Guitar Hero III Review
The process is very easy to do, and the guitar works well. Though it’s somewhat impractical for gameplay, I took the guitar about 30 feet away from the console while I was playing a song—with metal cubicle walls in between—and the controller never fluttered or broke connection once. It does seem to go through AA batteries in a couple of days of heavy play, so you may want to get some rechargables to save your wallet a bit.
The guitar also has a standard wireless headset jack, which makes it easy to chat during the multiplayer modes. We’ll discuss them in a bit, but rest assured that the headset also works like a charm when connected to the guitar, so you have some freedom of movement, if you choose.
Outside of that, the controls are essentially the same as the previous guitar, though the Back and Start Buttons have been increased on these new Les Paul replicas, which makes it easier to kick in Star Power (if you choose to do that in place of rocking the guitar up) or pausing the game.
(A quick note—or gripe, if you will—about pausing in GH3. I don’t understand why, if you pause in the middle of a song, unpausing should immediately start at full speed right where you paused, which makes it nearly impossible to avoid missing notes. If this was being treated like a true song rehearsal, you’d get counted back into the action. I make this an open plea to add this kind of feature to the next version of GH, because otherwise it isn’t worth jumping back into a song, unless you happen to find an open gap in which to take your break. There, I’ve gotten that off my chest…)
The single-player gameplay is much the same as previous versions, with the main goal being to set up a “career,” select a difficulty (from four settings) and play through a song list one at a time, earning up to five stars for how well you were able to re-create the song’s note chart on your fret buttons. Here, there are 42 songs out of the box, though you’ll be able to “purchase” bonus songs now, as well as download additional songs via Xbox Live Marketplace soon enough, which will extend your song selection. GH3 has a Training mode where you can try out any of the songs and work on your prowess should you need to polish your play on specific portions.
The number of stars you get on a certain difficulty rewards you with in-game money; the better you do, the more you put in your bank—and you occasionally get a new sponsor who’ll kick a good sum in the direction of your band for touring and such. The money you earn can be used to buy new instruments and finishes, songs, playable characters and so on. And with GH3, you also earn money in the Easy career, which is helpful given the pricing of some objects.
Neversoft has strived to improve the song list, with numerous tracks being “master songs” that are created by the original band, not re-created in a recording studio somewhere by session musicians. These include a wide range of songs from “Paint It, Black” by Rolling Stone to Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” (which was re-recorded for specifically for the game) to “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse.
It’s important to note that, not all of the songs are that good. Some (such as “La Grange” and “Pride and Joy”) are facsimiles that just don’t capture the spirit of the original as well; others (such as The Killers’ “When We Were Young”) just don’t seem to belong in a game called Guitar Hero.
My Overall Rating- 8/10Read full review
