Guitar Hero is a music based game that a lot of casual gamers and hardcore gamers know and love. The first game (from previous developer and creator Harmonix) released in 2005 may have had a then 'quite' release, but now the 3rd full installment of the game has been released to much anticipation. Since the first game was released, gamers have had the oppurtunity to play a game that allows the user to use a replica guitar as the controller to play actual guitar tracks from artist and songs many know and love. The ease of picking up this guitar and being able to play while having a full virtual band in the background playing along with you, has prompted millions of gamers to buy the game and it's many installments. That being said, here comes the review of Guitar Hero 3-Legends of Rock by Jam Peace.
Review score: 9.0/10
Title
Guitar Hero 3
Publisher
Activision
Developer
Neversoft
Rating (ERSB and PEGI)
Teen
Genre
Simulation
Xbox live
Yes, Multiplayer 2, Leaderboards
Number of players (SP)
1-2 | Co-Op 2
Availability
Available Now
Introductions
Released at the peak of the Guitar Hero phenomenon and craze, it is by far the best and greatest installment of the franchise to date. The game itself includes a who's who of rock n' roll artists and songs from many different genres and eras. Not only that, Red Octane (manufacturer of the Guitar Hero Peripherals) has finally released a Wireless guitar for Xbox 360 owners. That is the icing on the cake for a generation that is 'wireless'.
The game itself is now being developed by in-house Activision studio, NeverSoft (famous for creating the Tony Hawk franchise). For the most part, NeverSoft has stuck to the tried and true standard formula put forth by the previous developer for the Single Player Career mode. But they have included a few new additions to the multi-player modes such as Online Multi-player and a new Battle-mode.
That being said, there is much to get reviewed in the newest version of Guitar Hero. Let's get down to business, shall we.
Gameplay and Controls
Single Player Modes
When it comes to game play, GH3 is no slouch in this department. The game play is as fun and entertaining as it ever has been. As with previous Guitar Hero games it still contains the solid Career mode. This mode can be the bread and butter of the entire game, especially if you don't have Xbox Live or anyone to play multi-player with at the time. Career mode is almost a rite of passage for Guitar Hero fans as it allows the user to create a band name, choose a character to represent your rock star status, and a guitar as your tool for audio destruction. Once this is completed, you are set to start your journey to super-stardom.
The main reason career mode is great to play through is this is the only way you can unlock all the single player tracks so that you can feel free to play through them in the future thru Quick Play Mode whenever you want. Also progressing thru the single player mode allows you to unlock all of the venues in which you can play your rock odysseys at. Completing the tracks in Career mode then allows you to obtain cash (not available in Quick Play). This in-game money allows you to buy new threads, guitars, and Song tracks for you to use in Career and Quick Play.
The game play in both of these single player modes is excellent. Before setting up your gig, you can determine what difficulty you would like to play at. Depending on if you are a GH veteran or a GH beginner, there are appropriate modes to accompany your learning curve. The modes are Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. After playing thru the game on Easy a few times (if you are a beginner), you will then want to progress thru the other modes even more. The game is so addicting, even though I like to refer to it as "DDR for your fingers". In any of the modes you do follow the on screen prompts for which buttons to press, but for some reason it takes a long time for that to get old. Unless, you just really dislike the song of course. Personally I only like to play Guitar Hero casually, most of the time on the medium difficulty level. But once that wears off, I tend to play some tracks on hard. Which even though that feels ridiculously difficult at times, it's even more rewarding when you complete them at a higher difficulty level. That's one of the reason it's so addicting.
Another contributing factor to the excellent game play is the fact that you are only playing the guitar track, and you have that virtual band to play the other parts of the song. This is way easier than getting some of your best buds together, forming a cover band, and trying to play songs on real instruments. Trust me.
Multi-player Modes
Once playing thru some of the Single Player, you may want to get your feet wet and play some good old fashioned multi-player. For the most part, the multi-player modes play the exact same as the single player modes.
If you are playing on the same Xbox 360 you have the option of playing Career Co-Op, Face-off (regular and Pro), and the new Battle mode. Career Co-op is just like Career except one person plays lead and the other rhythm/Bass. In Face-Off it is a duel of the rock gods as both players play the same tracks to determine who gets the better score. In the newest mode, Battle, both player get to play the same tracks but instead of a Star-Power mulitiplier, you get Power-up items. These items allow you to mess up a players whammy bar, do a lefty flip, or even cut one of their guitar strings for a limited time. There are a slew of other power ups as well. The main goal in this game type is to cause the other player to get into the red on the rock-meter and fail the song. At first, I was very reluctant on this mode but it is outrageously fun, if you want something a little different.
Last but not least, this version of GH has finally added on-line multi-player via Xbox live! NeverSoft has done a wonderful job in faithfully re-creating the experience on xbox live. With a good connection, the game is lag free which is awesome. I have yet to personally experience any lag. While playing on 'Live', you can play songs with another player such as Co-OP (non Career), Face-Off, and Battle mode. You can also show the whole world that you are the next guitar hero virtuoso by playing ranked games and getting your name plastered on the leader-boards. How cool is that.
Overall if you have already experienced the Guitar Hero game play, it is more or less the same. But with new tracks and added multi-player support, it puts the game play offerings over the top. Game play is king and Guitar Hero has got it.
Graphics and Presentation
Now, we all know that graphics aren't everything. But it does help. Especially on a machine like the Xbox 360 that has the processing power for it. In a game like GH3, you will be more or less concentrating on the notes on screen as opposed to what's in the background. Although GH3 does have some great effects, character/instrument models, and backgrounds. Most likely you will notice these when someone else is playing, or if you are in the middle of a break during a guitar track. But For the most part, even though the character models and venues look very unrealistic they can still be very beautiful looking at times.
