ic-games Review - Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360/PS3)

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Information
Reviewer: Andy Carmichael/James Collins
Developer: Neversoft
Publisher: Activision
Reviewed: Xbox 360/PS3
Genre: rhythm action
UK Release: 23rd Nov 2007
Article Date: 05th Nov 2007
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: £49.99/£69.99
Price Comparison:
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 87%

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Pros

Best track listing yet

Online, at last

Play as Slash

Cons

Poor graphics

Some slowdown

Screenshots

8 of 10

There are numerous activities in our modern world that would be hard to beat; driving your own Ferrari round the Monaco Grand Prix course, scoring the winning goal in the World Cup Final, being shipwrecked with the Swedish female hockey team…. (best end that particularly personal effort there.) Now one much longed for possibility has just become a little more realistic as the release of Guitar Hero sees you offered the chance to try and stride the stage as an axe legend.

With this being the third Guitar Hero we will save you from anything other than a brief overview of the game but for newcomers to the series this is probably one of the best rhythm type games to have seen release in some time. Obviously these newcomers will be better served with the latest wireless controller which comes bundled with the game, although the game is released separately if you are lucky enough to own a previous bundle.

Both the wireless and standard guitar has a switchable bar, rather than strings to simulate strumming up and down. Instead of frets (and multiple fingered dexterity) it has five large buttons with which to select the note you play. And adding a real touch of class is a replica whammy bar that behaves exactly as it should. This makes the action a perfect blend of hand/eye co-ordination without a requirement to be an existing Joe Satriani. In fact you don’t even need to know how to play a musical note on a genuine instrument. However, such is the balance of the machine and the skill levels of the game that the more seasoned musician could still utilise their abilities to find enjoyment and the opportunity to make their friends green with envy.

To compliment this control feature the screen is filled with a representation of whichever venue you happen to be playing – they range from dingy club to stadium gig, and your choice of character along with your band. In the foreground is the musical notation – yet again a simple format, the combination of buttons needing to be pressed, and the length they need to be held for on a fret board that scrolls towards you. This moves increasingly quickly, and in ever more complex arrangements of buttons the higher up the skill level you go. Pressing the buttons and flicking the strum bar at the correct time provides a correctly played note. Correct notes equal points and successions of positive hits build into score multipliers and more dramatic effects. String together some bars of accuracy and you can unleash a star effect which has gradually been filling on a meter. This requires some real hamming up on your behalf as it is activate by tilting the guitar in pure Status Quo fashion. Conversely play some duff notes (and you really know when you get it wrong) and the crowd will turn against you – your rating indicator veering from good to bad and ultimately a premature booting off stage. You’ll quickly learn how to have them eating out of the palm of your hand, but doing so when the notes are coming thick and fast is another matter.

The track list this time compared with the two previous Guitar Hero games is a resounding success. There are simply far more classic tracks featured involving more of the original artists without the use of cover bands. Even the bonus tracks which are unlocked by purchasing them with the cash earned in career mode contain some of the best tracks ever recorded. Stone Roses ‘She Bangs the Drums’ sounds fantastic, as does ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Paint it Black’, ‘Paranoid’ and even some UK breakthrough artists like Kaiser Chiefs make an appearance.

Of course Guitar Hero aficionados are going to be more interested in the new features and although the new developers have done their best to keep things as simple as possible they have managed to do enough to keep the experts pleased as well. The biggest feature that raised the highest eyebrows when it was first announced was the online capabilities which adorn the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions. Xbox 360 fans do get the smoothest experience online, mainly due to the fact that friends can be selected (unlike the Playstation 3 version which only offers random online battles). Finally the Wii version does not include the ability to download new tracks which are only available at present on both the 360 and PS3 versions. That being said all three versions offer up an almost lag free experience when you battle or play co-op online, so much so it’s just a shame that the career co-operative mode was not available to play online at all.

The other major new innovation to the series is the boss battles that crop up during the single player mode. These work similar to the multiplayer battles in that you must hit a correct sequence of notes to earn a play breaker that once unleashed upon your opponent (by tilting the guitar) can create all manner of problems, from breaking strings to interfering with the whammy bar. Slash from Guns N’ Roses and Tom Morello can be unlocked this way and once purchased can be used as avatars in the game. Playing as Slash or Tom instead of the usual ‘made-up’ guitar players in the game does add a lot to the game and actually makes the experience hugely enjoyable. The only niggle we could perhaps throw at the game is that the boss battles were a little too easy to best. Beating Slash was a breeze and apart from the end boss neither Tom nor Slash put up a fight, considering their guitar prowess you might have thought Neversoft would have made them a harder catch.

Of course even with all these new features that Neversoft have brought to the table, the one that is going to impress the most on release day is the new wireless controller. There is no denying the fact that playing with the latest build of guitar is so much cooler than the wired version from the past. Add that to the fact that Xbox 360 owners can use the guitar with the previous game, Guitar Hero 2, and we can bet that quite a few older guitars will be retiring on Ebay in a few weeks time. It does add around thirty quid to the price but is fully justified especially if you want to kick back and play on Live, mainly due to the fact that without wires the guitar feels far more comfortable to use.

If we had to slam the game in any direction it would only be cosmetic. As you may have heard elsewhere, the graphics and animations featured in Guitar Hero III are less than stellar, especially on the next generation boxes. And although we loved the inclusion of Guitar god Slash, we certainly felt a few more superstars could have been included, especially when the game sets itself up as ‘Legends of Rock’. We might be sticking our necks on the line here, but where is Brian May, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd superstars Roger Waters and David Gilmour? Maybe we will be offered downloadable content shortly, we can only hope so.

With the Wireless controller, huge (and for once decent) track list and the long desired online play, Guitar Hero III has ultimately taken the right direction. When you strip away the meat from the bones you might be left with essentially Guitar Hero II 'deluxe' but for fans of the series we doubt many will be disappointed with what Neversoft have achieved.

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