One does not simply combine Action and RTS with Heavy Metal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGrK70GgTXM
This multiplayer guide assumes you have a gamepad equivalent to an Xbox 360 controller and is highly recommended (for now.)
BRUTAL LEGEND MULTIPLAYER GUIDE
Unit Controls:
A - Attack. Do a four hit combo or hold A for a strong unblockable attack.
B - Block. VERY powerful, and will let you block nearly anything. You can block
being on fire.
X - Guitar. Creates a variety of attacks.
Y - Double Team - Team up with a unit for the best attacks in the game.
Flight - Click Right Analog Stick to start or stop flying.
Ascend/Descend - Left and Right Triggers
Commanding, dare I say Controlling, YOUR ARMY
Holding the right shoulder button brings up a wheel with the different units you can build, straight out of Halo Wars. Once you have units, the D Pad will command them.
Attack - Up on D-Pad
Sets an orange beacon to which allies will approach and attack enemies.
Follow - Left on D-Pad
Puts a pink beacon on you causing unis who heard the command to move to your location no matter how far you are.
Stop/Defend - Down on D-Pad
Sets a blue beacon on your position. Units will stop attacking or moving, and move to that position and attack anyone nearby.
Go to Beacon - Right on D-Pad
The most important command, causes units to move to the beacon you set.
The Beacon appears with the left shoulder button, and you will use it more than any other command. Hold it down and a pillar of light will appear, that you can move anywhere. From one side of the map to the other. In key structures, it will stretch out for ease of use.
If you have units that are far away, beams of light from the sky will shine on them. The color tells you what they are doing, and the colors correspond to the commands listed above.
You will be using individual commands minimally in this game. As a beginner, don't be afraid to clump your mans together. Below is how it works.
1. You go to a unit and hold Y (If you want them to go to a beacon, make sure its set already.)
2. Your avatar will say something like "Wait!" or "Listen!" All units in the general area will stop moving.
3. The unit you are closest to will glow.
4. Issue the command. You wont hear anything from the avatar. Walk around issuing as many commands to units as you want.
5. Release Y to execute. You avatar will say something like "Those are your orders!" Each unit will break apart and follow their separate orders.
Universal GUITAR SOLOSFan Tribute
When there’s a rock stage in the area, spirits of the earth rise up in search of music. The key to gathering resources, cast this to claim the geyser and send the spirits to your stage so they can enjoy your music and power your army. You'll see them fly to your stage and begin moshing.
Here are the rules for when a geyser is contested. You can only capture it if you see it's green.
*If there is just two avatars by a geyser, whoever completes Fan Tribute first claims it.
*If your opponent has units near the geyser but you don't, you will see the geyser as red and cannot cast Fan Tribute, but they can.
*If you both have units near it, you both will see it as red, and whoever wipes out the opponents units first will see it change to green.
*When a geyser is green, no enemy units are around and you can claim it.
*Avatars cannot contest the geyser. Only the presence of your units can.
Rally Army
If you need a moment of massive offense/defense, cast this and all units will head straight to your spot. Different from the Summon Flag.
Summon Flag
This is your Rally Point. This simple song sets a flag in the ground. When a unit spawns, it will automatically go there. You can pick it up with the Double Team (Y) button and set it somewhere else (I recommend this), or just keep it on you so that allies just come to you. (I do not recommend this. Your character is too fast and important for this. It's good for beginners though.)
(Car) – The name varies between factions, but each character has their own car that only they can use. Cast it to throw off your opponents early ground game, as you can run over infantry with it. If it’s destroyed, you can cast it again to your heart’s delight. Don’t neglect it in your early game.
YOUR STAGE
Your stage is your base. It consumes fandom to create units, and can be upgraded. It plays music based on the Faction you are playing. Your mission is to destroy your opponent's base while defending yours. Your stage's health is represented by Ten Orange Spotlights, each one representing 10% of it's health. When taking damage, they will fall off. You restore 10% for 200 fans.
Your stage has Double Team Attacks:
Fog - Pressing X (Square) when DT'd with the Stage Spreads dry ice fog that slows down enemies near the stage.
Speaker Check - Pressing the Shoulder Buttons will send out a blast that knocks down enemies and stuns them. It even stuns players!
Spotlights
The most important defense, there are two large spotlights at the top of the stage. Fly and DT with them to aim and shoot lasers at enemies below. Charge it for more powerful shots.
THE FACTIONS
Ironheade- Heavy Metal
Eddie Riggs's metal themed faction, filled with fire, engines, machinery, leather, rage, passion and energy. The Fire Beast’s will incarnate. Single player revolves entirely around Eddie developing this faction.
Ironheade Exclusive Spells
Face Melter - Eddie's nuke solo, which causes damage over a small radios. Infantry who die get their faces melted off. Cools down is 60 seconds so use it often!
Call of the Wild - This spell summons animals found throughout the world, but what animals are dependent on your Tech level. Tier 2 summons four Raptor Elks. Tier 3 summons two Tollusks. Final Tier summons a Hextadon. Beware. The spell always has a chance of summoning something below your tier.
