In 2007, Harmonix Music Systems (Guitar Hero II, Rock Band) handed the reigns of the Guitar Hero series to Neversoft (Tony Hawk series), who designed the third Guitar Hero game, with both Activision (Doom 3, Call of Duty 4) and Red Octane (Guitar Hero) sharing joint publishing. The game made over $1 billion in 2007, making $100 million in the first week in just North America. It also was well received critically, though not as well as the first two games.
In the story for Career Mode, such as it were, you play the guitarist in a band. You go around to venues, eventually gaining popularity. After your manager screws up your seventh venue (which is based in Japan), your singer tries to fire him. However, the manager (named Lou) shows all of you a contract, which shows that the devil owns your souls. You are then sent to Hell, where you play through the final tier. It isn't much of a story, but as a music based game, a story is superfluous and not necessary, therefore making this a step up from the other Guitar Hero games.
As far as Career mode itself goes, you play through 8 tiers, or venues. Each set has 4 songs and an encore. However, in the third, fifth, and final tier, you have boss battles as well. In the first battle, you face off against Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) in an original composition. Upon victory, the two of you play "Bulls on Parade". For the second, you face Slash of GNR and Velvet Revolver in another original composition, followed by "Welcome to the Jungle". For the final battle and song, you face Lou in a battle of shredding..."The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
My main problem with the Career mode is that while there is some skill involved in these boss battles, it is mostly luck, as you are forced to rely on power-ups that either do nothing, or cripple them. Otherwise, they hit every note perfectly. This frustrates, as you lose not through lack of skill, but bad luck. Also, the set list itself is fairly balanced...until you hit the last tier. There isn't so much a difficulty curve here, as a difficulty wall. You can be doing fine on the first seven tiers, but then you reach the last tier, and you cannot beat a single song. This is not only common, happening otherwise is uncommon. Luckily, I avoided this by being a Guitar Hero nerd, but even I was pissed at how ridiculous "Raining Blood" was.
There is also a co-op career mode, which features a different setlist, no boss battles (hallelujah), and six exclusive songs. These six songs, in order, are: "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, "Reptilia" by The Strokes, "Suck My Kiss" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Cities on Flame with Rock & Roll" by Blue Oyster Cult, "Helicopter" by Bloc Party, and "Monsters" by Matchbook Romance. The only problem here is shared with the single player career mode...an insane difficulty curve. Other than that, this is a solid addition.
The set list itself is very solid. About half the songs are master tracks, while most of the covers are extremely close to the original. There are 39 songs on the main list, which range from classic rock like "Welcome to the Jungle", to blues rock ("Pride and Joy" by Stevie Ray Vaughan, unfortunately one of the poor covers), to metal like "One" by Metallica, to punk ("Anarchy in the U.K." by The Sex Pistols, who re-recorded the song for the game). There is literally a song for everyone except country fans (sorry, no Johnny Cash). There is even a rap song, "Sabotage".
The bonus songs are fairly decent this time around. There are 25 bonus song, and while you will have heard few of the bands, most of them are pretty fun. One new addition here is the inclusion of foreign songs. There are two German songs, one French hard rock song (seriously), a Spanish soft rock song, and a Japanese pop song.
This game continues the proud tradition of having an insanely hard bonus song. In the first game, it would be "Fire it Up", though "Cowboys From Hell" was harder. In the second game, it was "Jordan". In this game, it is "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce. This song is much harder than Jordan, almost to a cheap degree. The songs themselves are hit and miss, with some good songs being, in my opinion, "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." by Fall of Troy and "Hier Kommt Alex" by Die Toten Hosen. Some of the misses include, again in my own opinion, "In the Belly of a Shark" by The Gallows and "Take This Life" by In Flames. While this is subjective, you will most likely dislike some of the bonus songs, but overall, they did a much better job than the other two games.
