Solid songlist, and some insane gameplay. Not the most accessible rhythm game out there, but still a fun play.
And, man, is that song hard to play.
Hell, alot of the songs are hard to play!
And I don't even go to the highest difficulty!
Guitar Hero 3 was definitely ramped up from the previous versions with a depper, harder, and faster songlist than ever before. Thankfully, alot of the songs, are genuinely very, very good! Which makes the sometimes overwhelming difficulty bearable, most of the time.
Neversoft did a great job with this game, after Harmonix jumped ship when Activision bought the rights to the franchise. The extra funding definitely helped them create a deeper songlist than their previous installments.
And, as it turns out, the deeper song list requires a greater skill level than the previous two installments, which will bring joy to some people, and turn away others.
The boss battles are interesting, not great, but interesting...actually, the most rewarding part about beating a Tom Morello or Slash, is playing an encore with them once you beat them. Bulls on Parade with Morello felt really cool.
The visuals, while impressive, seem a touch dated in this day and age, especially on the 360, and extra especially since it's main competitor (Rock Band), manages better use of crowds, sing-a-longs, and customizable players. Guitar Hero offers some customization, but not as much as it should.
For some reason, though, playing this game, while challenging, seems to be one of those games where I'm more concerned with getting a higher score, or nailing more notes, than actually enjoying playing along with the music. Partially, because most of the music demands my concentration, and partially, because the songs lean more toward tighter structure or irrhythmic licks than the other games, making them more difficult, to be sure, but far less enjoyable than strumming along to the songs in their previous installments, where I was able to enjoy the songs a little more without the difficulty pulling my attention away from it.
Overall, GH3 is a fun game. It's definitely as good as the last two, but outside of ramping the difficulty level (which, depending on who you are, can be good OR bad), it does little to evolve the series in any significant way. Granted, a new studio was producing the game this time around, and most likely, rumors of Harmonix' project with MTV probably sped up the timetable, but with a little more attention paid to the little things, like better arenas, more believable crowds, or completely customizable characters to play, would have made this game alot more than a bragging right for people to say "I just got 100% playing 'One' on expert!"
GH3 is good, but if as much attention was placed on making it fun, as was obviously spent on making it difficult, it could have been a whole lot more.