9. Brütal Legend (2009)
You might have thought that Brutal Legend would appear a little higher on this list. After all, people have a tendency to either love it or hate it, leaving very little room for middling opinions that float somewhere in between. I happen to think Brutal Legend is alright. Not fantastic by any means, but fun enough. The game is essentially one third action-adventure, one third real time strategy and one third sandbox. You play as Eddie Riggs (Jack Black), a roadie who is transported to a heavy-metal inspired rock dimension by a demon named Ormagöden. With an army of metalheads at his side, Eddie must overcome various factions (including a goth faction named Drowning Doom) and defeat the demonic emperor of The Tainted Cloth, Doviculus. As you can imagine, the game is heavily inspired by heavy-metal music, which is why it shouldnt come as any surprise that many notable musicians appear including Ozzy Ozbourne, Rob Halford, Lemmy and Lita Ford. That game also seems to have been influenced by classic fantasy, taking stylistic cues from works like Conan the Barbarian. When it comes to capturing the grandiosity of heavy-metal music, Brutal Legend is spot on. Partly self-aware, the game really does capture the unapologetic ostentatiousness of the genre, complete with giant mullets and electric guitar solos. On the downside, the variation of gameplay styles does mean that it can feel like theres a lack of focus at times. The combat can get pretty repetitive and, while the open world is beautifully crafted, it also feels remarkably hollow with little in it to do.