Believe it or not, Brutal Legend in fact started out in the concept stages as a multiplayer game, Tim Schafer admitted behind-closed-doors in Cologne. “Brutal Legend was conceived as a multiplayer game first,” the famed game developer commented, “there’s an old SEGA Genesis game called Herzog Zwei which I’ve always loved... and that was a lot of the inspiration for it.” Obviously, things have changed since then and the game will feature a pretty vast single player campaign, but it’s always interesting to see the roots of a game.

For those that aren’t aware, EA and Double Fine’s Brutal Legend tells the story of Eddie Riggs, played by Jack Black, who was zapped into a heavy metal world where humanity has been enslaved by demons. Schafer and co are keen to push the image that the world is reminiscent of falling into a heavy metal album art. Players will have access to three weapons throughout the game; an axe, a guitar which acts as your ranged weapon, and a car – running down people and so forth. That’s where our single player campaign chatter stops, and we start talking about the game’s multiplayer.

If someone had said to me a few months back that Brutal Legend’s multiplayer was essentially an action-orientated RTS, I would probably have suggested you lay off the drugs and would tip the authorities off in an attempt to get you sectioned. My, how things can change in a few months thought and at this year’s GamesCom, we got chance to check out the Brutal Legend RTS style multiplayer in action.

The multiplayer is essentially a simplified version of an RTS skirmish. What do I mean my simplified? Well Schafer told us that there would be “no micromanagement because it really is an action game,” but you will however do the usual RTS things; gather resources, build an army and attack the crap out of one another. The game will feature 7 maps and will allow 1 vs 1’s, all the way up to 4 vs 4’s.

How does it work then? Well the multiplayer, which is actually derivative from part of the single player campaign, will feature stage battles. Players will each have their own stage and they must build an army, harvest resources and upgrade their stage in order to achieve the overall objective... destroying your opponent’s stage. As simple as that.

Players will have to start off by choosing one of three characters; Ironheade AKA Eddie Riggs (played by Jack Black of course) who can summon Headbangers and Razor Girls amongst others; The Drowning Doom AKA Ophelia who can summon Brides and Organists, etc; and finally The Tainted Coil AKA Lord Doviculus who can summon Soul Rakers, Soul Kissers and many more.

Like any RTS, you’ll have the chance to build an army by recruiting warriors but in a cool action orientated twist; your character can combine with them for double team moves by using the Y button. For instance, Eddie can combine with Headbangers and create a mosh pit that will knock back and inflict moderate damage on small infantry, and Ophelia can combine with Grave Diggers to go underground where she is untouchable and can burst out and cause a large explosion. There are unique double teams available for most, if not all, of the game’s different units. Controlling your army is simple and boils down to four basic commands – charge, follow, defend and move. Your troops will fight automatically, so there is no need to be too involved in that sort of sense.

Of course, in true RTS style, in order to build your army up to a decent size, you will need to harvest resources so you can afford them; in this case, fans are the game’s resource and can be harvested from any of the map’s Wild Neutral Fan Geysers. In order to take control of these geysers, your character will need to use infantry to defeat the leech surrounding it before taking control of it by performing a fan tribute guitar solo with your controllable character. A fan tribute guitar solo is essentially a Guitar Hero style QTE mini game (see image below). Some maps may have multiple geysers, but according to Schafer, some will have just one and as expected, there will be a lot of contention over it – sounds hectic.