Videogames don't do tragedy, this is in itself a sad statement, but a true one. Last year while playing GTA IV I felt horribly disappointed when the final mission was like an inevitable approach to a certain doom. Kate, the woman who Niko (and me through him) had put all his hopes of finding happiness in America was torn away from him with her death occurring like a slow motion train collision without me being able to stop it (at the time I did not know that you could make a choice that would let your annoying cousin die instead). I confided this to my elder brother who's response was along the lines of “yeah, art isn't supposed to make you feel good”. GTA IV did tragedy and I hated it for it (and the awful third act where the writing went downhill), Brütal Legend did something between comedy and tragedy and would have been one of the greatest games of all time if it had chosen one.
For those who have yet to play the game know this: Brütal Legend has created a immensely rich and imaginative game world rivaled only by his earlier games, everything good about Heavy Metal (and all it's many many many sub genres) is found and doted over here. No other game has ever done celebrity voice casting so well (special props to Killmeister and Ozzy for doing nothing but being themselves).
The soundtrack is amazing and the storytelling is the most ambitious ever attempted in a game with the possible exception of GTA IV. Unless you know you will never play this game, stop reading now.
Now that only those who have played the game from start to finish are left in the room let us start by examining the story and what makes it so special. As is obvious by all of the previews and trailers the first half of the game is very much a revelatory celebration of all things metal with a very lighthearted plot. Eddie goes back in time, meets girl + friends, helps them, Eddie saves girl, Eddie gets girl (in a quite hysterical scene), rebellion goes well. So far we have a standard and utterly functional lightweight fantasy plot. The main emphasis so far has been on the metal indulgence, cars, stars, music and it has been nailed perfectly so far.
But things go wrong, Lars is killed and Eddie confronts Ophelia about what Deviculous implies of treason, she is immensly upset about his lack of trust and is left broken hearted. This is where things get interesting. As a character she strongly reminds me of two characters from ancient litterature, Medea and Dido. Both are strong female characters that are at first utterly heartbroken and then vengeful at their lovers leaving them. While the reasons they are cast aside are diffirent (Dido because of Aeneas duties, he has to go and build Rome because the Gods say so, Ophelia because of Eddies suspicion of treason, Medea because her husband is a selfish asshole) there is a very interesting similarity between Ophelia and Dido. Dido commits suicide and invokes spirits of vengeance that are credited as the reasons of the wars between Rome and Carthage while Ophelia does something similar to suicide and dives into the Sea of Tears turning herself into a kind of spirit of vengeance. But here is where Schafer squanders everything. Ophelia so far is an immensely compelling character, amazingly lovable in the first half and then turned completely around in maddening grief. Without question the most powerful part of the Aenid is when it focuses on Dido's grief, same thing with Medea. But Ophelia is shoved aside, she only gets two proper scenes focused on her, the one at the bridge and the flashback of her jumping into the Sea of Tears, but there is so much more to explore here. In fact, until her “redemption” she is primarily viewed as an antagonist by Ironheade. And the redemption itself is horrible. First of all it is incredibly confusing, why is her normal body lying down there? Didn't the water transform her into “Dark Ophelia” or was that merely an avatar of her vengeance? Here there was potential for an amazing scene of love and reconciliation, to see her and Eddie really wrestle with pain and forgiveness and in the end let love wash it all away. Or even better, have her completely submit to hate and actually kill him, that would be amazing, that's what Shakespeare would do. But no, instead he dives into the water and pulls her up in a horribly choreographed scene and they make out on the beach, no conflict, no talking. It's like the only thing holding them back was that fact that she was in a lake and once she was pulled out everything was left behind effectively ruining one of the most interesting character developments in videogame history. To top it all of, nothing is done after that, they don't at least get a suitably romantic talk after the final show, instead you just get to see her shedding a tar as he drives away into the sunset.
I guess the fundamental flaw here is that the tone shift that is initiated with the dismissal of Ophelia is never fully embraced. The game is after all about Heavy Metal; and to be honest, Heavy Metal is more about roaring out the pain the confronting it in a dramatical sense. The Cradle of Filth/Tim Burton music/visuals do a really good job at visualizing the anguish, but just like in the source material, you never really go deep beyond the imagery. Ultimately, Brütal Legend is to ambitious for it's own good, Schafer wants to spread his writing wings further then the tight confines of metal let him. While many metal bands do actually dive into deep questions Metal culture is immensely shallow (in a good, fun way) and this primarily a celebration of that culture.
I also want to spend some time criticizing the “roadie” themes in the game. First I want to note that this is very much a minor complaint, but anyway. I got really hung up about how the game in it's story emphasized that Eddie was a roadie and hid in the background while in the gameplay he took the role of a rock star. The fact that the other alternative of a leader in the story, Lars, wasn't much of a leader didn't help things much. Beyond holding a speech now and then you get the feeling that Eddie is really in charge of the show. You lead all the troops in battle, you say decide when things start, you do everything. That Lars is killed in such an unspectacular fashion doesn't do much to enhance to making him more heroic. Everybody in the game acts like he is the leader, but the player never gets that feeling. Once again I guess this comes from a fundamental flaw in the game design. It has been made clear that the inspiration of the game comes from a roadie that Schafer had med once and the fact that he does base his games on interesting experiences and ideas he has met in life goes miles and miles to making his games more personal. But here there seems to be such a disconnect between the roadie fantasy and who Eddie really is in the game. Playing the roadie role wouldn't have been fun anyway, you want to be the person who drives the story forward, you want to be the centerpiece of the battles.
