Day 5 on Brutal Legend is a couple of huge story moments with a lot of little secondary stuff in between. I’m pretty sure I’ve made up my mind here. The stage battles are not fun. I’m playing for the story. I think this will get me through the whole game, mainly because the story made some quite shocking twists this time that I for one did not see coming. That said, this game simply refuses to teach you how to play it, and the stage mechanic is just not friendly enough to make me think of it as anything less than a chore. The last battle today is especially painful. We’ll see. Spoilers within.

Day 4 is another stage battle and several smaller quests. I have figured out the problem with this game. They simply don’t want to teach you anything. I am finding more and more hidden things that make the game better, but that I only found by accident. I hate tutorials too, Double Fine, but there’s a limit to how many basic features I’m supposed to discover for myself. Stage battle is still only eh, but the secondary stuff has some fun and funny in it, and narrative continues to shine with an interesting twist in the romantic subplot. Spoilers within.

My third session of Brutal Legend goes in two opposite directions: my first stage battle and a bunch of side-quests. I was totally wrong with my earlier prediction. This is not the metal version of Pikmin; it’s more like the metal version of Dynasty Warriors, with a dollop of RTS mixed in. I can’t say that I really enjoy it — it’s epic feeling, but I have no idea what’s going on and very little sense of how to control it. The side-quests are pretty good, and the narrative elements continue to (pun only sort of intended) rock. Spoilers within.

Day 2 of Brutal Legend teaches me how this game is basically going to work. It’s frankly living exactly up to my realistic and not optimistic expectations: very good narrative and dialogue tied to mediocre gameplay and some BAD save point choices.  I play several different narrative-based mechanics, and some of those are quite good, but the core battle mechanic is a cloud of confusion, and there are a couple of truly bad moments. Narrative continues to move quickly, but it’s at a reasonable pace now, and they have time to give some flavor now. Spoilers within.

Day 1 with the long awaited Brutal Legend. I am a big fan of Tim Schafer, so this is one I was looking forward to. Does it live up to the hype? Thus far, basically. The writing is sharp and the voice-acting is solid. If you were ever a metalhead, there’s a ton for you. The story moves about a thousand miles an hour though, so be ready for a LONG post from an I-swear hour of play. The mechanics are interesting and varied, but Schafer shows his adventure game roots with less-than-stellar combat and some obscure puzzle-like scenes. But it’s pretty and there are some great jokes and this session ends with a mechanic with a lot of promise, so I’ll be back. Spoilers within.