5 Things I Want in a Brütal Legend Sequel

Brütal Legend launched 10 years ago on 13th October 2009. For the anniversary of the game’s release, here’s a list of things I’d love to one day see in a sequel for next-generation consoles.

1) True Open World

Yes, Brütal Legend had an open world, but it was limited in a number of ways. Certain events could lock off areas of the game until you had completed the story, which made it difficult to enjoy the game when up against a difficulty spike in certain missions. A sequel needs a truly open world, akin to that found in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, even if it’s not as big.

There was so much lore to the Heavy Metal Heaven world of Brütal Legend and we’ve really only scratched the surface. It would be nice to be able to drive around and enter villages to see how people like the Headbangers went about their day-to-day lives.

2) Variation in Side Quests

The side quests in Brütal Legend were probably the game’s weakest point. They were repetitive, and often required you to complete dull tasks such as killing a certain number of a specific enemy type.

Games today have shown us that side quests can often be the highlight of our time with them. To use The Witcher 3 as an example once again, one side quest begins with the search for a frying pan, and ends in a completely unexpected but brilliant way. The world of Brütal Legend is built for those kinds of stories, and filling a new open world with them would make a sequel infinitely more interesting in which to spend time.

3) Loot

Throughout Brütal Legend there’s a steady progression to protagonist Eddie’s equipment. He starts off with an axe and guitar, both of which can be upgraded at the Motor Forge in exchange for an in-game currency known as Fire Tributes. While there were some interesting options for customisation, and different solos to master, the game felt as though it lacked variety in both weapons and any sort of armour.

With many games adopting some sort of loot system, it’s easy to say that a Brütal Legend sequel isn’t suited to one. However, with a similar system to those found in open-world RPGs, such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, or Greedfall, in which earning more powerful gear is made meaningful by specific actions such as hunting, or completing a certain quest. With this type of loot system players would be able to slowly build up Eddie Riggs to be a powerful and unstoppable metal machine.

The loot could take the form of guitars and strings, a few select melee weapons, and various pieces of armour that have been given the Brütal Legend treatment. By this I mean that instead of a chestpiece, we’d have jackets made of special material, belt buckles, boots, and maybe even patches that provide certain buffs.

4) RPG Upgrade System

Brütal Legend saw players grow stronger through the aforementioned system in the Motor Forge. Often it was clear that a new item, or solo, was needed because the mission would be far too difficult.

An RPG upgrade system with skill trees and solos to learn, instead of spells, would make the progression in a Brütal Legend sequel feel much more organic. Not only that, but the range of abilities and solos could be greatly built upon.

My favourite solo in Brütal Legend was Facemelter, because it sounded great, and it zoomed in on the faces of enemies that were literally melting at the time. This playfulness is part of what made the game great, and whilst I don’t think that should be sacrificed for an RPG upgrade system, I do think that this could be enhanced with one. It could even extend to Deuce, Eddie's car.

5) More Cameos

This final idea is a small one. Brütal Legend had a number of cameos that really enhanced the game, not least because of the phenomenal voice acting. I’d like to see more real-world metal heroes brought to life in a sequel just like Ozzie Osborne was as The Prince of Darkness, Kyle Gass was as Kage the Kannonier, and Ian Kilmister of Motorhead was as Kill Master. Each of these characters was more fleshed out than many NPCs in other similar games, and in an open-world RPG with a metal aesthetic, they could be a highlight of the game.

A Brütal Legend sequel needs a lot more than these five items to be great. It needs to take the essence of the original game, and translate that into a title that will appeal to gamers on the PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlett. It wasn’t perfect, but if everything was brought forward and tweaked with these ideas in mind, it would make a Brütal Legend sequel everyone will enjoy.