Schafer wants more Brutal Legend DLC

By Oli Welsh Published 7 December, 2009

Hasn't looked at sales numbers.

In an interview with GamePro, Brutal Legend director Tim Schafer has said he intends to do more DLC for both sides of the game.

"We definitely want to do more DLC for both single-player and multiplayer, as well as some tuning patches," he said.

He was a little more evasive when quizzed on the game's sales and reception, both of which were lukewarm. He's "for the most part very happy" with players' and critics' response to the game, and says he hasn't looked at sales numbers yet.

"I don't look at those things for awhile; I like to give it time, you know? I think many people look too soon but a lot of games I've worked on have succeeded based on word of mouth... Definitely not till after Christmas."

Schafer also admitted to making Tim Curry repeat his part from the film, Legend, and exprtessed his regret at not getting Iron Maiden on the soundtrack. "I really wish we could have gotten Iron Maiden. We got all the big bands I loved in high school except Iron Maiden, and I never really understood why that was. They pretty much just turned us down."

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • tossetaz #1 2 years ago

    I have to say I was disappointed with Brütal Legend - sure it was a pretty decent game, and I for one thought the RTS elements were decent. But it was too short, too repetitive and didn't really offer anything beyond a single play-through - the multiplayer option didn't do it for me and it became one of the very few games I traded in right after completion.

    Too bad Schafer, your brilliant but you need to try harder next time - maybe do to Brütal Legend 2 what Ubisoft did to Assassin's Creed 2.
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 09:32

  • vx-chemical #2 2 years ago

    the rts was boring to me, the characters are likeable though.

  • Murton #3 2 years ago

    Scafer is one of the old school, the sales figures don't mean as much to him as they would your Bowling's who are constantly banging about their sales.

    Haven't gotten this one yet myself as I doubted it would get a replay once completed, if/when I see it really cheap I'll pick it up. I'll get hands on with it at Christmas as I know my brother has it but I'm not expecting to be overly impressed if I'm really honest with myself.

  • crozon #4 2 years ago

    now can we get a pc version please and chuck iron maiden in. that would be incredibly cool.

  • RobotRocker #5 2 years ago

    Confirmation that sales are low.

    It's sold two/three times what Psychonauts did in its first year in its first two months so I doubt Tim is too worried.

    Agreed with Tim on Single Player DLC. We badly need a directors cut to fill in some of the story because it seems to plow on too quickly at times.

  • jimboton #6 2 years ago

    "Too bad Schafer, your brilliant but you need to try harder next time - maybe do to Brütal Legend 2 what Ubisoft did to Assassin's Creed 2. "

    I'd rather he does to Brutal Legend 2 what Nintendo did to Zelda or something. All openworld games based on a number of mission templates get repetitive after a while and I'm getting quite sick of them frankly. Brutal Legend was fun though, as long as you don't obsess over getting 100% completion
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 10:59

  • menage #7 2 years ago

    Should have been a movie.

  • johnboy_johsnon #8 2 years ago

    Playing it at the moment and actually enjoying it quite a lot, probably due to the fact that I don't play any RTS games so it all seems really fresh. I'm afraid to take it online though in case I get my ass handed to me!

  • Bazfrag #9 2 years ago

    Johnboy. Play me at an rts for an easy win! Not BL though as I haven't bitten yet. (Sorry Tim)

  • Zebula77 #10 2 years ago

    Very mixed feelings about this game. I absolutely love the premise, the game world, the characters and the story. Soundtrack is pretty much the best ever. Just a shame that the gameplay for me seemed severly lacking. Both as far as controls and variety goes - and I bloody hated the RTS sections, which were confusing and well, just not fun. I liked the parts between missions the most. Just exploring the world, finding secrets and listening to the great metal music. I spent more time doing that, than actually going through the missions, which felt like a chore to me.

    I wanted so badly to love this game, but I really felt like I was playing through it in spite, because I was determined to love it lol.