But despite all of this, Brütal Legend is the best game of it's scope and if anything really succeeded in being a metal game.
For those who have yet to play the game know this: Brütal Legend has created a immensely rich and imaginative game world rivaled only by his earlier games, everything good about Heavy Metal (and all it's many many many sub genres) is found and doted over here. No other game has ever done celebrity voice casting so well (special props to Killmeister and Ozzy for doing nothing but being themselves).
This game lets you summon a flaming Led Zeppelin onto your enemies to wreck fiery destruction.
Now that only those who have played the game from start to finish are left in the room let us start by examining the story and what makes it so special. As is obvious by all of the previews and trailers the first half of the game is very much a revelatory celebration of all things metal with a very lighthearted plot. Eddie goes back in time, meets girl + friends, helps them, Eddie saves girl, Eddie gets girl (in a quite hysterical scene), rebellion goes well. So far we have a standard and utterly functional lightweight fantasy plot. The main emphasis so far has been on the metal indulgence, cars, stars, music and it has been nailed perfectly so far.
But things go wrong, Lars is killed and Eddie confronts Ophelia about what Deviculous implies of treason, she is immensly upset about his lack of trust and is left broken hearted. This is where things get interesting. As a character she strongly reminds me of two characters from ancient litterature, Medea and Dido. Both are strong female characters that are at first utterly heartbroken and then vengeful at their lovers leaving them. While the reasons they are cast aside are diffirent (Dido because of Aeneas duties, he has to go and build Rome because the Gods say so, Ophelia because of Eddies suspicion of treason, Medea because her husband is a selfish asshole) there is a very interesting similarity between Ophelia and Dido. Dido commits suicide and invokes spirits of vengeance that are credited as the reasons of the wars between Rome and Carthage while Ophelia does something similar to suicide and dives into the Sea of Tears turning herself into a kind of spirit of vengeance. But here is where Schafer squanders everything. Ophelia so far is an immensely compelling character, amazingly lovable in the first half and then turned completely around in maddening grief. Without question the most powerful part of the Aenid is when it focuses on Dido's grief, same thing with Medea. But Ophelia is shoved aside, she only gets two proper scenes focused on her, the one at the bridge and the flashback of her jumping into the Sea of Tears, but there is so much more to explore here. In fact, until her “redemption” she is primarily viewed as an antagonist by Ironheade. And the redemption itself is horrible. First of all it is incredibly confusing, why is her normal body lying down there? Didn't the water transform her into “Dark Ophelia” or was that merely an avatar of her vengeance? Here there was potential for an amazing scene of love and reconciliation, to see her and Eddie really wrestle with pain and forgiveness and in the end let love wash it all away. Or even better, have her completely submit to hate and actually kill him, that would be amazing, that's what Shakespeare would do. But no, instead he dives into the water and pulls her up in a horribly choreographed scene and they make out on the beach, no conflict, no talking. It's like the only thing holding them back was that fact that she was in a lake and once she was pulled out everything was left behind effectively ruining one of the most interesting character developments in videogame history. To top it all of, nothing is done after that, they don't at least get a suitably romantic talk after the final show, instead you just get to see her shedding a tar as he drives away into the sunset.
I guess the fundamental flaw here is that the tone shift that is initiated with the dismissal of Ophelia is never fully embraced. The game is after all about Heavy Metal; and to be honest, Heavy Metal is more about roaring out the pain the confronting it in a dramatical sense. The Cradle of Filth/Tim Burton music/visuals do a really good job at visualizing the anguish, but just like in the source material, you never really go deep beyond the imagery. Ultimately, Brütal Legend is to ambitious for it's own good, Schafer wants to spread his writing wings further then the tight confines of metal let him. While many metal bands do actually dive into deep questions Metal culture is immensely shallow (in a good, fun way) and this primarily a celebration of that culture.
I also want to spend some time criticizing the “roadie” themes in the game. First I want to note that this is very much a minor complaint, but anyway. I got really hung up about how the game in it's story emphasized that Eddie was a roadie and hid in the background while in the gameplay he took the role of a rock star. The fact that the other alternative of a leader in the story, Lars, wasn't much of a leader didn't help things much. Beyond holding a speech now and then you get the feeling that Eddie is really in charge of the show. You lead all the troops in battle, you say decide when things start, you do everything. That Lars is killed in such an unspectacular fashion doesn't do much to enhance to making him more heroic. Everybody in the game acts like he is the leader, but the player never gets that feeling. Once again I guess this comes from a fundamental flaw in the game design. It has been made clear that the inspiration of the game comes from a roadie that Schafer had med once and the fact that he does base his games on interesting experiences and ideas he has met in life goes miles and miles to making his games more personal. But here there seems to be such a disconnect between the roadie fantasy and who Eddie really is in the game. Playing the roadie role wouldn't have been fun anyway, you want to be the person who drives the story forward, you want to be the centerpiece of the battles.
But despite all of this, Brütal Legend is the best game of it's scope and if anything really succeeded in being a metal game.
