Awesome soundtrack, but a stale presentation.
THE BAD: Limited in design; no custom avatar or bands; presentation feels dated; difficulty is uneven; lots of in-game ads.
I have never played any of the Guitar Hero games until GH3. This wasn't because the game didn't interest me. This was because the soundtrack didn't interest me. Now that GH3 is out, I finally picked it up. The main reason being that this is easily the best sound track of the series, and the core gameplay remains the same. However, the game is not without its drawbacks.
GAMEPLAY – 8
The core gameplay in GH3 remains unchanged from past games. This can be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on your point of view. Like past games, the single-player career is spread out across 8 levels of venues. You must pass 3 of the 4 available songs to advance to the next level.
Songs available range from classic rock, to hardcore metal. Songs can be played in single-player or co-op career modes. Face-off, battle, and co-op modes are also available for online play. Which is a nice addition.
New to this installment are the boss battles. These battles are a great idea, but sadly aren't executed as well as they could have been. The first two battles feature the game's only licensed guitarists: Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Slash from Guns N' Roses. These two are living legends among guitarists, and a welcome addition to the game.
As the battle starts, you and the AI trade off playing notes. Instead of star power for hitting certain notes, you're given various "Mario Kart" style power-ups to use against your opponent in the hopes of making them mess up. If they fail, you win. Sounds OK on paper, but since you rarely recover from a string of attacks, the battle just becomes a race to see who can get the most power-ups first.
While Tom Morello and Slash are great, they are the only real guitar players in the game. The only other characters you can play as are fictional, and pre-set. While there is a good selection, the ability to not create your own character is greatly missed. Because of this, most people are going to play most of the game as Morello and Slash once they're unlocked.
GRAPHICS – 8
The graphics have changed greatly from past GH games, and for the most part it works. The style is now much more exaggerated and cartoonish, and gives the characters more personality. The levels also got the same treatment, and look fantastic for the most part.
The downside is that the character animations are just bad. Even for your character. Animations tend to repeat a lot, and the drummer looks especially stiff. The crowd doesn't ad much to the experience, either. Some of the stage effects look nice, but like the animations they repeat a lot, and aren't in time with the music. You'll also see a ton of in-game ads for everything from Axe to Red Bull.
During the career mode there are some animated cut-scenes that help to advance the story between levels. Although they look great, they are also very short. Less than 10 seconds to be exact. The style of the graphics is a great improvement, but it's just a shame that the animations and other effects didn't get the same treatment.
SOUND – 10
This is easily the best soundtrack of any GH game. The vast majority of the 70+ available songs are from the original artists, and they sound great. Great new additions include the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Slayer, and Guns N' Roses just to name a few.
Nearly every sub-genre of Rock and Roll is present in the game. Even bands who have been in past games are back again with their original songs, and some of the best examples of their work. I honestly can't find anything to complain about. Even the cover songs are much better than in past games. Not even GH's biggest rival, Rock Band, can stand up to this outstanding soundtrack.
VALUE – 8
The lasting value of GH3 is going to be in the online play. However, that won't last too long beyond the co-op career. The battle mode is interesting, but not fun enough to keep you coming back for long. Same goes for other online modes.
The higher difficulty will please long time fans of the series, but new players might be turned off at how tough the game is. Some songs like Slayer's "Raining Blood" are extremely hard even on easy. And simple songs like "Slow Ride" are going to be difficult, if not impossible on expert for some players. The achievements are also skewed to the expert player. Most of them will only be unlocked on hard or expert difficulties.
What GH3 needs more than anything else to improve its value is a presentation update. The ability to customize not only your character, but also your band-mates would have been fantastic. This option is a core element of Rock Band, and gives it a longer lasting value over GH3. The progress of the career mode is also stale, and needs to be more interactive for the player.
New additions like the licensed guitarists are nice, but not enough to make the game really stand out from past editions. The real draw here is the outstanding soundtrack, but it's contained in pretty much the same package as GH2. If you're looking for something new in the rhythm genre, then you might want to try Rock Band. However, if you want the best songs, and are willing to put up with a out-of-date presentation, then GH3 wont disappoint.