    In the end I traded it for ACII. ;)

  • optimusprym8 #11 2 years ago

    At first I loved it but then it got repetitive and boring pretty quick. Still, I purchased it so he got his money

  • muscleblade #12 2 years ago

    @optimusprym8

    Same here. No need for DLC imo. The story mode was good, but the repetitive sidequests and collection was tedious. It wasnt exactly optional either as you needed to upgrade stuff to advance in the story. The multiplayer shouldnt have been included at all. The RTS elements of the singleplayer was sparse and therefore not an issue imo.

  • darkphoenix #13 2 years ago

    Never understood the hype, the demo showed everyone what this game had to offer.
    Simple and repetitive gameplay, poor graphics, great characters and setting.

    Psychonauts was a much better product.

  • Madafunkola #14 2 years ago

    @ Zebula77
    You have just written EXACTLY what I was going to write.
    I got to the "Stage Battle" at the mine and gave up. Couldn't work out how to control my troops due to the 3rd person perspective.

  • Rubarack #15 2 years ago

    I loved Brutal Legend even though it was incredibly slight. I really hope that if they do any single player DLC it won't be significantly slighter. But if they do a couple of hours of decent extra content I'd be happy.

  • Xeopuppy #16 2 years ago

    I want Brutal Legend for the PC...

    ...What no Iron Maiden? Tim has lost the plot...
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 12:22

  • PrinzPils #17 2 years ago

    I liked the Demo very much, but I did not buy the game because I could not imagine the RTS part to fit in there.
    So maybe I was not the only one......

  • DiamondIce #18 2 years ago

    I rented the game as I didn't know what to make of the RTS bits.

    I played through a good portion of the game but never finished it. It became too repetitive and I disliked the RTS bits, which was a shame as the demo made me feel quite positive.

  • Alkeno #19 2 years ago

    I was truly hyped up by this game, but the reviews and early adopters revealed pretty soon that the game had some serious issues. I decided to give it a rent first... but then my girlfriend bought it for me as birthday present.

    I can add very little to what's already been said. Great characters, some nice moments in the story, great soundtrack... but the controls aren't tight, RTS is weak and sidequests are a chore (if I hear Who we ambushin'? Bad guys, wanna help? once more I'll just facemelt myself).

    For every cool moment there is at least something not-so-good to counter its effect. For example: A great deal of the story is told through Artifacts of Legend that you just had to find in the open world. I finished the game having missed a couple of them, so I just had missed part of the story that I had to backtrack and learn from after having finished the game. That is bad design 101. The game was screaming for an experienced editor/lead designer/producer/someone to say "STOP, this must be redone".

    Still, the game is bloody charming, sound and looks terrific and I think most of us are hoping for some good DLC. Tim please, make it single player, make it large, make it solid, correct bugs and polish it... Make it expensive if you wish, but you have to correct Brütal Legend because as it is now it's, by far, the weakest game I own for the 360 :-(

  • kristo #20 2 years ago

    To add to the chorus, I wanted to love this game, I am a huge fan of Schafer and Metal and yeah, regular game was abit, meh, RTS was for myself, crap and yeah, as has been said, I just enjoyed cruising listening to the soundtrack more than anything else.

    I am sick of every game being a sandbox.

  • dingo75 #21 2 years ago

    Yes good idea to wait until the PC version is out Tim before looking at sales numbers

  • eddiep #22 2 years ago

    Interesting premise and characters, weak game. Psychonauts was a way better game than this, too bad most people will now remember Schaefer as "the Brutal Legend guy".

  • FenderMaster #23 2 years ago

    I really enjoyed Brutal Legend, and I hated Psychonauts.

    Psychonauts to me , was just a very sun= par platformer, with poor level design, imprecise controls, odd, and ugly art direction, and unlikable characters, livened up by some moments of surreal imaginativeness...

    Brutal Legend... The world was fantastic, and gorgeous, that characters were likable, the story was interesting.

    Tearing around the world in my hotrod with metal blaring, was a blast, the hack and slash gameplay was fun... The RTS bits and side missions were okay, definitely not bad... But not great either...

