We all need to look in the mirror and realize that we’re “haters”. There’s a certain perverse pleasure a gamer gets from ragging on an anticipated game, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence that it will probably rock.  This, my friends, is what life has been like for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.  As you may already know, there’s a little game called Rock Band on the horizon. It’s been made by the guys who originally came up with the idea of an axe made by Fisher-Price.

But this is not a Rock Band review, so why am I mentioning it?  Because I’m making a point, dang it!  In the end, I want to play GUITAR.  Drums and vocals are sweet, but I like to ROCK.  That’s what I came to Guitar Hero.  That’s why I stayed through Guitar Hero II. I expect gamers to throw up their metal horns and pick up their axe again without pre-judgment because those games were good, and I want the Guitar Hero III to be just as sweet, no matter who made it. 

You have my axe!
 
RedOctane, I am not disappointed—you have improved upon nearly every aspect of this now classic franchise. The core of the game, the song selection, is the strongest yet.  Guitar Hero lacked a plethora of “hits”, but was filled with imaginative choices.  The next installment was flush with success and backed by grandiose amounts of dough possessed by Activision.

While the “hits” were there, something was lost in the making.  In an effort to blow gamers away by taking it to 11, GH II went with songs that were “thrashers”, exploding with so many notes there were actually sections that were borderline unplayable.

Then they went to Guitar Hero III.  This series has never had a greater mix of music, and the hits ride alongside the gems.  “Pride and Joy” and “Cliffs of Dover” are in the same game as “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”. Trust me, you’re going to be grateful for every last note.  But where GH III really shines over its prequels is how carefully the list has been compiled.  A problem with GH II was how, once the jump to expert was made, many players didn’t want to play the lower level tracks because they just weren’t that exciting.  In GH III, even the first and second tier tracks have some genuinely interesting guitar work. 

Smooth like a fresh coat of lacquer on a custom Les Paul - so is the gameplay.  With a new lag calibration system that allows you to tweak signal by the millisecond (and I did my friend, I did), you shouldn’t miss those runs when you make that jump to expert mode.  You should get there soon enough; these tracks subtly push you toward constant improvement, whether it’s “Barracuda” demanding up and down strumming on its triplets, to “My Name is Jonas” asking you to hammer on approximately twenty measures at a time from one touch of the strings.  With such a well-constructed learning curve, I expect career growth from every wannabe Hendrix out there. 

Guitar Hero III is a vast improvement over its predecessor in the graphics department, keeping the funky, cartoony look that we know and love but fleshing out the animation and character design.  Hey, it’s never really been a game about graphics but what’s presented here is eye-catching and fun, especially in full HD grandeur.

Playing with the Devil

So if the graphics, gameplay, options, replay value and song selection are so stellar, where does the game stumble?  Battle mode.  A new inclusion exclusive to GH III, this form of play does away with score and star power and introduces “power-ups” that are acquired through completing a series of notes.  These are awarded randomly and range in effect from a broken whammy bar (which prevents the guitar from being played until you whammy repeatedly) to a lefty flip (reversing the fret positions shown on the screen).  Sounds fun, but since the powers are as random as a Mario Kart question mark, you have no idea which one you’re going to get, and some are far more powerful than others. For instance, the double-note power turns every note into a bigger chord and can single-handedly win a match when deployed.

Unfortunately, while this may be an amusing way to play for two friends who are high on caffeine at three in the morning, someone in development thought this was a good thing to insert into career mode.  Boss battles!  We’ve got Slash and Tom Morello, who will each take a stand against you, but you’ll find they are quite easy to dispatch; the stumbling point comes with the third boss “Lou”.  He’s Satan incarnate in both form and gameplay.  Prepare yourself gamers, because the worst has happened here—Lou’s appearance in the game will turn your hard, skill-won advance to the final song into a luck fest.  You will have to wade through about a minute and a half of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” before you will even see a power-up phrase . . . then the devil is programmed to gain the first power-up and he will use it at the best possible timing, which usually means when you’re supposed to earn yours. What it means is you’re going to be playing the first minute of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” for about four hours straight.  Did I mention you can’t practice the song in the training mode either?

The bonus songs are generally weak here as well.  Whereas Guitar Hero I and II had some real winners in the tracks for purchase, Guitar Hero III has the shortest and weakest list.  Really the only great songs here are “Ruby” by the Kaiser Chiefs and “Through the Fire and Flames”, and only “Ruby” is for sale.  It’s a shame really, because I always looked forward to the odd variety I would discover in the bonus section . . . here it seems most of the songs have comparatively little character.  The only good thing to say about the bonus tracks is they’re all available and unlocked for play online right away, so you can test ‘em out before you buy ‘em.

Legend in the Making

Exciting, for sure, but not novel, and that pretty much sums up Guitar Hero III.  Everything about the title excels, but most of what we have here are improvements that probably already should have been implemented in the last version—better graphics, more customizations of guitars and characters, smoother lag, varied songs and online play.

Review by: Joel Gourdin
Video Produced by: Tim Jennings