Battle Cry - In the story, it compels the Headbangers to join. But really, it’s a buff that strengthens allies around you. It cools down every 30 seconds,
and when Double Teamed with a unit, you can do double damage or even more. Use this often!
Rock Block - Stops troop development of the enemy stage for 20 seconds. Use it when you want some offensive momentum. WARNING - DOES NOT WORK ON TAINTED COIL HIERARCHY UNITS!
Light of Dawn - This spell makes a bright sunrise stopping all enemy buffs and debuffs for 45 seconds. Devastating to Drowning Doom.
Bring it on Home - His most powerful spell, it summons a goddamn Hydrogen-Filled Zeppelin of Lead to crash into the area directly above Eddie, causing massive damage and leaving the area on fire. Aim it carefully, it’s 10 notes, powerful, and has a cool down time of five minutes. Don’t waste it.
Here are the Ironhead units.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz-aAIEwH1UDrowning Doom- Death/Black Metal
Oozing depression, dark colors and depression, it sucks the life out of everything around it. The spiritual opposite of Ironheade. Alone, some units are weak, and DD is the only faction that does not have buffs. But it has a ton of debuffs, courtesy of depressing music, storm clouds, black tears and ash. It makes DD more about weakening the opponent then building up the allies.
Drowning Doom Car – The Hearse
Hi Eddie! I finally got myself a car. It has a special seat in the back just for you!
Drowning Doom Unit Data
Drowning Doom Solos
Silence
Wraps the enemy leader’s head in mummy bandages, blocking all commands and guitar use. Only works at close range, so anticipate when they are coming to you.
Black Tear Infusion
Spreads Black Tear flower petals from the ground, healing allies around the casting area for a short time. Kinda sucks, but use it often.
Shadow Blast
The DD nuke solo, it causes damage to enemies close by. They also get blown away a good distance.
Encompassing Gloom
Makes the sky go dark, stopping enemy troop production. It works no matter what. Even on Tainted Coil's building units.
Devastating to any faction!
Baleful Misdirection
Creates a duplicate of any unit that you can currently produce. It will appear blue and transparent. But to AI, and even the enemy player, it will look real, and take hits like a real unit. It takes up unit load, but follows your orders. Things that it attacks will send a warning to the enemy just like a real unit would, so careful choice of the unit you copy will make it more believable, diverting enemy attention. When it dies, it vanishes in a blue flame, giving away that it's a fake.
Veil of Deceit
Spreads a fog that makes your units invisible until they attack. Use it to slip behind enemy detection, or behind a Rockcrusher...
As long as your units don't attack, they remain in visible to enemies and the avatar. Great for attacking a stage or avoiding danger.
Weeping Heavens
The final spell, it launches artillery sized eyeballs from your stage, raining Black Tears to destroy enemies. Once cast, a glowing eye will appear above your head. This is where the artillery will fall all around you. BEWARE. The attack launches from your stage to just past your position. Keep note of where your stage is, because in weird shaped maps like Bleeding Coast, the attack comes sideways.
Drowning Doom Units
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZOouArcPygTainted Coil - Industrial Metal
The Industrial Metal faction, led by the villain, Emperor Doviculus (Tim Curry). The units are all demonic looking, with hints of S&M that hold their squishy, skinless bodies together. This is the only faction in which units can spawn other units on the field, away from your stage. That makes these guys are the Zerg. They can overwhelm you by spawning enemies anywhere they want. Hands down, Doviculus has some of the worst Solos, and the least amount of Double Teams. But due to their focus on numbers, they can overwhelm other factions in a short amount of time. Also, the hierarchy allows powerful upgrades to all Lvl 1 and Lvl 2 Units.
Solos
Chains of Hell
Chains shoot from the ground and latch on to the enemy avatar, stopping all movement. Be careful, because if the player hears it coming, they'll just fly off.
Martyrdom
The basic TC Buff, it severely damages yourself to inspire your allies, boosting speed. It causes SEVERE DAMAGE TO YOURSELF, so don't play it if your opponent has a clear shot at you, or if your not at full health!
Curse
The TC Nuke Solo, it causes 4 damage immediately, then poisons enemies for 12 seconds for 6 more damage, totaling 10.
Summon Agony Boil
Creates a squishy, evil proximity mine that grows over time. Use it on things you wish to defend, on spots you expect the AI
to accidentally step on.
Summon Tick Choppers
A freebie unit, like Call of the Wild, this summons four Tick Choppers you faced in the Campaign. They will appear at your stage immediately when you summon it.
Skies Afire
The skies burn with evil, and units close to your stage get a massive attack boost. Useful for defense, or stopping your opponent from using their weather solo.
Launch of Death
If you created the final unit (Bleeding Death), move to an area and cast this to launch it to your position and set it loose. Anything too close to the place it lands will instantly die.
