After getting to know the map and mechanics a little better, Brutal Legend has grown on me. The RTS parts of the game are pretty silly to start out, but once you apply some basic strategic technique - namely, stealing the enemy's resource nodes, and maintaining a front line - they aren't too bad. The controls are pretty weird, but I think I'm finally getting used to them.

Brutal Legend tries to do a lot -- an ambition prone to failure. Luckily, Tim Schafer has ensured that the characters and dialog are witty and charming enough to hold everything up. But the core design decision to generally remove a visual UI has me frustrated; the overworld needs heads-up display elements to more usefully indicate where I can go and what I can do. Mini-maps aren't a new thing, guys. As it is, I really doubt I'll bother with the majority of Brutal Legend's assload of unlockables.

Those aside, the game is pretty short, which is a bit distressing. After four-and-a-half hours of playtime - which includes some amount of sidequesting and tooling around - I'm about three-quarters of the way through the campaign. Actually, given the size of the game world, I get the impression that a much longer story was planned, but largely scrapped.

You've got to cut the cord eventually; but I think Brutal Legend could really have benefited from one more year of development, and some intensive QA feedback, to polish up its many diverse elements.

As a side note, once I found out where to buy upgrades (which took entirely too long), I discovered the most important upgrade in the game: the radio. Brutal Legend has a stupid huge soundtrack, and banging around the surrealistic countryside with some rocking tunes is pretty awesome.