Brutal Legend

Brütal Legend is Double Fine's love letter to heavy metal — set in a fantasy universe somewhere between Lord of the Rings and Spinal Tap, where the mountains are made of guitar amps, the vistas look ripped from Frank Frazetta paintings, and the heroes ride hot rods between battles. Jack Black voices Eddie Riggs, a super-roadie pulled from the modern world into a metal afterlife and asked to help save it from demons that want to enslave humanity.

Combat is hybrid. The action layer combines melee and ranged attacks — Eddie's double-sided broadaxe handles the up-close work, while his demon-slaying, pyrotechnic-summoning guitar handles range. A guitar solo mechanic on top lets Eddie summon objects, buff teammates, or cripple opponents through specific riffs played at specific moments. The result is a deep, expressive combat loop that's gratifying to learn at the hardcore end and accessible enough at the casual end.

Around the action sits a real-time-strategy layer. Eddie's true power isn't his axe or his guitar but his ability to lead — gathering legions of metalheads into Brütal Victory by commanding troops in the band battles that structure the larger conflict. The transition between personal action combat and unit-level strategy happens fluidly within the same fight, and is the part of the game most likely to surprise a player coming in cold.

The open world streams seamlessly — drive, fly or walk anywhere across vistas inspired by metal album covers, scored by 108 tracks from 75 bands covering every era from 70s classic metal through 80s hair metal to 90s extremity. Cameos from Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Lita Ford and many others appear directly in the game's cast. The PC version includes both the Hammer of Infinite Fate and Tears of the Hextadon multiplayer map packs free, and a 4v4 skirmish multiplayer mode runs the band-battle systems against live opponents.