Stumpy and the Pace Car

The Pace Car, featuring Stumpy! He drums! He drums like a freaking fiend! Well he is a fiend. Part of Fletus' Goons, he's a support vehicle in a possessed drumset car. It is surprisingly hard to make a good looking drumset car. I'll keep working on it.

Empty World Syndrome

Recently I just played through Brutal Legend again, and it was a ton of fun, just like I remember it being when I originally played it in 2009. It's a really interesting game because the world is truly awesome. There are tons of cool monsters and locations strewn throughout the world, and the game has specific constructions that allow you to take advantage of these aesthetic pleasures. Ordinarily I hate that kind of emphasis creating a look, creating setpieces that neither serve the gameplay nor really further the story, but Brutal Legend is an epic world that really benefits from a variety of huge, cool setpieces.

Anyway, I beat the game I spent some time just kind of driving around the world, looking at all the cool stuff and visiting some of the areas I had liked while I was playing the game. I rode through some settlements, camps, and places where I'd stopped the bus during the campaign, and I began to notice something: this world was pretty empty. Whenever I'd beat a side mission, the units offering it would vanish, leaving an abandoned campfire behind. The settlements I'd worked hard to rescue from the clutches of vile monsters were empty of people. In spite of its beauty, this world felt sort of abandoned.

I am, of course, comparing it to the RPGs of my youth. In those games, cities were heavily populated, with dozens of locals discussing local landmarks, moving the story along, or offering gameplay advice disguised as banter. Perhaps this is somewhat unjustly offered. Brutal Legend does make some efforts to make the world feel occupied: the whole world is full of units constantly marching around "kicking ass", as they proudly proclaim, there are a few areas where you can interact with campaign characters after the fact, and a few units can be seen doing odd jobs.

But the automated units running around fighting creeps never feel quite like characters: they fight, often they die, and they're replaced by new units as though nothing happened, often while you're sitting there, watching. Seeing people live and struggle in their world is pretty cool, as is seeing aspects of gameplay happen without you--it makes the world feel more immersive.

But then again, it was strange to think that at the beginning of the game, when the humans are living as slaves under Doviculus, they can be seen having a party on the beach--a party that vanishes after you beat the associated secondary missions and never returns, even after the campaign is over. It seems incongruous and makes you question whether you actually improved anything.

However, the absence of civilians from the gameplay is something I've noticed in a couple games. The whole human population of Rapture seems totally absent--you meet a few people that are implied to be non-splicers, but they're always story focused, and their rarity is underscored by the fact that more than half of them show up as corpses and the fact that you have to murder a dozen people just to go to the bathroom. The idea that this place is still a functioning city in the throes of a civil war--and not a long-dead, mouldering ruin--is completely damaged by the overwhelming presence of enemies.

Borderlands basically didn't have anybody. The first town features one NPC and three corpses, but the doctor behaves like he's in a bustling small town. There's a jobs board that often features jobs written as though they're from people who live in the local community, but you almost never see them, or any indication that they might exist beyond a note and the promise of a handful of cash. This is another game where you're exterminating small civilizations the way most people might clean the garage. So any given hut could be a clown car full of axe-wielding bandits, but entire cities often consist of the one guy who coincidentally runs a planetwide chain of vending machines. Again, incongruous.

Bioshock Infinite, however, breaks the mold by featuring civilians. Actual, real civilians that you're not supposed to murder and who flee as soon as the gunfire starts. It really took big steps towards making BSI feel alive, although you can review elsewhere for its storytelling deficiencies outside of the recognition that videogame setpieces don't have to be abandoned sets.

So don't leave an empty world. To me, games feel more interesting and the world more engaging when they they're populated. If you want to build a static dollhouse, we had the tools to do that lying around our mud huts 4000 years ago. We didn't need to tame lightning and teach it to count. If you have an open world, it needs people to feel alive. All those wonderful things setpieces you create should serve a population that has a need for them, or at least an appreciation for them.

Double Draggin Design

Double Draggins are a pair of demons in a sidecar.  Sometimes, they split the sidecar off the motorcycle, and clothesline people with their serpentine bodies. Or chains, or something. Look, they're very scary. I not feeling very creative today, so I'm not going to write anything else.

....After writing that sentence, I immediately spent five minutes thinking of something else to write.

Brutal Legend: Fletus and His Outlaws

Fletus concept art by Scott Campbell

When the Titans left, they didn't just leave behind their adoring pets, the Tainted Coil. Another race of demon slaves toiled for the Titans, helping to build and maintain their wondrous chariots, terrifying weaponry, and beautiful musical instrumens. Where the Coil attempted to simulate the beauty and majesty of their former masters, these demons only emulated their love of fast cars and fast music.

