Brütal Legend is a tricky game to pigeonhole in terms of genre and gameplay, drawing on three very distinct gameplay elements. Superficially (perhaps dangerously so, in the eyes of the general public), this is a action game in the vein of something like Fable or God of War, in a stretch though not as extreme as either example. Riggs is a flying-V wielding guitarist, but in the land of Metal, his solos become devastating magical attacks. He also bandies a mean battle-axe and a balls-out attitude a potent combination.
We say 'superficially' because, while you certainly do hack, slash and blast your way around the massive open world, Riggs gets to test his leadership skills in the second major gameplay element: real-time strategy. Yep a significant portion of this game puts you in the commander's Doc Martins, waging war against the forces of glam and goth-rock from your concert stage; fans fuel your army's units and the units themselves are headbangers, groupies, bikies and roadies.
The third and final pillar that comprises Brütal Legend is the adventure game element in itself; given the pedigree of game development from which this game was birthed, it's no surprise that Brütal Legend is littered with incidental dialogue, humour, surprises, secrets and plain, old-fashioned exploration. By breaking out your guitar and firing off a quick and simplistic, button-based guitar riff (think a watered down Guitar Hero meets the ocarina from Zelda: Ocarina of Time), you can summon the 'Deuce' a hellfire-streaked hotrod of glory and awesome. Suddenly, the world opens up and you get a feel for the scale of this creation and the breadth of the gameplay variety on offer.
