-like characters to help Eddie on his quest to free enslaved headbangers.
Jack Black has already established himself as a curator of musical cool with his band Tenacious D so he's the perfect man to play Eddie. Naturally your main weapon in the game is an electric guitar which, when played, electrocutes and sets fire to the Iron Maiden album cover rejects who are constantly trying to kill you. The guitar's name is Clementine and your secondary weapon is an axe known as The Separator which is good for up close and personal decapitations.
When you first try out your new weapons you'll be presented with the option to allow/reject swearing and gore in the game (like they need to ask). Once this little matter is sorted the blood flows freely and heads start to roll. As Eddie fights his way through hoards of skeletal red-robed priests and bizarre Henry Selick nuns, he soon runs into rock chick Ophelia. She's on a similar quest to free her people from evil tyrant Doviculus (Tim Curry).
Ophelia introduces Eddie to Lars and Lita, leaders of the resistance, and Eddie is made their 'spiritual roadie', finding useful objects in the area to help their cause. This means you're constantly sent back and forth across the rocky plains to meet people you've just been standing next to who have somehow beat you there. Mission destinations are denoted by a vertical beam on the horizon (it's also marked on your map as a pentacle).
To travel across the open world (there's 64 square kilometres to explore) Eddie can play a power cord at a Relic Raiser to summon The Deuce - also known as The Druid Plow ('cos you can mow people down Mad Max style). This hot rod will get you where you need to go quick-smart thanks to its self-replenishing nitro.