Multiplayer in Brütal Legend: More Than Just an Afterthought?

Double Fine Productions has recently shown off the kind of multiplayer we're going to be seeing in their upcoming metal masterpiece, Brütal Legend. The crazy part is, it seems more than just some tacked-on deathmatch and CTF, in fact, it looks like nothing I've seen before!

The online game is played from the same third person perspective as the single player. You can play as a few different factions and depending on which one you choose, that will also determine your character, and which type of creatures you can summon.

Of course you can attack directly, as well... going up and swinging your weapon at the enemy is just one of the strategies you can use against your foe. However, the summoning is probobly the biggest part of the whole thing. You can summon a bunch of different units, and each type has a different play style to them. Of course, you can't simply summon them at any time you like. First you need to gain more fans, which acts as the game's resource. Some units are slow-paced but do a lot of damage, some de-buff your enemy's units, and some are powerhouses. There's all sorts of variety here, and it makes for a very tactical experience... surprisingly tactical, in fact.

The Unit names in Brütal Legend are also one on it's strong points, let me list a few of them for you here. Thunderhog, battle nun, warfather, screamwagon, ratgut, frightwig, and saving the best for last the HATE CAGE. Yes, that's right, the hate cage. Not only are the names great, but all of the units have an excellent design to them as well, complementing the visuals and keeping with the style of METAL!

The online mode looks surprisingly like an RTS, but it seems like it won't require the micromanagement you find in most RTS games. Is this the way a console RTS should be done? Nobody can really tell at this point, but it looks like the good folks at Double Fine have put a lot of hard work into this mode, and at least for me, it's pretty surprising. Tim Schafer has recently said, however, that the game was originally planned to be multiplayer-only, so I suppose since they were working on this the longest, it's not any surprise that it'd come out looking so good.

Brütal Legend is penned to be released Rocktober(yaknow, October) 13th, later this year, so look forward to fighting the epic war of heavy metal against your foes and slaying their demons over your puny internet connection! Ahahhahahaaaa!