Been playing this game a while and today I thought I'd give it full throttle and get all the careers done to give a well-informed review of this Guitar Hero spin-off.
So here we go.
General Information
Guitar Hero is a musical-based game developed to work specifically with 'instrument' controllers, starting with Guitar only and working it's way into Drums and Vocals by the time Guitar Hero 4 (World Tour) was released.
Guitar Hero had 4 large hit games; Guitar Hero (PS2), Guitar Hero 2(PS2), Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock (X360, PS2 & PS3)
And the latest installment - Guitar Hero 4: World Tour
Guitar Hero 4 had two 'spin-off' games which were 2 large American rock bands - Metallica and Aerosmith. They were named GH4 spin-offs since they used the same engine and scripting of the game.
Okay, So on with Metallica!
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Well, being a big fan of Metallica - I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this game.
But this will probably not be the view of the general gaming society - so I'm going to take this review from the minds of most people.
Guitar Hero Metallica is an exceptionally long game with an extremely short career.
Which sounds extremely strange from first points and yes, I sound crazy for saying this but it is so true.
The game has songs mainly by Metallica (hence the name) and features bands that have either covered their songs (and they liked it) OR Metallica themselves have covered their songs. Extra songs include that from Motorhead, Social Distortion, Mercyful Fate and also Bob Segal.
The songs included by Metallica are all album-releases and are no cover bands.
Career Mode
Career mode sees you following a band (your own apparently, even though my Bassist was a girl and on the videos is a big burly man) who is inspired by Metallica and respectively take the name "'Tallica Jr". Your band is featured on the songs that are covers so that it shows that Metallica are not part of this and they don't have to go through the terrible trouble of removing the 'Create a Rocker' system in the game. Which to be honest, doesn't matter because you spend most of your time as Metallica anyway. The rest of the time, when Metallica songs are present, you play as Rob, Kirk, James or Lars - depending on whichever instrument you are playing.
The game features the Guitar Hero trademark of moving from venue to venue beating the songs to progress futher on - but instead of the 'Beat 5 songs to Move on' they have moved to 'Earn 3 more starts to progress' - which I believe is a much more clever system as if a song is impossible you just don't have to do it whatsoever. ... Not hinting at anyone ... Slayer.
GH:M has worked hard to bring a slight balance to other songs and Metallica so that you don't get fed up - but in Career mode that generally goes to pot as you could have a full section on covers and the next section completely Metallica (which isn't a bad thing) but it can be quite annoying. As the career progresses there is a more mixed system which is quite good as well, but the start is strange.
Career Mode has a strange system of unlocking 5 songs in the first two sections - then suddenly finding itself quickly running out of venues and throwing a LOT of songs your way towards the middle of the career. The Introduction section contains two songs, followed by a section with 5 cover songs, then 5 Metallica songs, then about 8 songs containing both Metallica then cover, then throwing about 10 at you and finally finishing with a more managable number, of a lot LESS managable songs (the extremely hard stuff.) But it works well considering the fact that songs are extremely long and are well worth the money you payed for the game as you practically go through Guitar Hero 2 and 3 gameplay hours just by completing all songs as one instrument.
Overall, Career mode is a strange medley of songs with an attempted balance of Metallica and cover bands which sometimes it fits to pretty well, and others not so much. A very enjoyable experience and not as enjoyable on Expert.
The career is short as very few stars are needed to progress through the setlists and venues. BUT, the songs are long so therefore having a small choice of songs AND having to get lots of songs - would be boring as hell.
Instruments
Okay, so we have
Guitar, Drums, Bass and Vocals.
