The legend and the future
There used to be a legend. The one that would instantly conquer your heart, if you have one, of course. The legend about the overwhelming odds, about titans and daemons, about love and betrayal-by-mistake, and the brutal battles - for honour and against oppression. And, above all else, about thunderous music that disquiets the tectonic plates of mundane futility and soars towards the celestial spheres, mighty, proud and true.
But despite the ageless heroes who came along to help tell the saga, it had never been told through. Brütal Legend stopped at the cliffhanger, - daemons in the human frame and 'pensive suits made sure of this.
Tim Shaefer's Brütal Legend is in many ways a unique game. The unconventional hybrid of action-adventure and real-time strategy (with the latter component emerging quite unexpectedly), it is, first and foremost, the glorifying ode to heavy metal music, with the location design inspired by the heavy metal albums artwork, the soundtrack comprising over 100 metal songs from 75 bands, famous and obscure, and a roster of heavy metal musicians - then-alive Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, then-healthy Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford, who voiced over various characters, including, but not limited to, their look-alikes. Rob Halford, for instance, plays two roles, and goddamn delivers in either.
However, it's Jack Black who is the king of the entire show, together with Tim Curry, Jennifer Hale, who is recognized as the most prolific video game voice actor ever, and Kath Soucie (who, by the way, voiced Maureen in the previous heavy metal-themed masterpiece by Schafer - Full Throttle).
The game, however, had a very rocky start, and an even more bitter situation with its supposed sequel. It was slated to be released by Vivendi Games just prior to its merger with Activision. But upon the merger the Activision brass immediately decided that Schafer et al. are not worthy of their precious brand. Schafer's team only learnt about them being discarded via a press-release that omitted the game from their upcoming release schedule.
Fortunately - or not? - the title had been picked up by Electronic Arts, while the Activision and Double Fine turned litigious over the publishing issues. The conflict got settled out of court though, but Schafer and Activision then-CEO Bobby Kotick had a fiery exchange via interviews, with the former calling the latter a total prick, while the latter claimed that Double Fine ostensibly missed every milestone and overspent budget on what was not looking like a good game.
Well, history showed who exactly was right about the other's personality.
Anyway, the game had been released in 2009 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PC version had only emerged in 2013, - in fact it wasn't initially planned at all. But it's totally fortunate it had made it to PC, anyway.
Thing is, Double Fine had been deep in developing the sequel which was supposed to have the area three times larger than the original, when it turned out that EA gave no flying ‘f’ about this, and was not going to greenlight the second game. For Electronic Arts it was a simple case of a business decision-making and a slight miscommunication - really, who might have thought that Schafer would interpret the phrase ‘We have the done deal’ verbatim?
For Double Fine it was, plain and simple, a disaster.
They have recovered eventually, thanks to their talent, determination, and skilled leadership. But Schafer said numerous times that the company is still interested in making Brütal Legend 2, even though it would require certain investments - and not all of the original cast will be available, for sad and obvious reasons.
Fast forward to 2017, and during an appearance at E3 that Brütal Legend 2 will be happening some day.
Then there was a sort of prolonged silence, save for occasional mentions from Schafer on social media - he said (I believe, quite a few times), that this particular game was among his and his colleagues' biggest achievement, writing-wise, and indeed the storytelling in the game had got a universal praise.
Now, it's late 2024, and there is a post on the Double Fine's website, where community manager Harper Jay shares quite a bit of history of the original game. And also a few lines about its possible future:
"People ask about Brütal Legend 2 all the time and I'm torn about that," Tim told me. "I know some of them want it with an evolution of the RTS stuff and some of them just want God of War with Eddie Riggs. I understand the logic of making the second option, but I'm much more excited about the first."
"[Double Fine's lead programmer] Chad [Dawson] had a few ideas, wondering less about player expectations and more about the vast options that might excite the studio. "There's so much of a world to explore that could be done in many ways," he mused. "It could be an RPG, it could be an RTS. Or even an auto battler!"
That's all hypothetical. What isn't? Players love of the original game and the lasting effect it's had on them and folks here at the studio."
Well, let's hope that this lengthy post is a smoke signalling there is some actual fire started burning at Double Fine. And that it's not just, you know, dwelling on the past success. And it is success indeed: people still play this game, regardless of its now-dated graphics.
One thing is for certain: when (and if) Brütal Legend 2 happens, it would be incredibly heavy metal. Oughtta be.