The third section of songs available are downloadable songs. To date, there have been 8 packs put on sale for DLC, ranging from classic rock to modern metal, with several more free downloads availabe. Overall, the list of available songs to buy or just download is impressive, ranging from Def Leppard to Dropkick Murphies, with the ultimate surprise download being "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" by Steve Vai. If that's not enough to convince you, I don't know what is.
The multiplayer is fairly fun. You can play co-op or versus. Co-op is self-explanatory, with the two of you playing either lead or bass/rhythm. There are three versus modes. The first is Face-Off, where the two of you switch off between sections of a song. The second is Pro Face-Off, where you both play the entire song and try to get a higher score. The final one is Battle Mode, which plays like one of the boss battles. For my complaint here, please reread that section again. There is also online multiplayer, for those of you without friends to play with, but the odds of finding a match are slim.
The set of characters is a step down from GH2. All the characters are here except Clive Winston (WHY?!?!?!), Eddie Knox (Elvis has left the building...unless you get the Wii or PS2 version), and Pandora (who has been melded with Judy Nails). In lieu of these three characters, you get a Japanese girl named Midori, who looks like...a pre-teen Japanese girl, complete with funky hair. However, you can later buy Tom Morello, Slash, and Lou, and there are more outfits available for each character. This does alleviate the frustration of the lost characters somewhat, but not completely.
The graphics in this game are stunning. While the crowds still suffer a cloning problem (get it together already), the game itself looks shiny overall. Even looking at the fine details is crazy, like the singer's lips actually moving with the words. My main problems here are the movement of the drummer, who moves about as smoothly as a Chuck E. Cheese anamatronic robot, and the male lead singer, who has not-so-affectionately been dubbed Jay Leno, Jr. for his massive chin. However, the drummer is in the background, so you can just ignore him (just like in real life. ZING!), while there is a cheat code on the 360 and PS3 versions to replace the lead singer with Bret Michaels, who only looks gay instead of scary.
Overall, I love Guitar Hero III. It's fun, it's easy to pick up, and it takes skill to play. However, I can't help but think there is something missing from this game that the others had. While I applaud a difficulty increase, they went overboard here, making it feel more like a job than anything. With an Aerosmith Edition and a fourth game coming out this year, I can only hope that they get there act together, because the magic that the series has is starting to dim with age.
In the story for Career Mode, such as it were, you play the guitarist in a band. You go around to venues, eventually gaining popularity. After your manager screws up your seventh venue (which is based in Japan), your singer tries to fire him. However, the manager (named Lou) shows all of you a contract, which shows that the devil owns your souls. You are then sent to Hell, where you play through the final tier. It isn't much of a story, but as a music based game, a story is superfluous and not necessary, therefore making this a step up from the other Guitar Hero games.
As far as Career mode itself goes, you play through 8 tiers, or venues. Each set has 4 songs and an encore. However, in the third, fifth, and final tier, you have boss battles as well. In the first battle, you face off against Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) in an original composition. Upon victory, the two of you play "Bulls on Parade". For the second, you face Slash of GNR and Velvet Revolver in another original composition, followed by "Welcome to the Jungle". For the final battle and song, you face Lou in a battle of shredding..."The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
My main problem with the Career mode is that while there is some skill involved in these boss battles, it is mostly luck, as you are forced to rely on power-ups that either do nothing, or cripple them. Otherwise, they hit every note perfectly. This frustrates, as you lose not through lack of skill, but bad luck. Also, the set list itself is fairly balanced...until you hit the last tier. There isn't so much a difficulty curve here, as a difficulty wall. You can be doing fine on the first seven tiers, but then you reach the last tier, and you cannot beat a single song. This is not only common, happening otherwise is uncommon. Luckily, I avoided this by being a Guitar Hero nerd, but even I was pissed at how ridiculous "Raining Blood" was.
There is also a co-op career mode, which features a different setlist, no boss battles (hallelujah), and six exclusive songs. These six songs, in order, are: "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, "Reptilia" by The Strokes, "Suck My Kiss" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Cities on Flame with Rock & Roll" by Blue Oyster Cult, "Helicopter" by Bloc Party, and "Monsters" by Matchbook Romance. The only problem here is shared with the single player career mode...an insane difficulty curve. Other than that, this is a solid addition.
