SmartyScore: 90 out of 100 (Reviewed on PlayStation 3)

I was initially skeptical of the entire concept at first — having a healthy aversion to games with celebrity voice actors and studios with as much marketing influence as Electronic Arts.

Jack Black is his usual comical self, except for the moments he's weilding a giant axe and killing everything in sight.

However, when I heard that Tim Schafer, legendary game designer and writer of Lucasarts fame, was making the game in the image of the heavy metal tribute he’d dreamed of for years, my skepticism began to wear away.

After playing the first few minutes of the game, with its comically overblown world of heavy metal and scorching soundtrack, any cynicism melted away like the faces of my enemies after a rocking solo.

With games like the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts under his belt, it’s little wonder that Tim Schafer could work wonders with this decidedly unusual, if outlandish, concept.

The intro picks up from the perspective of the essential, but fairly-understated role of a roadie, Eddie Riggs, who’s job is basically to make someone else look good while on tour. Voiced by the iconic Jack Black, Eddie isn’t just any roadie, but the best in the business despite having to work for a band that is perhaps the worst example of ‘metal’ ever, undoubtedly a parody of how rock has taken a pop, mainstream turn recently. During an unfortunate accident at a concert, Eddie ends up traveling through time to another fantastical age that consists of almost nothing but savage beasts, demonic enslavers, rebellious humans and heavy metal references.

While seemingly a third-person action game that works by hacking and slashing everything else that isn’t on your side, Brutal Legend mixes the genre up with a number of elements from real-time strategy, along with bits of racing and shooting.

A great deal of time in the game is devoted to cruising around the vast world in which the game takes place. Environments from barren wastelands with giant stone monuments scattered about, to grim, eerie swamps and epicurean palaces present a variety of destinations to explore. Much of this time can be devoted to completing secondary missions, finding new upgrades and skills and raising ancient relics of the land for rewards, though the side-quests can get tedious after awhile.

A main component of the gameplay here is in the RTS elements for some of the main story quests, where Eddie leads an army of metal-loving followers into battle with opposing armies. There’s a complete upgrade tree and resources to gather in the form of ‘fan geysers’, where merchandise booths have to be built before contributing to the show.

The RTS portion of the game comes with a fairly steep learning curve despite how otherwise easy it is to learn new tricks in the game.

Once you figure out how to deploy your followers and vehicles upon the battlefield, you’re soon thrust into massive battles. This portion of the game can be played in multiplayer as well, adding to the challenge once you’re facing human opponents in a particularly brutal ‘Battle of the Bands’.

As the title suggests, the game is chock-full of references, parodies, jokes and illustrations devoted to heavy metal in most every variation one can think of. The setting technically takes place in an age that existed aeons ago where subwoofers and electric guitars were relics of ancient gods, demons reign over the land of man and kegs of beer are in ready supply. Spanning from the days of Judas Priest in the ’70s to Dragonforce of recent years, Brutal Legend incorporates music from an impressive collection of artists, some of whom have taken a direct role in the game itself.

Jack Black takes the leading role of Eddie Riggs here, though much like the character himself, he is quite humble and helpful despite an eagerness to rock out and destroy his enemies. Though much of the dialogue and lines could be done by nameless voice actors, Black does much to add to his lively charm to the character with his customary bursts of enthusiasm and awkward, clueless moments.

Joining the cast is a variety of other professional voice actors such as Jennifer Hale, Courtenay Taylor, Tim Curry, Lita Ford, and Ozzy Osbourne, who sounds quite intelligible for once and is quite entertaining to hear at work. While the lines are usually carried out in a manner like something out of a comic book or Conan the Barbarian story with much theatrical gusto, it often hits that line right between silly and serious. Even the nameless NPCs have some quotes that are worth remembering and the voice work across the board here is solid, especially when thrown in with the hilarious writing present in this game.

While I’m on the topic of sound and music, Brutal Legend is likely to inspire a whole new generation of heavy metal heads much in the way that Guitar Hero sparked the passions and interests of a younger audience. With over 100 hand-picked, classic songs in the soundtrack, the music is just as likely to please older, hardcore metal fans as it is to create new, aspiring metal heads. While heavy metal playing in the background of some other games can seem overbearing, such a track list fits perfectly in the hellish, bad-ass settings to be encountered.

In the art and graphics department, Brutal Legend has plenty going on as well. From the vast landscapes with monuments and ruins of epic proportions to the comically-rendered, but detailed character designs, there are many things that just jump out at the player. The art style of the entire game is based around what you’d find on a particularly kicking heavy metal album cover, though the pokes at goth/emo, glam and hair metal are more than obvious. There are scantily-clad Amazons dressed like KISS fanatics, a glam general with hair so huge and feathery that he literally flies around with it and demons made out of nothing but a jumble of eyes, mouths and metal, just to name a few examples. The gore is bountiful, accompanying the copious amounts of dismemberment mayhem, though the game does come with an option to turn off gore and profanity. While having this option is nifty, there’s very little reason why you’d play this game around children anyway.

A full playthrough on normal difficulty takes just about 10 hours, though this is assuming that you don’t play the side quests or search for the numerous secrets, unlockables and landmarks.

In playing Brutal Legend, it’s almost a guaranteed that you’ll be banging your head to a metal tune as you cruise around in a fiery, roaring hot rod whether you’re a metal fan or not. It’s a genre-bending experience at any rate, with elements of action, RTS and racing involved, most of which it does well in spite of a learning curve in some instances.

Coupled with smart, sharp writing, a talented voice cast and so much metal that you’ll headbang in your sleep, and Brutal Legend could easily be one of the best games this year.

** Officials game website