Saviour of the Age of Metal: Eddie Riggs, the world's best roadie, meets some emo kids  Charismatic leader: Jack Black plays Eddie Riggs, the world's best roadie  Chicks dig the car: Eddie Riggs gets around the Age Of Metal in his fire-belching hot rod, The Deuce  Tearing around town: the world of Brutal Legend looks like it was fashioned off the back of every single heavy metal album cover of the 1980s  Hack and slash: players have the option to turn off blood and gore, as well as to bleep any foul language  Demon blood: Eddie is in charge of commanding the forces of Ironheade, the army fighting to liberate the Age Of Metal  Smile and smile a be a villain: Tim Curry provides the voice for the game's principal villain, Lord Doviculus  Bug basher: the story mode is peppered with a couple of boss battles  No sleep til Battersmith: Motorhead's Lemmy makes a cameo as the Kill Master  Just say Ozzy: Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, makes an appearance as the Guardian Of Metal. His job is to furnish Eddie with upgrades  Format: Xbox 360, PS3 Developer: Double Fine Productions Publisher: Electronic Arts Released: Out now Score: 9/10  "You can't kill the metal," Tenacious D frontman and School of Rock star, Jack Black, once accurately intoned, "the metal will live on." Black may have been talking about his beloved heavy metal music when he first wrote that line, but it could easily be applied to the story behind the release of the newest video game to feature his vocal talents, Brütal Legend. Developed by Tim Schafer, the ingenious mind behind such left-of-the-dial video games as Psychonauts and Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend has suffered through more than its fair share of setbacks on the way to its release. Its arrival in retail outlets makes the game feel like it shares the dogged resilience of the genre of music that is infused into every fibre of its being.  The heavy metal aesthetic is a good place to begin any review for Brütal Legend because the game itself could easily be described as Tim Schafer's love letter to the devil's music. Heavy metal informs every single element of Brütal Legend from its visuals to its characters to its soundtrack to even a large portion of the game's humour. The open environment of the Age Of Metal is a world that looks like an amalgamation of every single heavy metal album cover from the 1980s come to life, and it's populated entirely by heavy metal archetypes across a range of subgenres. The heroes recall vintage metal icons such as Man O War and Judas Priest, while the villains seem completely diabolical or are cut from the cloth of hair-metal or goth-emo aesthetics. Jack Black provides the voice for the hero, Eddie Riggs, and heavy metal icons such as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, Lemmy from Motorhead and Judas Priest's Rob Halford all have cameo roles. The story feels epic enough to have been cribbed from a Black Sabbath tribute album and the well-written dialogue is peppered with as many heavy metal references as it is hilarious punchlines. While it wouldn't be true to say that Brütal Legend offers nothing to players who aren't or have never been fans of heavy metal, those who have or still do consider themselves headbangers will get far more out of this game.  The story mode kicks off with Eddie Riggs working as a roadie for an insipid mainstream metal band. After lamenting about his and heavy metal's lousy recent fortunes, Riggs notices one of the band members teetering on the edge of a stage prop. He rushes to the rescue, saves the idiot in question, and then is crushed when a large segment of the stage backdrop lands on him. The blood from the wound on his head spills into his belt-buckle (which turns out to be a magical talisman) and he is transported to the Age Of Metal. In short order he is soon made aware that demons have enslaved mankind, and it is up to him to organise a tour of destruction across the Age Of Metal, in order to liberate its inhabitants.  The bulk of the action in Brütal Legend's story is a mash-up of different video game styles. Riggs is armed with an axe for mêlée attacks, and a guitar with which to strike enemies from a distance (with fire or lightning blasts). He also has access to a selection of riffs which vary in use from rallying troops, to summoning transport (in the form of his fire-belching hotrod, The Deuce) to melting the faces off multiple enemies. These riffs are unlocked by reading tablature off makeshift altars dotted around the Age Of Metal, so players are encouraged to explore the open-world environment in The Deuce between missions. They'll also find Metal Forges (where they can purchase upgrades) side-missions (which earn them points to spend on upgrades), rock relics (which open up songs in the game's soundtrack) and statues trussed up in bondage gear – releasing them provides more upgrades, or reveals the Age Of Metal's back story.  The story mode boasts some variety in mission type (escorting troops, boss battles and the odd herding mission) but its pivotal events mainly take the form of real-time strategy (RTS) battles. These are all played from a third-person perspective so players find themselves mixing up hack and slash combat with commanding troops and managing resources. Battles begin with the construction of a stage. Players then use a riff to build a 'merch-booth' over 'fan-vents' which are dotted around the battlefield. The merch-booth harvests fans (or resources) and feeds them back into the stage – they can then be used to build different units. As was mentioned earlier, everything in Brütal Legend is inspired by the look and feel of heavy metal and this of course extends to the units in Eddie Riggs' army; foot-soldiers are headbangers, mounted troops are bikers and tanks are harpoon-hurling hotrods. Riggs commands troops with the D-pad and a click of the right stick gives him the ability to fly, which allows for a quick sweep of the battlefield to see how best to deploy his army (which incidentally is named Ironheade).  The game also has a multiplayer mode. Essentially it's the RTS element of the story mode in which players square off against one another or the game's AI in stage battles. This time, however, players get access to two other factions – the emo-goth-inspired Drowning Doom and the forces of the Tainted Coil, led by Lord Doviculus - and in true RTS style, players will find that, thankfully, there are different approaches to successfully commanding them.  The game's battle mechanics are by no means perfect; getting the right balance between mêlée combat and RTS resource management can be a tricky and commanding different units can be painful at times. Fortunately, on the easier levels, players shouldn't find the battles too hard to beat and this is fitting as it would be a real shame to allow fiddly gameplay issues to close off portions of the game's fantastic plot. For a game that seems based on the daydreams of a teenage headbanger (which truth be told, it is) Brütal Legend's story has more depth than you'd imagine, and true to every game helmed by Tim Schafer, it features some of the funniest and sharpest dialogue around. The voice-acting is uniformly excellent and the soundtrack, while boasting some glaring omissions (no Iron Maiden?!), should satisfy anyone who has answered heavy metal's call at one time or another. The game's visuals are suitably cartoonlike, yet the meticulous care and attention to detail reveals the Age Of Metal and its inhabitants to be the fruits of a labour of love, rather than the butt of a snide joke.  It's this passion that ultimately elevates Brütal Legend to truly triumphant heights. The story mode is a little brief, but it's well written and funnier than any other release this year. The enthusiasm and joy that was involved in crafting this game is evident in almost every single frame and it's an undeniably unique gaming experience. Players who have never liked heavy metal may find some parts of Brütal Legend hard to get into. For the rest us, this game goes all the way up to 11.
Br&uuml;tal Legend is both a loving valentine to heavy metal and an epic tale    of adventure, brimming with laughs and personality.