The Guitar is pretty similar to the rest of the guitar on the other games, using the slider bar on the Guitar Hero 4 controller a lot more due to Kirk Hammet's playing techniques and also a lot harder rhythms as well. If you though Knights of Cydonia from GH3 was practically imposibble on Expert - GH:M is not for you on Expert. The strange strumming patterns and impossible quick strumming patterns can be a challenge for experienced players (but some freaks will still be able to do it and show off to the rest of us.) The solos also are kind of okay, but still extremely hard just as it was with the strumming. To sum up, the Guitar on this game is hard. Sometimes so hard that it just doesn't even make sense. Oh, and guess what. Guitar Hero are falling back into their old ways. Joy! Adding notes when and where they like just to screw up the people who play Metallica on a real guitar. Mainly Master of Puppets was the one that annoyed me most - since they chuck an entire section of random strumming in for no reason. And also, since the guitarist of Metallica is KIRK, you expect to play KIRK's section. But apparently not, you have to duet with yourself and play James' section as well as Kirk's. So if Kirk has an awesome solo and then has a break while James strums out a hard pattern. You get to watch Kirk stand around and do nothing while you're frantically tapping the buttons.
Guitar Hero Metallica - If you want something even more of a challenge, buy this instead of GH: Greatest Hits ... 'cause you've probably conquered all them songs before without the slider. AND these ones can a pain in the Butt.
The Drums are basically.. Drums. You've seen them on Rock Band and GH:WT and the whole cymbal thing is pretty cool. So since Lars is a freaking drum-pounding-attack-everything-he-sees psycho, they added a new expert just for the freaks - Expert+.
...
As if Expert wasn't a pain the ass enough! They're throwing Double Bass Drum beats at you and you can only do this mode IF you buy a second bass pedal from a shop. And yeah, it's fun. If you actually play drums and know how to efficiently use a double bass pedal. Otherwise it's jsut a massive pain in your butt as you attempt to do hard songs. Expert+ songs are labelled with an extra difficulty skull in this game, so you know which ones to steer clear from. ... I mean are on Expert+. But Expert+ seemed a totally Killer (Killer in the good sense) thing before I actually stole my friend's drumkit and decided that I hated this idea. Since Lars has like 20-30 years of drumming experience under his belt, he can sue these double bass pedals quick and fast and make it sound good. And now you want us to do it with no experience? I suppose this thing is for the veteran players and Metallica fans. SO now I should stop talking about Expert+ and stuff. The drums are fun and interesting to play - and can be a total challenge most of the time but I suppose you'd get used to it eventually. Overall, a fun feature and was greatly enjoyed through career mode until the hard songs came.
Bass.
It's like Guitar.
With purple lines to show you don't need to hold any buttons down. Just as fun as guitar and just as hard most of the time.
Vocals.
Okay, there's a reason why James plays guitar and sings. Because a single singer would be SO BORED by the end of a Metallica concert. I mean, the average Metallica songs is 5 minutes long and about 2-3 minutes is singing, the rest is instrumental and/or solo parts from teh other instruments. But yeah, Vocals is fun if you like to dance and jump around and pretend to rock out with your other player-friends. But if you are alone and doing career by yourself, it's not as fun. Not at all. You're just bored of watching Metallica HAVE FUN while you sit on your sofa just waiting for a song to end. But all I have to say is this, James Hetfield uses 'Ooh!,' 'Aah!,' and 'Tah!' way too much. By the end of career, they were the only bits I looked forward to in songs. (Hence why I went over Fuel about 3 times.)
Overall, Vocals can be fun if you have friends with you, but can be boring as hell if you don't like jumping around to music and not feel like an absolute idiot while you do nothing.
Songs and Sets
The songs in GH:M are exactly what is says on the box. A lot of Metallica and other bands that have either covered Metallica, inspired Metallica or have been covered by Metallica.
The songs included feature from all the albums ever released by Metallica, ranging from Ride The Lightning, to Garage Inc, all the way to Death Magnetic. The songs vary from album to album in no specific order in the Career mode. The game features a good balance of the songs from the albums - even reaching into the S&M album for the song 'No Leaf Clover.' The songs picked are those that have not been featured on most of the other music games around - therefore 'Ride the Lightning' and 'Blackened' were not featured in this game as they were released in Rock Bands' DLC. Although GH:M did keep the song 'Battery' which was featured in the Rock Band series as it was apparently 'too good to be left out.'