    My main complaint, like with every open world game, was how little there actually is to do, in the world. The game was over in 10 hours, and that was with all the side missions. 3 of the main missions involved entering caves to defeat monsters, but it felt like there should have been more of that, more missions like where you enter Lionwhytes mines to free the headbangers, missions of the quality you would find in a third person hack and slash game, rather than the usual, missions good enough for an openworld (sandbox) game but they were the exception, rather than the rule...

    Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game alot, and don't regret my purchase... I wouldn't bother with multi player dlc,haven't even touched online yet, but I would definitely welcome some free campaign missions (you owe us Tim BL was way too short!)
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 14:34

  • KDR_11k #24 2 years ago

    I bought it for the characters and the metal, neither of which really held up well. As the game progressed the characterization felt weaker and weaker and the metal was too sparse, the car radio is limited to driving and any death or cutscene that happens resets the song (with songs 5+ minutes long). That was just not the way to enjoy metal.

  • TruWari3r #25 2 years ago

    I really Liked the Monkey Island games, I loved Day of the Tentacle, I adored Grim Fandago, I worshipped Psychonauts (except for the meat circus level)

    I really wanted to like Brutal Legend

    But I don't.

    Already sold it and had trouble finishing the game. It's just not that funny or interesting. Not a well done rts, not a hack and slash and well, the music is an acquired taste.

    I don't think sales are going to pick up but I hope it's enough right now for it to be at least break even. Word to mouth is not going to have a boost in sales, it's not a game I can recommend.

  • Slipstream #26 2 years ago

    Tims games are totally word of mouth, the best kind.

  • GamerG #27 2 years ago

    I bet he looks at the sales figures DAILY!

  • Lord_Gremlin #28 2 years ago

    I say one thing: Fire Barons are ridiculously overpowered. It kills all strategy and tactics. Patch this Schafer, and then we'll consider buying your DLC.

  • kongzi #29 2 years ago

    It was a risky game from the start. It was a style over substance thing and that whole 80's power-metal revival was bound to be a short-lived fad (no disrespect to the fans here) and I think Brutal Legend just came at the very end of that. Still, I hope this makes good somehow. I like Tim Schafer, a lot, guy needs to able to make games untill he dies.

  • legendarytomuk #30 2 years ago

    Hope they do get Iron Maiden in at some, so many places where they would've fitted in so well.

  • Bander #31 2 years ago

    darkphoenix: "the demo showed everyone what this game had to offer."

    I thought the demo was horribly misleading. It was just a linear brawler, but just after the demo ends you get access to a large explorable overworld. Not long after that you're inspiring headbangers to do your fighting for you, and then a couple of hours later (or longer if you pursue sidequests) you're flying about in RTS territory. I can't think of any demo that gave a greater false impression tbh.

    I enjoyed the RTS gameplay personally, because being vulnerable to attack yourself and having to be near your troops to command them made the action a lot more intense than any other RTS I've played. I found that I constantly had to make decisions about whether to try attacking enemies myself, or go off and fetch some troops, leaving a fan geyser undefended, or risk leaving other geysers, the stage, and temporarily myself undefended by summoning my whole army with a guitar solo. Experienced RTS players would probably hate the limitations, but they certainly kept you in the middle of the action, with no chance to sit back and watch the battle unfold.

    Alas, it does get repetitive quite quickly, as there's only one type of resource, one spawning point that can't be relocated, a relatively low maximum army size etc.. But it was a lot of fun for the duration of the battles within the single player quest.

  • grussbarbar #32 2 years ago

    I very much agree with Bander above.

    The demo didn't even scratch the surface of what's in the game. And the RTS parts felt pretty intense and fun for me too, indeed because you'll have to put yourself right in the middle of the action to be most effective.

    I'm constantly zipping around, giving orders, summoning creatures, attacking personally, buffing my troops... It's especially intense to try and nail a facemelter when enemies are converging on you. Great stuff. =)