Tainted Coil Units
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3GD9jacz_c
(Note that they don't cover the Tainted Coil's final unit, the Bleeding Death. You create it first, and then summon it with the Launch of Death spell.)
HP Data - Courtesy of Kor
Posts
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
It is up. By preordering, not only is it 14.99, you get the Multiplayer Beta, which is the whole damn multiplayer, plus the first two DLC maps.
I played it, and I'm either rusty or the AI is better. I've forgotten how chaotic this game can be.
I need to put this game back in my life again, after my friend lost my 360 disk. It might finally be time to sell some hats.
EDIT: Holy shit, never realized that emote/smiley/whatever existed.
It comes with the two DLC multiplayer maps baked-in, and has support for resolutions higher than 720p. Other than that, none that I'm aware of.
EDIT: This comes from a developer post on the Steam Community hub:
Oh thank god, I just came back from playing a quick game and this all makes me happy. Theres a bunch of stuff that needs fixing right now, mainly the UI. But once I started relearning the controls it all came back to me, its still just as fun as I remember.
I got the platinum trophy on Brutal Legend on my PS3, and then traded the game in. I'm looking forward to playing it again. The first time around, it took me a fair amount of time to wrap my head around the core game mechanics, once they were all revealed.
This time, I am mentally prepared and I shall emerge victorious. [/insert heavy metal riff here]
...Why not? Throw up some Steam tags! I'll take people to Brutal School tonight. (And by that I mean legitimately teach you mechanics of any army you like.)
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EA really dug a quick grave by advertising it as a heavy metal Zelda. If you can accept it for what it is (Third Person RTS), it's one of the finest titles in its very tiny subgenre to come along since, I dunno, probably Sacrifice.
I actualy never understand why Double Fine even bothered with the multiplayer RTS thing when they had a once-in-a-generation chance to make one hell of a fucking awesome heavy-metal-themed action-adventure game. Instead, we got a game with a lot of obvious rough edges and way too much time spent on a multiplayer mode that the vast majority of people ignored.
Actually, the demo was EA's fault too. Double Fine originally made a demo of the stage battles, but EA demanded they throw it out and basically make a demo of the first 10 minutes of gameplay. EA was very, very intent on hiding that there were any RTS elements to the game at all.
Isn't that basically what Darksiders is?
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Also, I think Schafer is a huge fan of TP-RTS and had the idea for BL since his Lucasarts days. Sure, he had the chance, but this was a vision of his he had been waiting many years to work on.
Then....
Holy shit....the game became 900x better once it became apparent that it's a RTS.
This was me too. I was pretty disappointed with the combat until the strategy elements started tricking in. I was confused, but intrigued.
I sucked hard at the stage battles on Normal mode, but still had a lot of fun with it. Never touched multiplayer, though. If I could barely hold my own against the CPU, I figured there was no hope against real people.
He certainly is. He was constantly throwing around Herzog Zwei when talking about inspirations for this game.
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Oh that part. What happens when the towers go down is critical.
1. You need a full army.
2. As soon as the towers drop, cast Light of Dawn so that all of Doom's debuffers stop functioning. You have 45 seconds to do as much damage as you can.
3. Get back in the Rockcrusher and drop another Bladehenge
4. Get out, cast Bring it on Home
5. Another Bladehenge
6. Everything should be dead now.
The hardest thing to get for a lot of people is that Eddie Riggs is not Kratos or Lu Bu, and that the Double Team attacks are the most powerful attacks in the game. He is more of a superpowered Olimar/Overlord guy.
The campaign was fun while it lasted.
Yeah, I need to give this game another chance. I remember playing it awhile ago and being pretty bored with it, but only played for a few minutes. I had no idea the game completely changed and got fun.
I did start enjoying it once I figured the combat out though, which was good.
EA really fucked this game over hard.
I mean, this was a great revival to the third person RTS with a great premise. I mean, a metal themed RTS? How can you go wrong with that?
Seriously, this is one of my favorite game for this generation of gaming. The only thing I wish from this game is more. Introduce more sub-genre of metal (imagine beating up Scremo stereotypes?), maps, units, hell even other genre of music.
Seriously, this game is such a rock solid foundation to become something timeless.
It dates all the way back to Viviendivision, actually. RTS is an industry dirty word.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-05-tim-schafer-on-free-to-play-sharing-works-in-progress-and-brutal-legends-misleading-marketing
The only thing left to play up for EA was Jack Black acting like a retard. Meanwhile if you googled "Brutal Legend Multiplayer", you see videos of Tim Schafer talking about what the game really is.
Publishers are a superstitious and cowardly lot. And current industry "wisdom" is that certain genres simply will not sell -- RTS's, adventure games, et. al. This is why they churn out the same rehashes over and over and over again. They also think the public is stupid, and that they can simply hide vital facts about a game and still sell it anyway.
Of course, this is not limited to gaming; it applies equally to all mass-media. Just take a look at the faddish quality of summer blockbusters, and you'll see that. And of course, marketing lies in those media as well.