Brütal Legend has traveled a rocky road to rock stardom. The wheels briefly fell off creator Tim Schafer’s tour bus when Vivendi unexpectedly merged with Activision, leaving the game in limbo. When the multibillion-dollar deal was confirmed, after much deliberation Activision dropped several Vivendi titles from the new company’s roster, including Brütal Legend. Like any good crew of rock ‘n’ roll rebels, developer Double Fine dusted itself off and shopped the game to other publishers. Thankfully, it ended up in the capable hands of EA Partners, the division of the publishing giant that had already found world-beating musical success with MTV and Harmonix’s Rock Band series. However, like a spurned baby mama, in June Activision reentered the picture with a lawsuit, contesting that the company “still has a valid contract to release the game,” and were therefore owed payments from EA before the game could be published. Frankly, it’s enough for a pretty kick-ass episode of VH1’s Behind the Music.
So far none of the slings and arrows have been powerful enough to hold back the metal. At press time, EA assures us the game is on target to hit its announced “Rocktober” 13 release date. As proof, we recently sat down with the first “content complete” alpha build of the game for some exclusive hands-on gameplay.
Into the Arena
We’ve already taken you through some of the early parts of the game [see issue 194], but here’s a quick recap. You are Eddie Riggs, the world’s greatest roadie who’s stuck working for a crappy nü-metal band. In the midst of a stage setup, Riggs gets blood on his rad, Mötorhead-style belt buckle. As it happens, this belt buckle is actually the Earthly manifestation of the fire god Ormagöden and functions as a portal to another dimension. Got it? Well…yeah, honestly it doesn’t really matter that much. What’s important is that Eddie gets transported to this new world – one that draws much of its visual inspiration from the album artwork of such legendary metal artists as Dio and Iron Maiden – and begins a grand rock ‘n’ roll adventure.
The demon emperor Doviculus rules this realm, and controls the masses of enslaved headbangers by the hand of his hair metal puppet General Lionwhyte (voiced by Judas Priest’s Rob Halford in a highly inspired turn). In the rock tradition of defiance, a small band of revolutionaries holds out hope, led by Lars and Lita Halford. As soon as he lands in this strange place, Eddie becomes embroiled in this conflict by a chance meeting with Ophelia, a member of the resistance who is also our hero’s love interest.
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