Brutal Legend is the criminally underrated game created by Tim Schafer and his development team, Double Fine, and published by Satan...or their preferred name; "EA". What makes Brutal Legend different from every other hack and slash game is it's Heavy Metal inspired themes and it's use of RTS in typical hack and slash gameplay.

Eddie Riggs is voiced and modeled after Jack Black. Eddie is such a damn good roadie that he is able to create just about anything out of thin air to help him and/or his allies. As well as being the greatest roadie of all time, Eddie, is also an extremely skilled guitarist that can play certain guitar riffs to kill enemies in different ways. He also acquires an axe early on in the game that serves mainly as a primary weapon. It also cuts stuff like an axe. Which is pretty neat.

As soon as Eddie is resurrected by Ormag√ɬ∂den he meets his love interest, Ophelia. Ophelia is just as metal as Eddie so, of course, he falls for her. She is voiced by veteran voice actresses, Jennifer Hale. Ophelia's role in the game seems so unimportant, like a forced love interest. That is until about 3/4 of the way through the game when things start to get even crazier, but all starts to make sense...kinda. 

            "Too much metal!"

                                                                                  "I claim this land for Ironheade!"

On top of Brutal Legend's hack and slash gameplay and RTS elements it is also and open world game. And a damn good one at that. While roaming around the world your main mode of transportation is " The Deuce". The Deuce is a hot rod Eddie builds at the beginning of the game to escape from The Temple of Ormag√ɬ∂den with Ophelia. Enemies clutter the land trying to turn the beautiful Heavy Metal inspired landscape into something more akin to Glam Rock. Glam Rock is the main enemy of the game with it being led by General Lionwhyte. A play on words of the band White Lion, a Glam Rock band. To defeat lower tier enemies, Eddie, must use a combination of The Separator, his axe, and his flying V guitar, Clementine. For more important battles and usually boss battles, Eddie must use his powers of RTS. Now the RTS elements in the game are something very strange for a hack and slash game and that's one of the reasons why some people passed on the game, but surprising they work pretty well. At first I hated the RTS parts of the game because I don't much care for RTS games in general , but like I said, they work.

Eddie is able to summon two types of allies to assist him on the battlefield during Stage Battles. Melee fighters and Ranged fighters. Stage Battles are pretty unique. You are tasked with taking back parts of the Heavy Metal land via a "Battle of the Bands" type showdown. Heavy Metal vs. Glam Rock. Eddie has to set up and defend "Merch" booths in the name of Ironheade whilst destroying the Glam Rock's Merch booths. Overall, the RTS elements work and have their place, but some people may be turned off by them.

Tim Schafer did his homework on the icons of Heavy Metal. I can not stress it enough that this game as a whole is just a huge love letter to the fans of the genre, but it also isn't afraid to joke around about some of the stereotypes of Heavy Metal without blatantly insulting it. Unfortunately, that's one of the reasons why the game flew under the radar is because fans of this genre of music were either not gamers or that the genre has been declining since the early 2000's. Some even regarded this game as a "Relic of another time". Sadly, there is truth to that statement. 

  Rob Halford as "General Lionwhite"

Lemmy Kilmister as "The Killmaster"   

In the end, it's sad to see just how under appreciated this glorious game was. Taking a tired old genre of hack and slash, incorporating some good RTS elements, and wrapping it all in a beautiful Heavy Metal world inhabited by the men and women who actually help define Heavy Metal as a genre. One good thing to come out of this though is that if you were to pick up this game now (on consoles at least) you can get it for dirt cheap. I picked up my copy for the PS3 about a year ago for $5! It's almost criminal to pay ONLY $5 for it. On Steam, Brutal Legend, is only $15 and even then that's a steal. There's enough content in the game to hold you over for about 9 hours at the minimum without doing really any of the side quests. So if you a fan of hack and slash games, RTS games, Heavy Metal music, or Tim Schafer and Double Fine games then do your self a favor and pick this one up.   9/10 

The troops are your main means of getting a large bronze bell from your side of the field toward the back gate so you can proceed to the next stage. Once again, by itself, this sounds fairly easy enough, but you also have that big freaking cannonball to worry about, and it CAN kill your soldiers if you aren't paying attention. However, if you can find it, there is a power-up that can help with this. If your odama is glowing green, not only will it not flatten your army, but it will also turn any enemy soldier that you crush over to your side. This is often necessary as adding more troops to the field will raise your army's morale making them more likely to follow the orders you will eventually and inevitably scream into the microphone.

If it wasn't already hard enough that these two gameplay elements were clashing head to head with each other, there is one last one that pushes the difficulty over the threshold from being reasonably fun and challenging to being a hair pulling nightmare. Each and every level in the game has a VERY strict time limit that results in an INSTANT loss regardless of how many odamas you have left. This time limit bullcrap is the reason why I was unable to legitimately get past the eighth board, otherwise known as The Spider Temple.

While this game is extraordinarily hard, I don't at all hate it. Its challenge is excruciating, yes, but it more than makes up for its short length. It reminds me of those old NES games that were short but had enough challenge to make it worth it. All in all, I suggest you try this game out if you're looking for a legitimately challenging game that is guaranteed to make you rage. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

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Interestingly, I've never been too big into the RTS genre. Just like most things, I believed it had a rightful place in gaming, but I could never really get into it. If you like RTS games, you'll like Divided We Fall. If you don't, Divided We Fall isn't going to be the game that turns you. Does that mean it's a bad game? Absolutely not. From an RTS standpoint, and even in it's current state, Divided We Fall is very good game that could very well set new standards in its completed state.

After joining a server, and assuming the current match has ended, you will choose to join either the Allies or the Axis force. From there, your squad leader will issue commands to their entire unit. You're free to follow orders or disobey and run around until you're dead. The gameplay itself is very tactical and really forces the squad leaders and all other players to think since they are working against actual living people and not just an AI. Divided We Fall definitely has me raising an eyebrow in a new found interest in the RTS genre, although I can't speak for everyone in that regard.

Divided We Fall is multiplayer only. You are asked to create an account on a launcher, although it is not mandatory, and then you have a choice of servers to start out on. The best option would be start on Training servers to familiarize yourself with the mechanics of the game.

Perhaps it was the timing of my playtime, but almost every server I joined had the actual developers playing alongside us. Not to moderate and dictate how we play, but to play with us and make sure we were enjoying ourselves. They would even add to jokes and take the time to ask what we personally want to see added in the future. We were also told when updates are planned to appear and what would be included.

I'm not completely sold on it being multiplayer only though. AI squads would probably be just as good, if not better, than random people on the internet that can, and will, gladly disobey orders and end the match in a loss. The servers themselves are a bit laggy, but the developers have stated that these problems will be the first that will be remedied in the next patches. Still, I can't help but feel that multiplayer should have been a secondary gameplay choice rather than the main attraction.

As it stands, Divided We Fall is pretty basic in terms of RTS games, but some of the additions planned to be added are: better balancing, more maps, more nations to choose from, more weapons, and Steam Workshop integration. The words "Early Access" typically turn away many potential players due to the sheer volume of controversy that has followed in the past, but we shouldn't completely disregard a game for that reason. Especially since the developers do seem genuine in their plight.