Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock-- Do you wanna rock?
Written: Dec 03 '07 (Updated Dec 03 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Better game play, better graphics, great sound quality, fun new modes, harder than II
Cons: Overall track list isn't the best
The Bottom Line: Fun game concept is virtually perfected in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock... Even if you aren't a fan of the earlier installments, check this one out!
gatorgirlie's Full Review: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for Xbox 360
I am such a video-game-ophile.
Bet you, dear reader, could never have guessed that coming out of my mouth -- yeah, me, the woman who writes in Home & Garden, Kids & Family and Beauty. However, back in my college days, many a day was spent playing such classics as Super Smash Brothers and Bomberman. The first time I was exposed to a Guitar Hero game was during the NCAA Football Championship weekend last January, when my fellow Gator alums and I relived our college years while reveling in the defeat of The Ohio State.
Since then, it's been bordering on an addiction.
So... what is it?
If you seriously don't know what Guitar Hero III is, I'd suggest you ask a teenage.
In essence, it's a video game released (for the purposes of this review) on the XBox 360 and (instead of a controller) you use a guitar and play along to songs on your television. It is published by Activision and RedOctane for the Playstation III, XBox 360 and Wii playforms. It has a variety of different modes and can be played alone or with a friend. The Legends of Rock game is the latest in a line of Guitar Heroes that includes Guitar Heroes I & II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s. They even have a touring show and Guitar Hero competitions where players get up on stages and battle one another for supremacy.
Item Specifics
*Many different play modes and new achievements -- single career, co-op career, training, quickplay and multiplayer (where you can choose from face-off, pro face-off or battle).
*Characters returning are: Casey Lynch, Judy Nails, Johnny Napalm, Axel Steel, Izzy Sparks, Lars Ümlaüt, and Xavier Stone. Midori is a new, original character (presumably taking the place of my favorite rocker chick, Pandora), while new characters based off of Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) and Slash also appear. Unlockable characters include The Grim Reaper and The God of Rock, while the final boss is Lou (the Devil). Brett Michaels appears to sing in a few songs but he isn't a playable character.
*Can be played online or off, and there is additional content available for download online.
*8 different venues to travel through
*When you play the songs, traveling through the venues, you have the potential to earn money and purchase things like extra characters, extra songs, extra outfits and guitars.
*Can be purchased either alone ($59.99) or in a bundle with the new wireless guitar ($99.99), though many places had them on sale during Black Friday and might (presumably) have them on sale more throughout the holiday season. Additional guitars can be purchased for around $60.
Guitar Hero III (hereafter known as Legends of Rock) vs II (hereafter known as GH II), the Smackdown
Quality of Songs
In this one category, Hero II reigns supreme in my opinion. While Guitar Hero III certainly has some spectacular songs (Paint it Black by the Stones, Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses, One by Metallica, Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, and Evenflow by Pearl Jam), and most of their songs are done by the original artists (as opposed to cover bands), the overall quality of II stands out. III has either great songs or iffy songs, there doesn't seem to be a lot in the middle. There are a few recognizable classics but unless you're a hardcore metal/alternative fanatic, you probably won't know many of the songs (unless you know all the lyrics to Raining Blood, Reptillia, and In the Belly of a Shark and you're not an alternative/metal fan). To me, that destroys one of the big reasons I liked GH II -- the ability to play along to favorite songs of mine. While Legends of Rock has mostly metal and alternative, with a few oldies and classics, GH II was mostly classics and mainstream alternative music -- I had heard of most of GH II songs, which wasn't the case with Legends of Rock. GH II boasted a lineup that included Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart (Stone Temple Pilots), Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana), Monkey Wrench (Foo Fighters), Cherry Pie (Warrant), Rock This Town (Stray Cats), You Really Got Me (Van Halen), Woman (Wolfmother), Jessica (Allman Brothers) and many more. Don't get me wrong, GH II has a few weak songs AND most of their songs are covers, but the overall song quality is much better.
If you want in depth, complete track listings I'd suggest checking out Wikipedia at these links:
So, for overall song quality I give Legends of Rock a solid B because there are a few great songs and they're all originals, but GH II scores an A .
Graphics
As far as graphics go, Hero III is far superior to its predecessor. The background graphics are almost laughable when you switch from playing Legends of Rock to GH II. Everything is cleaner, from the lighting to the crisp images. The rockers look real and the venues feel real. GH II was nice for its time, but GH III definitely smokes them in the visual category.
GH II gets a C for comparative graphics, while Legends of Rock gets an A.
Game Play
Essentially game play is exceedingly simple. There are colored "fret" buttons on the top end of the guitar that you play with your left hand (if you're right-handed) and a strum bar at the base of the guitar that you play with your right. Those colored fret buttons (green, red, yellow, blue, orange) correspond to the notes that scroll across the tv screen during songs. In order to do well and pass a song, you're supposed to hit the correct fret buttons and strum button at the same time. By the strum button there is also a whammy bar that allows you to make your guitar sound different during held notes. As you rock through the songs, you accumulate points (which determines what review your song received... fail, three, four or five-star) and have the potential to trigger "Star Power" (which you can do by holding your guitar perpendicular to the ground), which gives you a point multiplier for every note hit. The more songs you pass, the more achievements you unlock and the further you get through the storyline.