Overall, a good range of songs for those who know Metallica a little (Enter Sandman), ranging all the way to the hardcore fans who would only know the albums of the songs since they own every one(Whiplash).
Graphcis / Technology
...
It's the same as Guitar Hero: World Tour, just with Metallica added in and the stages from the tours put in as well.
Multiplayer
Okay, my Multiplayer is based on the Xbox Live version and not about the Wii or anything - because I don't have one.
Once again, lots of games modes. PVP, 2 V 2, Band V Band, and lots of other things which were features in Guitar Hero: World Tour.
The only thing that has changed from Guitar Hero World Tour in this game, is Battle mode.
And that hasn't changed much!
The difference in battle is that the powerups have changed their name to Metallica songs.
Example: Ride the Lightning moves your screen around like previous powerups and 'Trapped Under Ice' puts your highway under ice (Suprise!) and you have to break your way out with Whammy.
Not really much else to say about it, to be honest.
Extras
You can get Metallica costumes from the 1980s.
You can get Zombie versions of Metallica.
You can get Metallica's guitars.
Metallifacts lets you watch the song video from Guitar Hero and gives you lots of facts about the song (Interesting to know stuff)
Lyric sheets available for all songs once you've completed it once on any difficulty.
Videos of backstage production and live performances from Metallica.
OVERALL
Being a Metallica fan, I'd give this game an 8/10. It was fun and enjoyable to play - if not excrutiatingly long going through all the careers. But if you WATCH GH:M, you'll be bored stiffless. Playing it is a lot more fun and challenging.
If I wasn't a Metallica fan, it'd probably about 5/10 as the songs are long and there's not much gameplay you'll get out of it.
If you like Metallica, this is your game.
If you like a Challenge, this is your game.
If you like long songs, this is your game.
Playtime : Depending on your gameplay - If you rush it, Probably about 1 and a Half - 2 hours. If you fully complete it, it will be around 4 - 5 hours of gameplay non-stop. (Single Instrument) Multiply it by how many instruments you plan on doing it with.
So here we go.
General Information
Guitar Hero is a musical-based game developed to work specifically with 'instrument' controllers, starting with Guitar only and working it's way into Drums and Vocals by the time Guitar Hero 4 (World Tour) was released.
Guitar Hero had 4 large hit games; Guitar Hero (PS2), Guitar Hero 2(PS2), Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock (X360, PS2 & PS3)
And the latest installment - Guitar Hero 4: World Tour
Guitar Hero 4 had two 'spin-off' games which were 2 large American rock bands - Metallica and Aerosmith. They were named GH4 spin-offs since they used the same engine and scripting of the game.
Okay, So on with Metallica!
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Well, being a big fan of Metallica - I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this game.
But this will probably not be the view of the general gaming society - so I'm going to take this review from the minds of most people.
Guitar Hero Metallica is an exceptionally long game with an extremely short career.
Which sounds extremely strange from first points and yes, I sound crazy for saying this but it is so true.
The game has songs mainly by Metallica (hence the name) and features bands that have either covered their songs (and they liked it) OR Metallica themselves have covered their songs. Extra songs include that from Motorhead, Social Distortion, Mercyful Fate and also Bob Segal.
The songs included by Metallica are all album-releases and are no cover bands.
Career Mode
Career mode sees you following a band (your own apparently, even though my Bassist was a girl and on the videos is a big burly man) who is inspired by Metallica and respectively take the name "'Tallica Jr". Your band is featured on the songs that are covers so that it shows that Metallica are not part of this and they don't have to go through the terrible trouble of removing the 'Create a Rocker' system in the game. Which to be honest, doesn't matter because you spend most of your time as Metallica anyway. The rest of the time, when Metallica songs are present, you play as Rob, Kirk, James or Lars - depending on whichever instrument you are playing.
