Would I recommend Brütal Legend? Yes. Despite a few flaws, this game is fun overall. The story, while a little convoluted, is entertaining, the graphics are decent for the time, the gameplay is pretty fun, what more can you ask for in a game?

Graphics: Even though Brütal Legend came out in 2009, the graphics still stack up today. They haven't dated because the game has an interesting, colourful, and unique art style. There are a few graphical glitches and the like, but they don't hold the game back.

Gameplay: There are three types of gameplay in Brütal Legend; hack and slash, driving, and real time strategy. You might think the RTS elements are tacked on, but they work surprisingly well, despite a few flaws. These flaws include the fact that apart from a few scripted elements (you need to build this specific unit to destroy these towers that are only in this section of the game), it doesn't matter what units you build. You can build the two most basic units, upgrade them, and rely on those units the entire battle. The hack and slash elements are pretty standard, but not unfun. You wield an axe (get it?) and an electric guitar. The axe is your melee attacks, the electric guitar is your magic. You can learn moves for both weapons throughout the game, but I found myself relying on a few easy-to-use, powerful, and reliable attacks while ignoring the new moves I would gain. The driving section can be fun, though the car can be difficult to handle. I can't count the number of times I drove my car off-road into a part of the landscape you aren't supposed to go, and got stuck. Overall, the game world is large, so driving a fast car that plays heavy metal tunes is definitely a plus.

Story: The story for Brütal Legend is interesting and unique, if a bit cliched and over-the-top at times. You play as Jack Black, a concert roadie sent into a past world where heavy metal reigns supreme. The landscape is littered with ancient symbols, chunks of metal, giant chrome car engine parts, old rusted vehicles, and strange monoliths to a strange past. Your goal is to defeat the evil Emperor Doviculous, free the land, and bring metal to all. You, as Black, encounter a three person "army," and you must help them build up their forces to fight Doviculous. The story is pretty linear, you don't get to make any major choices that alter the story-line, until about half way through where the story takes up a few twists and turns.

Stand out stuff: Brütal Legend is a love song to heavy metal, and it shows throughout the entire game. From the art style to the story, to the gameplay, to the characters, everything in this game has been lovingly crafted to be about metal and a love of metal. Apart from Jack Black as the roadie Eddie, Classic rockers, like Ozzy Osbourne, have parts in the game, which is a treat. Rob Halford, of Judas Priest fame, plays a general in Doviculous's army who reminded me an awful lot of David Bowie. A character who heals everyone named "Kill Master" (he chose the name to look tough and scare people) is played by Lemmy from Motörhead. He's also the guy who gets all the chicks, much to the headbangers' dismay. Ozzy plays the Guardian of Metal, a guy in the underworld who upgrades your car and your stuff and makes sarcastic observations. Some of these guys even lend themselves to the soundtrack, the music is used to great effect during the cut-scenes and plays whenever you drive your car. The imagery in the game is all giant swords, massive chrome car parts, huge electric guitars, massive statues of singers and iron crosses, mechanical metal spiders, and black oceans that corrupt and zombiefy anyone who drowns in them. The game could be a heavy metal song in and of itself. Emperor Doviculous is played by Tim Curry, and he does an excellent job. Eddie the roadie's main love interest is played by Jennifer Hale, and I find her to be a delight in any game I play with her providing vocals. The game also features many heavy metal references, and even some Spinal Tap references!

Flaws: Apart from the flaws mentioned earlier in my review, Brütal Legend has some issues that don't make it a bad game, but do hold it back from being a legendary game. For example, the story and most of the sidequests took me about 10 hours to complete (my gameplay on Steam shows almost 20 hours, but that's from leaving the game on at a few places I couldn't save at and leaving for the day). This game is just way too short, and after I had finished I found myself wanting much more. I wouldn't want the developers to bloat the game up with the same sidequests and stuff to do that isn't related to the main plot, however the main story ends at an awkward place, and I felt the game could go on twice as long and address story that came up, but was never fully fleshed out, near the end. For example, after you leave the starting area, Doviculous takes over and corrupts it. He replaces Eddie's army's main base of operations, "Sword Henge," with a massive evil looking sword. I expected that we would have to venture back and fight Doviculous to save the land, but that doesn't happen. The sidequests are all the same thing over and over again, which is typical of pretty much any game, and they got monotonous after a while. And there are numerous times I got stuck, both walking and in my car, in parts of the landscape it is obvious the developers never wanted you to go. Hint: summon your car in these events, it'll usually get you unstuck.

Overall: Brütal Legend is a love song to heavy metal, and if you have even a passing like for heavy metal, you"ll appreciate this game. The gameplay, while not perfect, is decent. The graphics, despite being from 8 years ago, still stand up today. The soundtrack is fun to listen to and fits the game perfectly. The story is entertaining, if stretching credibility at times, sometimes the plot twists are obvious from hours before you reach them. Overall, it's lots of fun and I would recommend it.

I give Brütal Legend a 7/10, with 0 being horrible and unplayable, I would put Big Rigs in this category, 5 being average, I would put Lichdom: Battlemage in this category, and 10 being near perfect, I would put The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in this category.