The set list itself is very solid. About half the songs are master tracks, while most of the covers are extremely close to the original. There are 39 songs on the main list, which range from classic rock like "Welcome to the Jungle", to blues rock ("Pride and Joy" by Stevie Ray Vaughan, unfortunately one of the poor covers), to metal like "One" by Metallica, to punk ("Anarchy in the U.K." by The Sex Pistols, who re-recorded the song for the game). There is literally a song for everyone except country fans (sorry, no Johnny Cash). There is even a rap song, "Sabotage".
The bonus songs are fairly decent this time around. There are 25 bonus song, and while you will have heard few of the bands, most of them are pretty fun. One new addition here is the inclusion of foreign songs. There are two German songs, one French hard rock song (seriously), a Spanish soft rock song, and a Japanese pop song.
This game continues the proud tradition of having an insanely hard bonus song. In the first game, it would be "Fire it Up", though "Cowboys From Hell" was harder. In the second game, it was "Jordan". In this game, it is "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce. This song is much harder than Jordan, almost to a cheap degree. The songs themselves are hit and miss, with some good songs being, in my opinion, "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." by Fall of Troy and "Hier Kommt Alex" by Die Toten Hosen. Some of the misses include, again in my own opinion, "In the Belly of a Shark" by The Gallows and "Take This Life" by In Flames. While this is subjective, you will most likely dislike some of the bonus songs, but overall, they did a much better job than the other two games.
The third section of songs available are downloadable songs. To date, there have been 8 packs put on sale for DLC, ranging from classic rock to modern metal, with several more free downloads availabe. Overall, the list of available songs to buy or just download is impressive, ranging from Def Leppard to Dropkick Murphies, with the ultimate surprise download being "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" by Steve Vai. If that's not enough to convince you, I don't know what is.
The multiplayer is fairly fun. You can play co-op or versus. Co-op is self-explanatory, with the two of you playing either lead or bass/rhythm. There are three versus modes. The first is Face-Off, where the two of you switch off between sections of a song. The second is Pro Face-Off, where you both play the entire song and try to get a higher score. The final one is Battle Mode, which plays like one of the boss battles. For my complaint here, please reread that section again. There is also online multiplayer, for those of you without friends to play with, but the odds of finding a match are slim.
The set of characters is a step down from GH2. All the characters are here except Clive Winston (WHY?!?!?!), Eddie Knox (Elvis has left the building...unless you get the Wii or PS2 version), and Pandora (who has been melded with Judy Nails). In lieu of these three characters, you get a Japanese girl named Midori, who looks like...a pre-teen Japanese girl, complete with funky hair. However, you can later buy Tom Morello, Slash, and Lou, and there are more outfits available for each character. This does alleviate the frustration of the lost characters somewhat, but not completely.
The graphics in this game are stunning. While the crowds still suffer a cloning problem (get it together already), the game itself looks shiny overall. Even looking at the fine details is crazy, like the singer's lips actually moving with the words. My main problems here are the movement of the drummer, who moves about as smoothly as a Chuck E. Cheese anamatronic robot, and the male lead singer, who has not-so-affectionately been dubbed Jay Leno, Jr. for his massive chin. However, the drummer is in the background, so you can just ignore him (just like in real life. ZING!), while there is a cheat code on the 360 and PS3 versions to replace the lead singer with Bret Michaels, who only looks gay instead of scary.
Overall, I love Guitar Hero III. It's fun, it's easy to pick up, and it takes skill to play. However, I can't help but think there is something missing from this game that the others had. While I applaud a difficulty increase, they went overboard here, making it feel more like a job than anything. With an Aerosmith Edition and a fourth game coming out this year, I can only hope that they get there act together, because the magic that the series has is starting to dim with age.