The game features the Guitar Hero trademark of moving from venue to venue beating the songs to progress futher on - but instead of the 'Beat 5 songs to Move on' they have moved to 'Earn 3 more starts to progress' - which I believe is a much more clever system as if a song is impossible you just don't have to do it whatsoever. ... Not hinting at anyone ... Slayer.
GH:M has worked hard to bring a slight balance to other songs and Metallica so that you don't get fed up - but in Career mode that generally goes to pot as you could have a full section on covers and the next section completely Metallica (which isn't a bad thing) but it can be quite annoying. As the career progresses there is a more mixed system which is quite good as well, but the start is strange.
Career Mode has a strange system of unlocking 5 songs in the first two sections - then suddenly finding itself quickly running out of venues and throwing a LOT of songs your way towards the middle of the career. The Introduction section contains two songs, followed by a section with 5 cover songs, then 5 Metallica songs, then about 8 songs containing both Metallica then cover, then throwing about 10 at you and finally finishing with a more managable number, of a lot LESS managable songs (the extremely hard stuff.) But it works well considering the fact that songs are extremely long and are well worth the money you payed for the game as you practically go through Guitar Hero 2 and 3 gameplay hours just by completing all songs as one instrument.
Overall, Career mode is a strange medley of songs with an attempted balance of Metallica and cover bands which sometimes it fits to pretty well, and others not so much. A very enjoyable experience and not as enjoyable on Expert.
The career is short as very few stars are needed to progress through the setlists and venues. BUT, the songs are long so therefore having a small choice of songs AND having to get lots of songs - would be boring as hell.
Instruments
Okay, so we have
Guitar, Drums, Bass and Vocals.
The Guitar is pretty similar to the rest of the guitar on the other games, using the slider bar on the Guitar Hero 4 controller a lot more due to Kirk Hammet's playing techniques and also a lot harder rhythms as well. If you though Knights of Cydonia from GH3 was practically imposibble on Expert - GH:M is not for you on Expert. The strange strumming patterns and impossible quick strumming patterns can be a challenge for experienced players (but some freaks will still be able to do it and show off to the rest of us.) The solos also are kind of okay, but still extremely hard just as it was with the strumming. To sum up, the Guitar on this game is hard. Sometimes so hard that it just doesn't even make sense. Oh, and guess what. Guitar Hero are falling back into their old ways. Joy! Adding notes when and where they like just to screw up the people who play Metallica on a real guitar. Mainly Master of Puppets was the one that annoyed me most - since they chuck an entire section of random strumming in for no reason. And also, since the guitarist of Metallica is KIRK, you expect to play KIRK's section. But apparently not, you have to duet with yourself and play James' section as well as Kirk's. So if Kirk has an awesome solo and then has a break while James strums out a hard pattern. You get to watch Kirk stand around and do nothing while you're frantically tapping the buttons.
Guitar Hero Metallica - If you want something even more of a challenge, buy this instead of GH: Greatest Hits ... 'cause you've probably conquered all them songs before without the slider. AND these ones can a pain in the Butt.
The Drums are basically.. Drums. You've seen them on Rock Band and GH:WT and the whole cymbal thing is pretty cool. So since Lars is a freaking drum-pounding-attack-everything-he-sees psycho, they added a new expert just for the freaks - Expert+.
...
As if Expert wasn't a pain the ass enough! They're throwing Double Bass Drum beats at you and you can only do this mode IF you buy a second bass pedal from a shop. And yeah, it's fun. If you actually play drums and know how to efficiently use a double bass pedal. Otherwise it's jsut a massive pain in your butt as you attempt to do hard songs. Expert+ songs are labelled with an extra difficulty skull in this game, so you know which ones to steer clear from. ... I mean are on Expert+. But Expert+ seemed a totally Killer (Killer in the good sense) thing before I actually stole my friend's drumkit and decided that I hated this idea. Since Lars has like 20-30 years of drumming experience under his belt, he can sue these double bass pedals quick and fast and make it sound good. And now you want us to do it with no experience? I suppose this thing is for the veteran players and Metallica fans. SO now I should stop talking about Expert+ and stuff. The drums are fun and interesting to play - and can be a total challenge most of the time but I suppose you'd get used to it eventually. Overall, a fun feature and was greatly enjoyed through career mode until the hard songs came.
