The real blessing is what I’d like to call consideration for the player. If you die, every object you’ve unearthed or kill you’ve made is still recorded. You’ll respawn at the previous checkpoint, typically at the last mission you’ve completed or accepted, but all the other progress you’ve made remains saved. This sort of feature is missing in a lot of games even though it should be standard. Simultaneously, if you begin a mission you just can’t win, you can abandon it at any time using an option in the pause menu.

If you ever get sick of exploring the massive world, which has something interesting to see at every turn, then the multiplayer opens up a whole new world for the player. As stated, the strategic battles in campaign are not all that difficult. However, jump into an A.I. stage battle for some practice and you may find yourself out-done. Which is okay, as there are five scales of difficulty with the easiest being, well, very easy. The game almost takes on a different personality once you begin focusing on the battles, which are of a very different kind of strategy than most players will be used to.

The key to Brutal Legend’s multiplayer isn’t micromanagement and pitting the right foes against others, as it is in many other strategy games. As long as you have a varied assortment of troops, making use of every unit type possible, the game will do that on its own. Units will position themselves as they ought to and attack the enemies they are most effective against. The key is in your participation, driving home Double Fine’s insistence that the game is an action strategy and not an RTS.

Each of the three armies is different, focusing on different strengths and weaknesses. This also means they must all be played differently. Ironheade, the team played as during the campaign, is the basic beginner team. The units are strong and Eddie himself is a powerful contender on the battlefield. His solos primarily focus on strengthening the units of his army while nullifying the effects of the enemy’s. Drowning Doom tends to be weaker, but more focused on speed and nullifying the opponent’s effectiveness. Ophelia, the team leader, is weaker than the other army leaders but has much more effective double-team and debuffing attacks. Tainted Coil’s solos are similar to Ironheade’s, but the unit focuses much more on being able to spawn foes in the thick of battle instead at the stage, or headquarters. This is both an advantage and disadvantage, as only certain units can spawn others, and if done at the wrong time it leaves those units wide open.