I've got mixed feelings writing this review, and not just because it means I have to figure out how to use umlauts. No, those mixed feelings are more primal, more basic than that – they are the painful discomfort associated with having something not live up to your expectations. And my expectations for Brütal Legend were as high as they get. Lead designer Tim Schafer made Psychonauts, my favorite game of the last console generation.
He's been a consistently innovative, funny, and entertaining game developer with a unique sense of style. He always pushes the limits, always tries to give us something we haven't seen before, and he does all those things with this game too. I firmly believe that reviewers should do everything they can to ignore their own expectations. Each game deserves to be taken on its own terms, judged according to what's actually there, not what I wanted to be there. Judged on its own, Brütal Legend has all those Schafer hallmarks: an evocative, unique setting, a smart-yet-ridiculous sense of humor, and well-written, engaging characters. It's also only kinda fun.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.