Bass.
It's like Guitar.
With purple lines to show you don't need to hold any buttons down. Just as fun as guitar and just as hard most of the time.
Vocals.
Okay, there's a reason why James plays guitar and sings. Because a single singer would be SO BORED by the end of a Metallica concert. I mean, the average Metallica songs is 5 minutes long and about 2-3 minutes is singing, the rest is instrumental and/or solo parts from teh other instruments. But yeah, Vocals is fun if you like to dance and jump around and pretend to rock out with your other player-friends. But if you are alone and doing career by yourself, it's not as fun. Not at all. You're just bored of watching Metallica HAVE FUN while you sit on your sofa just waiting for a song to end. But all I have to say is this, James Hetfield uses 'Ooh!,' 'Aah!,' and 'Tah!' way too much. By the end of career, they were the only bits I looked forward to in songs. (Hence why I went over Fuel about 3 times.)
Overall, Vocals can be fun if you have friends with you, but can be boring as hell if you don't like jumping around to music and not feel like an absolute idiot while you do nothing.
Songs and Sets
The songs in GH:M are exactly what is says on the box. A lot of Metallica and other bands that have either covered Metallica, inspired Metallica or have been covered by Metallica.
The songs included feature from all the albums ever released by Metallica, ranging from Ride The Lightning, to Garage Inc, all the way to Death Magnetic. The songs vary from album to album in no specific order in the Career mode. The game features a good balance of the songs from the albums - even reaching into the S&M album for the song 'No Leaf Clover.' The songs picked are those that have not been featured on most of the other music games around - therefore 'Ride the Lightning' and 'Blackened' were not featured in this game as they were released in Rock Bands' DLC. Although GH:M did keep the song 'Battery' which was featured in the Rock Band series as it was apparently 'too good to be left out.'
Overall, a good range of songs for those who know Metallica a little (Enter Sandman), ranging all the way to the hardcore fans who would only know the albums of the songs since they own every one(Whiplash).
Graphcis / Technology
...
It's the same as Guitar Hero: World Tour, just with Metallica added in and the stages from the tours put in as well.
Multiplayer
Okay, my Multiplayer is based on the Xbox Live version and not about the Wii or anything - because I don't have one.
Once again, lots of games modes. PVP, 2 V 2, Band V Band, and lots of other things which were features in Guitar Hero: World Tour.
The only thing that has changed from Guitar Hero World Tour in this game, is Battle mode.
And that hasn't changed much!
The difference in battle is that the powerups have changed their name to Metallica songs.
Example: Ride the Lightning moves your screen around like previous powerups and 'Trapped Under Ice' puts your highway under ice (Suprise!) and you have to break your way out with Whammy.
Not really much else to say about it, to be honest.
Extras
You can get Metallica costumes from the 1980s.
You can get Zombie versions of Metallica.
You can get Metallica's guitars.
Metallifacts lets you watch the song video from Guitar Hero and gives you lots of facts about the song (Interesting to know stuff)
Lyric sheets available for all songs once you've completed it once on any difficulty.
Videos of backstage production and live performances from Metallica.
OVERALL
Being a Metallica fan, I'd give this game an 8/10. It was fun and enjoyable to play - if not excrutiatingly long going through all the careers. But if you WATCH GH:M, you'll be bored stiffless. Playing it is a lot more fun and challenging.
If I wasn't a Metallica fan, it'd probably about 5/10 as the songs are long and there's not much gameplay you'll get out of it.
If you like Metallica, this is your game.
If you like a Challenge, this is your game.
If you like long songs, this is your game.
Playtime : Depending on your gameplay - If you rush it, Probably about 1 and a Half - 2 hours. If you fully complete it, it will be around 4 - 5 hours of gameplay non-stop. (Single Instrument) Multiply it by how many instruments you plan on doing it with.
