Brutal Legend Preview

It's hard to imagine how any actor other than Jack Black could have voiced the character of Eddie Riggs - the comedic hero of Brütal Legend. Eddie is the world's greatest roadie, a chunky rocker with a passion for all things metal and buckets of enthusiasm to boot. It's a role that seems tailor-made for Black, but all the credit for creating Eddie lies with Tim Schafer - the founder of Double Fine Productions and the brains behind Psychonauts, Grim Fandango and the much-loved Day of the Tentacle.

Eddie's Brütal Legend adventures begin when he manages to cut his hand during a rock gig, spilling a few drops of blood onto the belt he's wearing. As it turns out, his gothic trouser support is actually a magical artefact belonging to the Spirit of Armagödden. This pissed-off deity decapitates the band that Eddie works for and then teleports him back to the Age of Metal. You're not likely to read about this era in any history book, since the place is inhabited by gothic druids, enormous demon creatures, and a fledgling rock band resistance group that badly needs Eddie's help. As Tim Schafer puts it himself: "The bad news is that humans are being slayed by demons. The good news is it's f*cking awesome!"

The concept for Brütal Legend is supposedly one that Schafer originally dreamed up as a teenager. Like Psychonauts it's a hard game to describe in simple terms, but essentially it's an open world action game with lots of combat and the chance to drive a suped-up hotrod across a crazy-looking landscape. Schafer says that the game's look is based around the idea of blending every piece of Metal imagery you can think of: demons, mad-looking vehicles and bearded blokes holding sharp objects. If you pause the action at any moment, the resulting screen should resemble the greatest album cover that never existed.

At the start of the game Eddie suddenly finds himself right next to a group of sinister druids, evil-looking guys who are busy chanting praise for their master. The game's sharp sense of humour and Black's excellent character work are both immediately evident: Eddie casually points out that he's not the druids' master, at which point they turn on him with murderous intent. Our hero reconsiders the situation. "Oh, er, but I totally know the master! We're really good friends."

Unfortunately, Druids aren't buying this story. "The master's not going to like this!" growls Eddie. "If anything were to happen to me, he'd be super pissed!" Luckily there are a couple of weapons available for the hapless roadie to use. The Separator is a giant double-headed axe that proves pretty handy for cleaving people in two, while Eddie's ranged weapon is actually "Clementine", his beloved guitar. Somehow the journey through time has turned this musical instrument into a lightning-blasting tool of death. By blending these attacks you'll open up a wide range of impressive combos; when accompanied by allies, you'll also be able to pull off co-operative attacks (we'll take a look at Eddie's chums in a bit.)

In addition to using Clementine as a weapon, Eddie will also be able to perform a number of special actions by playing riffs on his guitar. Scattered around the world are large stone tablets that will enable you to learn new solos with a range of different effects. One simply summons your car (handy if you can't remember where you parked it) while another causes the faces of nearby enemies to melt. There's also one called The Earthshaker - a power chord so loud that it causes a minor earthquake. Moves like this serve a dual purpose - stunning enemies and offering the solution to the occasional puzzle. It's not entirely clear how you'll pull off these sonic displays as Double Fine has yet to unveil the method, but at a guess I'd say you'll have to hammer out some kind of complicated button combo.

The opening chapter of the game is a fairly linear sequence in which you're introduced to your basic moves, your hotrod and to Eddie himself. After chopping up your first bunch of druids, you'll also meet Ophelia - a rather foxy rock chick who's part of the fledgling human resistance movement. After the pair of you escape from a colossal bone-snake monstrosity with satanic horns, she'll introduce you to the rest of the gang - the irritatingly handsome Lars and his sister, Lita. They're a spirited bunch, but they're disorganised. They need someone to arrange their battles, to sort out their travel, to get some groupies... in short, they need a roadie.

At this point, the game opens up into something more approaching an open-world game. The complete landscape offers around 64km square to explore, and roughly half of it should be open to you from the get-go. In the long-term, your aim is to help your mates to form an army capable of taking on the Spirit of Armagödden. To accomplish this, you'll need allies - and one of your early missions will be to free the world's young men from the mines where they've been enslaved. Due to the fact that they've spent years smashing rocks with their skulls these guys have developed enormously strong necks: once you teach them how to headbang (geddit?), they'll act as a sort of moshpit army for you. Eddie can command a squad of up to four of these dudes, ordering them about via simple controls on the d-pad.

It's touches like this that should hopefully make Brütal Legend a joy to play. The mix of metal and rock iconography has the potential to be really funny - and given Schafer's excellent track record, there's no reason to see why it shouldn't be. There's a mission where you have to defend a tour bus from freaky motorbike creatures made out of bone, Lemmy from Motorhead appears in the game as himself and the game's soundtrack should be a blistering collection of hard-rock classics. The tunes that appeared in the demo I was shown were merely placeholder tracks, but if Schafer and Double Fine secure the licenses they want it'll be amazing.

Even if you don’t really care for metal that much, there should be plenty to enjoy with Brütal Legend. As with Schafer's past efforts, the game boasts a unique art style that should instantly strike a chord (arf!) with most people. Jack Black also appears to have been used well: Eddie is a perfect fit for his character, and if his dialogue is anything to go by it sounds like he really enjoyed working on the project. There's a lot of speech during gameplay - so much so that the opening section of the game felt a bit like an animated movie - and from what I've heard so far, there will be plenty of great one-liners. If all the elements pull together, then Brütal Legend should be a lot of fun. Rock on, Schafer!

Brutal Legend is due out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 16.