In terms of Graphics and presentation, GH3 has one thing going for it that looks awesome. That is the character animations. The animations your guitarist goes thru while playing certain parts of the track is very accurate looking. Not only that, the rest of the Band has their own animations specific to each song, which is an added plus. Most surprising to me was the amount of detail placed on the Vocalist's animations. His mouth actually mimics that of a real person when he is singing the songs. It looks crazy!!! As an added bonus on the presentation, Neversoft actually took real musicians such as Bret Michaels (of Poison and VH1's 'Rock of Love') to perform motion capture animations for the characters in Guitar Hero 3. Money well spent in my opinion.
Overall for the graphics, don't be expecting block-buster type graphics as featured in much of today's high-budget titles. But for it's genre of game, what it has in the graphics department is more than sufficient.
Sound
This is the department in which GH has and probably always will shine. First off the sound effects are top notch. The sound effects in the menus are pretty basic. But in game, a whole other story. While reaching for the stars on stage, you can hear the crowd cheer, boo, and clap when you achieve star power. Sometimes you can feel very empowered when you hear a thousand voices cheering for you. Not only that the sound design is excellent as they have provided xbox 360 owners with 5.1 surround sound as an option. What this means is that when the crowd is making noise, you actually hear it in your rear speakers, allowing you to still hear all the music in the front speakers. This adds to the overall experience of the game as it makes you feel like you are right in the middle of the action.
But when speaking about the sound, you can't forget the main ingredient. The Soundtrack. GH3, in my opinion, has the best GH music soundtrack to date. It again spans eras and genres from the past to the present including Grunge, Alternative, Modern Rock, Metal, and much more. There are so many artists and songs in this version that people love which means NeverSoft has done their homework on this one. As with previous GH games there are songs that are 'master' tracks from the original artists as well as cover songs that sound very similar to the actual artist.
With excellent sound effects and an immaculate collection of songs to play from artists such as RHCP, Pearl Jam, Kaiser Chiefs, Metallica, Slayer, and Living Color it's very hard quit playing this game. Tasty!
Controls
GH3 has a control scheme that you can use either with a Red Octane guitar or the Xbox 360 standard controller. Although you may not think playing with the controller can be fun, think again. It's fun and just as addicting to play with the standard controller, but to experience GH in all it's glory, you must use the GH Red Octance controller.
While playing GH3, as with other GH games, you have 5 different colored fret buttons in which to press when they appear on screen. When using the GH guitar you simply press the corresponding fret button and press the strum bar. This works excellent. Some notes are pressed once, some you have to hold down to sustain the sound. You also have the option of using stored up 'energy' in the game to release a point multiplier. This is known as Star-Power and to use this you simply tilt the GH guitar controller up as if getting ready to play a nasty solo in real life. And voila, instant rock star. Not only that you can also add variety to your sustained notes by using the wammy bar to alter the sound. These controls which are not new to GH3 still work just as good as they did on the original GH. You know what they say. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But please, if you do decide to play GH3. Please don't settle for anything less than the official GH guitars. These guitars make the controls feel like butter.
Replay Value
Now that we've finally went thru all the bells and whistles of GH3, let us not forget what they all add up to. REPLAY VALUE. The replay value on this game is through the roof, literally. Personally, I would rather play the same GH3 songs over and over than play some online multiplayer FPS games (including one that was released on Sept.25, but I won't mention any games. Haha).
With GH3 you can play tunes you love from bands you worship in the comfort of your own home with little to no actual music playing experience. Not only that, this is a game that gamers of all ages can enjoy, which is very rare in this day and age. An age in which lots of multiplayer games have to be violent to be fun, or so people think. Throw in the ability to play with friends, without having to spend hundreds of dollars on music equipment, priceless. This year with the addition of online multi-player, new wireless guitars, and a fresh soundtrack (which includes exclusive tracks created by guitar gods: Tom Morello and Slash- look them up!), I can see why local game shops still can't keep the Xbox 360 version in stock over a month and a half after it's release!!!
It's hard to put down a game with high replay value due to it's excellent gameplay, nice graphics, superb soundtrack, and user friendly controls. Plain and simple this game is just fun.
The Straight Dope
To me personally, this review has ended on a good 'note' (no pun intended). Having played all other variations of the GH franchise playing GH3 was in no way a dissapointement whatsoever. I feel that if you are even remotely into music or games, this title can be the best of both worlds. It also doesn't hurt if you love good ol' Rock n' Roll. If you've never played Guitar Hero before, this is a great place to start. But if you're a veteran, it's an even better place to continue.
I would not like to leave all the readers with a little quote from one of our fellow XUG members: Mojonono. (another person whom the mighty Jam Peace battled with Guitars of might and then prevailed. Hahah!)
"Air guitar will never be the same, it will always feel empty. Guitar Hero III killed it. What would Bill n Ted do? I think they would smile, and I can just hear them now.
Reviews
Guitar Hero is a music based game that a lot of casual gamers and hardcore gamers know and love. The first game (from previous developer and creator Harmonix) released in 2005 may have had a then 'quite' release, but now the 3rd full installment of the game has been released to much anticipation. Since the first game was released, gamers have had the oppurtunity to play a game that allows the user to use a replica guitar as the controller to play actual guitar tracks from artist and songs many know and love. The ease of picking up this guitar and being able to play while having a full virtual band in the background playing along with you, has prompted millions of gamers to buy the game and it's many installments. 
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