Unleash Your Inner Rock Legend!!!
Disadvantages: Battle Mode is really a game of luck and new characters aren't that great.
When Harmonix went off to go do Rock Band, the Guitar Hero franchise was handed over to Tony Hawk creators, Neversoft. Guitar Hero has always stood up front as the most fun and therefore most popular party game right out now. Guitar Hero is an easy thought of what to get this Christmas. Now, I know that World Tour is out right now and I'm a bit late of writing about Guitar Hero's previous game and I would be writing about that right now but I haven't got it.
-(Controls)-
A couple of months after getting my Xbox 360, I wanted to get a new game, but without using the standard Xbox controller and I found it. Guitar Hero uses its own controller with five different colored buttons, a strum bar and a whammy bar. It's these features that make the Guitar Hero controller. The Guitar Hero III controller is much different than the older GH controllers. The new GH controller is in the shape of a Gibson Les Paul, so people that actually play a real guitar(like me)will recognize its model.
The new guitar controller has a bit more weight to it than the previous models, I think that makes a huge difference to the way the player feels while playing. The strap is now longer and more easier to adjust and can help you play songs easier, because if there's a much faster song, adjusting the strap just above your waist will help you move your fingers quicker, because your arm isn't all tangled up.
-(Gameplay)-
When playing a song there are two different things you have to do make the song play - hold down the fret buttons - strum the strum bar. There is also like the other games, Star Power. Star Power is made by nailing a section of notes without messing up and doubling you score by 8x(without Star Power it goes up to 4x). Star Power helps a whole lot because when you are on a section of a song that is really difficult for you and you are failing when you set of the star power it can lift you up and helping stop failing. There are four different difficulties. They are easy, medium, hard and expert. For GH III, there are huge changes to each of the difficulties. Easy is obviously easy-peasy-lemon-squeasy and is a good place to start for the newcomer only using three of the five buttons. Medium doesn't go to far ahead just using a few chords and an extra button. Hard goes obviously a little hard than both of those difficulties put together using all five buttons and a butt load of chords and then expert just goes over the top using everything that needs to be used on the game, using five buttons, alot of chords and also the hammer-ons and pull-offs technique.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are when you have strummed a note and then to get to the next note you don't strum but you press or "hammer-on" the next note up and then pulling-off is just the opposite. Hammer-ons and pull-offs are a great new and improved feature to Guitar Hero. In the previous games, GH I & II, the hammer-ons and pull-offs weren't very reactive when you went for a hammer-on, it just wouldn't do it properly and would completely mess you up while in the middle of a super fast solo. They have really tried their best to fix that problem and they really have.
The background band that you have had on the previous GH games have improved on their appearances but not on their stage presence, if you know what I mean. The band really don't move all that much, not that you would be really looking at them while your trying to play the game, but nonetheless they really haven't improved all that much.
In the career mode, you are basically doing the same old stuff you have done in the previous GH games. You tour the world, make money and buy extra stuff from the store, like, bonus songs, guitars, characters etc. But what they have done to this career mode, is that they have tried to put as much of a story as possible into it.
They have added these cut-scenes that last about 20-30 seconds. The characters included in the cut-scenes don't speak a word of English, actually they don't speak a word of any known language. They basically talk like Sims. I think its cool that they have tried to add something more than just, play 5 songs jump to the next level(gig).
They have added another mode which is played in all career difficulties, multiplayer and online. Battles(in career - Boss Guitar Battles). Battles are where its you and 1 of the 3 guitar celebrities battle out to see who is the best of the best. You throw things at each other called power-ups. These power-ups can either shake your highway make you break a string(a button)or can make your screen turn to lefty flip. Its an interesting idea, but in my opinion, it's really a game of luck. On the last guitar battle of the game when you are against the devil(Lou)on expert, there can be a section where it will just be a really fast row of greens coming at him, I throw him an amp overload(shake his highway up)but because its the same button over and over coming at him it doesn't mess him up the slightest but when I'm in the same situation I can't do exactly what he did and he's the one who wins.
-(Multiplayer)-
Guitar Hero is a great game for multiplayer, fact. Guitar Hero is more fun when playing with another person, be it local or online. There is co-op career where one of you will play guitar and the other will play bass or you will play lead and the other will play rhythm. It's a really cool mode but cannot be played online which is shame.
The multiplayer modes are the same as GH I & II, you have face-off and pro face-off where both players play head-to-head and see who has the most points. Only with face-off you can both play on separate difficulties, but on pro face-off you both have to play on the same difficulty. A new mode that has been brought to Guitar Hero III is co-op you can now do quickplays on co-op, but its cool because as you are working together on a song, the Star Power is shared between you, so when one of you wants to set off the Star Power, you both have to lift your guitars at the same time.
This is the first Guitar Hero game with online play and it is really fun to play when online. You have four different modes to play when online, but they are the same modes locally. You have face-off, pro face-off, battle and co-op. It's a shame that there's not something like an exclusive mode for online or something like that. Online is really for when you want to play multiplayer but you don't have someone to play with at that time. You also have player match and ranked match. Ranked match is when your game is monitored and your game will be taken to the leaderboards. Half the time you will find yourself just trying to get the highest on the leaderboard as you can, but you will find that people are really good at this game and it will be really hard to get to the top, so you just give up in the end.
-(Sound)-
The soundtrack for Guitar Hero III is the best so far. The best thing about it for me is that it is just pure rock and metal. That may not appeal to must players, but it was a big thing for me, nonetheless. Obviously you have the downloadable songs. There are, to my surprise, quite alot of free tracks, I think you can get about seven tracks for free(trust me, that's good if its free). The greatest track pack for download is Metallica's Death Magnetic. It has great songs and its also the entire album. I don't know how much it is MS Points, but it's £11.99(I'm not entirely sure on that I'm just guessing).
-(Famous Last Words)-
On the hole, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is by far the best in the series yet. I know alot of the fans will enjoy and say exactly what I said.
Thanks for reading. Jim1845
Summary: Best in the series so far.