I confess, I am a child of the '80s when it comes to music. I spent the '80s in middle school and high school, and my musical taste was very much influenced by the music of the times. It's a reasonable bet that if you jumped in my truck, you'd be able to pull out a hair band CD from the player or turn on the radio and find it tuned to Sirius Hair Nation. Bands like Van Halen (not Van Hagar), Poison, Rush, Guns 'n' Roses, Metallica and Motley Crue were some of my first concerts and absolute favorites. As I got a little older, I had a little punk influence, and I began to enjoy such bands as The Ramones and Dropkick Murphy's. With all that being said, the fact that I'm apt to turn up the radio, start singing and just "feel" the music to make the miles go faster, you could easily assume that Guitar Hero is just the franchise for me, and you'd be right.
In truth, I thought Guitar Hero looked fairly ridiculous and only picked up Guitar Hero II this past summer after spending a couple of hours in Best Buy playing the demonstration. From that point on, I've been hooked.
For those who aren't familiar with the concept, I'll give a brief overview. The basic concept is playing music (duh!). On screen, your rocker will have a bar with notes on it that correspond to the colors red, blue, yellow, green and orange. I use the guitar myself, which leaves me a bit unfamiliar with trying to use the standard Xbox controller. As the music starts to play, you'll have to hit the corresponding keys to play your note. You'll hear the bass, drums and singer, and if you make a mistake, you'll hear it, and if you hit the note, the music sounds complete.
That's all fairly easy, and in no time, a novice can get through most songs fairly easily (on easy mode, you'll only have to hit three different colors). As the difficulty ratchets up, you'll have to start using four, and then five keys and advanced techniques like "hammer on," and "hammer off," with which I still struggle. The songs are a mishmash of tunes but are fun and challenging and definitely leave you wanting to play "just one more song."
The basic game modes are career and multiplayer. In the career mode, you'll pick a rocker, name a band and go on tour. You'll start by playing small clubs and have to perform four out of five songs on that level's set list at a three-star rating before you can move on. As you accomplish that, you'll be able to open new venues, play encores, earn money, buy new guitars and outfits, unlock rockers, and generally have a great time. That is really the nuts and bolts behind the concept of Guitar Hero, but let's talk about how much more Guitar Hero III has to offer.
Guitar Hero III is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft. Neversoft realizes what a great foundation they have with Guitar Hero and does not set out to reinvent the wheel, which is great news for fans. What they do set out to do is fill up a few holes that were in Guitar Hero II and provide a great track list.
Past versions had only a single-player career mode, but Neversoft brought in a co-op career mode, which allows friends to have the entire career experience, with one person playing lead guitar and one playing either rhythm guitar or bass. This might seem like a small inclusion, but it is incredibly fun. Although, there are five or six songs that are unlockable only in co-op mode, which I found a bit of a puzzler. You cannot play the career co-op mode via Xbox Live, which also is a bit of a disappointment; although, there are plenty of other online options that you can enjoy.
Another new addition is that of Boss Battles. Real-life guitarists Slash and Tom Morello make appearances. While playing your career, you'll reach a point at which they come on stage and challenge you, and you'll have to best them to advance. On paper, the concept sounds great, and it does add a little something to the game, but in practice, it doesn't really add the "oomph." I'd expected.
The song list is really where it's at. Guitar Hero II had some great songs, but for each great song, it seemed like there were songs I would just say "who is this?" and wonder why I was playing that song. Guitar Hero III went right for the gullet. With my very first set, I was rocking out to "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison, "Rock and Roll All Nite" by KISS and "Slow Ride" by Foghat. From there, I went to play favorites "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by Scorpions and "One" by Metallica. Of course therein lies my issue with Guitar Hero III.
Most of the songs are easily playable on the easiest mode, but these songs are extremely hard as you start to up the difficulty level. For folks who are Guitar Hero II maestros, this provides very little issue, but for the casual player who is it in for the songs, getting through the game on the medium level can be extremely challenging, and you really must understand most of the advanced concepts, like the aforementioned, hammer on and hammer off.
I have yet to advance far enough in medium to try the top-level songs and encores, but I already wonder how I could ever accomplish songs like "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson unless I'm more proficient. I'm reasonably sure that I'll never be shredding up the hard and expert levels, and my perception is that only hardcore fans will pass and enjoy those levels. I'm not sure why Neversoft went that route, as it seems to eliminate a fair part of the game from the casual player, but I realize that the hardcore will absolutely love this change, and it will keep the game challenging for them for an even longer period of time than previous iterations.
I think Guitar Hero III has taken some needed steps forward by adding online playability and a fabulous set list, but I'm not sure that I'm sold that it is light years better than its predecessor, and to be honest, I'd recommend Guitar Hero II to someone new to the series before I'd recommend Guitar Hero III. What Guitar Hero III does well, though, (adding challenge) it does extremely well.