When the Titans ascended, the Tainted Coil turned their fury on the whole world, and no one suffered more than the demon mechanics, their hideous forms unrestricted and their knowledge more thorough and secret. The Coil waged an unceasing war against those ugly few who defied them. These creatures, the Outlaws, went into hiding on the edges of the world. Few survived the unending slaughter, but those that did continued to hone their arts in secret, racing against any challengers and sharing their most sacred knowledge with whomever could best them.

Fletus was one of the few who emerged first in the twilight of Doviculus' rule. When Doviculus was defeated by Eddie Riggs and the Coil routed by the human army Ironheade, the Outlaws rose again, racing along the ancient highways, resurrecting the mighty machines of their long-gone gods, and seeking a share of the homeland they lost; eventually going to war with the Ironheade Nation.

Boss Fletus
The leader of the Outlaws, Fletus had an amicable personal grudge against The Roadie that turned sour as his people seek fair access to the homelands to which they feel entitled. The humans of Ironheade are suspicious and fearful of the demons and reluctant to relinquish control of the lands hard-won from the Drowning Doom and the Coil seek to drive them back. Eddie arrives to mediate but when the Outlaws are less than reasonable in their demands, negotiations fall through and Fletus decides to raise an army and take back their land.

Fletus' combat style is less dependent on solos, and focuses more on his car--the Squealer--to dish out punishment.

Freeks

Infantry
These lovably bug-eyed monsters with a giant, distended jaws full of terrible teeth form the Outlaw's front line.  They spawn in squads of four and attack enemies with their disgusting, distended tongues.

Double Team: Helmethead
A team of Freeks will gather around Fletus, absorbing incoming attacks.


Backfire
Ranged Infantry
These cloaked, grinning demons ride hovering, high-powered engines, gunning them to cause a percussive blowback that injures enemies.

Double Team: Smoke Screen
Fletus hangs from the Backfire's engine block. Pressing a will generate a smokecloud that renders units inside it invisible.

Grease Gorilla
Support Vehicle: Healing
A furry demon driving a motorcycle with his feet, this guys provide healing for nearby units.

Double Team: Overhaul
Nearby units heal to more health while Fletus rides along. Overhauled health starts to deplete as soon as Fletus leaves the sidecar, but it's a good way to preload units riding into battle.

 

The Shark [1]
Anti Infantry Vehicle
The Outlaw equivalent to the Metal Beast or Reaper, the Shark exudes dozens of vicious bats that swarm enemies, cutting a swath through their infantry forces.

Double Team: Blood Drive
 The Shark is under control of Fletus as it rapidly accelerates, trailing a line of bats.

The Double Draggin'
Heavy Anti-Vehicle 
Two chained-up demons on a motorcycle with a sidecar, they whip each other at vehicles as they pass, dealing heavy damage.

Double Team: Hell's Clothesline
The sidecar splits off from the main vehicle, connected by a chain. Enemies caught between the two vehicles are dragged with it.

Holey Driver
Ranged Artillery
 The heavy artillery car driven by a freed Screamer, he seeks vengeance on the Coil for his torture on the Scream Wagon. His catapult car fires gas cans at enemies.

Double Team: Light The Fuse
Fletus drives the Holey Driver and can manually aim the catapult. When attacking, he'll light the tank with his cigar, adding extra explosive damage.

Stumpy
Driveable Support Vehicle: Buff
Stumpy's drums provide a powerful buff, causing nearby units to deal more damage. This effect does not stack with multiple drummers.

Double Team: Painkiller
Stumpy parks his drum car and begins a hyperpowerful drum solo that renders nearby units invincible. When the solo ends or Stumpy is killed, his car explodes in a fireball, destroying him and ending the buff.

Noxing
Anti-Infantry Vehicle
A sentient and viciously evil taxicab with a "pedestrian crossing" sign jammed in his radiator. Warning: do not be a blind pedestrian when this wild eyed demon takes the field.

Double Team: Powerslide
Fletus takes control of Noxing. Hit the break and turn to deal extra damage by powersliding into enemies.

The Doom Buggy
Heavy Ranged Unit
A tank pulled by a team of Tick Choppers and piloted by wild-eyed Freeks.

Double Team: Motorcade
The Doom Buggy parks and its Tick Chopper pull team disengage to circle, attacking foes that come near. If a Tick Chopper is destroyed, a new one will be generated to take its place after 3 seconds (+1 second per chopper destroyed).