As far as navigation goes, both games operate off of the same principle so it's easy enough to move around. One big difference in basic game play is the angle the notes scroll across the screen. In Legends of Rock, the scroll is at a much smaller angle, allowing you to see the notes easier (and longer) than in GH II. That's a major improvement, if you ask me. In addition, the fret buttons and strum are much smoother on the wireless Gibson guitar than on the wired Les Paul -- though I will say the wireless has a disconcerting habit of saying you let go of a fret button (on a held note) when you really didn't.
One of the single best improvements is how close the notes match to the actual play of the song. I didn't really notice it that much in GH II, but the contrast stands out in stark reality once you play Legends of Rock. Sometimes I'll play GH II and miss quite a few notes because I'm listening to the background music instead of closely following the note scroll -- that's really irritating. I have yet to have that problem on Legends of Rock.
Single and Co-Op Career Modes
There are four different levels of difficulty -- easy, medium, hard and expert. The co-op career mode is new and I like that they've added another level to the game, especially since the storyline is slightly different and they've thrown in a few additional songs. You're allowed to either play Lead Guitar or Bass, and I can't really say which one is easier. Sometimes the bass is easy, sometimes the lead is... the key is to get the player who is good at keeping rhythm down on bass and the one who changes keys easily on lead.
Multiplayer
In multiplayer you're allowed to choose between Face Off, Pro Face Off and Battle. In the "face off" mode, two players can choose differing levels of difficulty (ie: player 1 is on hard, 2 is on easy) and they play different parts of the same song (it keeps switching back and forth). I like this mode because it allows a mediocre player to battle an expert and have a chance to win, but it's disconcerting to keep jumping back and forth. Pro face-off is nice because you both play the same song, but it has to be at the same difficulty... that means the less experienced player will never win. Battle is the new multiplayer mode where you can battle both on and offline. In battle mode, you're trying to make the other player fail the song by throwing attacks at them. You accumulate attacks (up to three) by hitting certain notes successfully, and can throw the attacks at the opposing player by tilting your guitar. The attacks include: broken string, difficulty up, amp overload, whammy bar, steal power, double notes, and lefty/righty flip. If neither play fails, the two go into Sudden Death and the song restarts. There enters a "death drain" attack where the Grim Reaper comes to wreak havoc on the other player. I think the battle mode is a great addition to the game, especially with the ability to challenge players online.
As far as game play goes, I do like Guitar Hero III a lot better. The note screen isn't slanted as much, making the notes much easier to identify. It improves game play and makes the game a bit less frustrating. The note recognition is better as well and the wireless Gibson is easier to use. There were times on Hero II that you'd hit everything perfectly but the game wouldn't identify it -- how aggravating. I give Legends of Rock an A for game play and I'll give GH II a B - -- the game play was good, but not even close to the accuracy and ease of playing Legends.
Difficulty and Technical Issues
As far as pure game difficulty goes, I've found LoR to be much harder than Guitar Hero II, which is a double-edge sword. Even though the screen is angled better, the songs are simply more difficult. If you want insane, try Metallica or Dragonforce on Hard. Heck, nevermind hard... try those on Medium and watch out. The levels move faster (whenever I switch back to II I find myself getting impatient with the speed of Medium), there are more notes and the notes are clustered together more. On the whole, I've found the biggest difference to be in the Medium mode. In Hero II I can routinely get 98%-99 on songs, yet in Hero II I rarely make over 95%. Medium on Legends of Rock is akin to Hard on GH II. The only bad thing is that there's a decent gap between Easy and Medium because easy doesn't really prepare you for the harder levels. Easy is slow, with only three fret buttons in use, while Medium moves much faster and throws in a fourth fret. I've seen some people get so frustrated switching between easy and medium they'd give it up for a while (which is why I always recommend you start on Medium in training, it'll help you learn faster).
As far as technical difficulties go, I haven't experienced any with the game or system yet... the only slight one is the issue with the wireless Gibson that I mentioned earlier and that is overshadowed by how much nicer it is to play the Gibson than the Les Paul.
Anyway, I give Legends of Rock a solid A on difficulty because the songs are much more fun to play when you're sweating and jamming along to the actual music (rather than the notes being spaced apart more on the easier levels). The songs on Legends are varied, with some easier songs thrown in with the insane ones (Cult of Personality, anyone?). I'm glad I started off playing GH II, however, because the hard on that game prepared me for the medium on Legends. I'll throw GH II a bone with a B on difficulty.
Overall
Overall, I really do love Legends of Rock. While the song list isn't exactly A material in my book, the other aspects of the game more than make up for it. The new modes are excellent and the upgraded graphics and game play make a world of difference. The storyline is amusing (simply because no one says anything... they just grunt and point), but it really isn't necessary. The optional purchases you can make are cool -- some of the extra guitars are awesome. The characters are still cool (though I still like Pandora the best) and the venues rock. I thoroughly enjoy my game on my little 36", 1998 Toshiba TV without surround sound, so if you have anything better, it'll sound fantastic. It truly outstrips Guitar Hero II in almost every area of play (except those songs!).
If you enjoy listening to music and want to find a challenging game, I'd certainly check out Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock... It'll blow you away!
PS -- Please note something: I'm not a seasoned video game reviewer. Please let me know if my review is anything less than very helpful, I will add in anything I've left out! I've never written one of these before! Thanks for the input :).
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