The multiplayer was the point of the whole thing. The multiplayer was made first, and took four years to make, and the single player was just a tutorial, which took 1.5 years to make. How many multiplayer matches have you attempted? It's a misunderstanding a lot of players (and even reviewers) don't know about.
Eddie is not powerful. This is important because if he is too powerful, you have Nintey Nine Nights and there is no point in building an army. The units in this game are as powerful as they are charming, unlike the mooks of Dynasty Warriors and Nintey Nine Nights. Tim Schafer specifically designed the game so that the Double Teams, when combined with buffs from Solos, are the most powerful attacks, while attacking alone is weak and desperate.
To summarize: Battle Cry + Double Team = Everything Dies.
Even more apparent, the game PUNISHES players who try to fight alone and play like they're Kratos. When you die, you respawn, and your opponent gets a free 50 fans!
I recommend playing a couple of multiplayer matches, (just experiment with fighting the AI if you have to) while experimenting with all three armies and using Tim Schafer's advice: http://kotaku.com/5382233/tim-schafer-explains-how-to-play-brutal-legend
As much as I like being patronized, please understand I am not ignorant (certainly not at this point) to the fact that this game is not God Of War, nor of how the game is meant to be played. You are acting like I somehow was under the impression that this is not an RTS. And I don't care what Tim Schafer says about "you've got to play it like it's not an RTS," it is an RTS. And the engine for it isn't terribly good in my opinion.
Without music, life would be a mistake. -Friedrich Nietzsche
I have to agree every single bit with this review.
I understand that Schafer wanted a really-not-an-RTS-you-guys from the beginning, and I wasn't exactly going in expecting a platforming beat-'em-up. I understand that he justifies it as Eddie being a roadie and how the entire band works together to make a great production, and the whole "battle of the bands" thing.
I still think they should have expanded and tried to give a little focus on the one-on-one combat engine—one of the biggest themes of metal songs is the lone warrior fighting against all odds. The story also could have used a lot of finetuning in the end parts—as mentioned, the latter half of the game breezes by.
Is it good? Yeah, it's pretty nice. I love it, and love playing it, even after beating it. Could it have been better, though? Oh, significantly. It's a game that comes this close to reaching greatness.
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Great, but not nearly as good as it could have been
Before you tear me apart, let me make this abundantly clear: I enjoyed this game.
I just didn't enjoy it as much as I could have if they had changed some stuff. The fact that it was actually an RTS threw me off bigtime. It's an interesting concept, and they could have kept it, but in return for this, it seems they decided to make the actual combat of Eddie much less fun. I was expecting it to be Devil May Cry meets God Of War with Heavy Metal. Instead I got something that tried to be half an RTS and half an action game, not really pulling either off tremendously well.
The story was very cool, but I thought it was almost insulting how the plot decided to suddenly go into turbo mode after you beat Lionwhyte, to barely give Doviculus or any of the Tainted Coil any characterization. Seriously, he was onscreen for like a grand total of two minutes. Not to mention, the only time you actually are in pitched combat against the coil is at the very beginning and end of the game, and both times, you're not supposed to fight them, but rather ignore them and run. That whole aspect brought the game down bigtime.
However, as I said, the game is far from unenjoyable. The two areas where the game shines, it shines with all the splendor of METAL. The jokes are funny, the voice acting is great, and Jack Black is hilarious as always, but more than anything, the game is epic. When they tried to capture the fantastical look of metal album covers, they succeeded on a level I've never seen before. Every square inch of the world map is awesome looking, and I would find myself driving around just to admire it, and see if I could spot any Shout Outs to specific albums (there are several), and just take in the epicness of it. All while listening to, as
OzzyThe Guardian of Metal would say "Fucking beautiful music, man!" The soundtrack is absolutely killer, both the songs and the score for the game, and the integration of the songs into cutscenes and gameplay was awesome, especially the Ozzy and Black Sabbath songs.Ultimately, are these elements enough to redeem a lazily done combat engine, and the plot deciding to go into the Cliff Notes version halfway through?
Yes. This is one of those games where the atmosphere just makes it all, and makes it metal.