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The Guitar Hero phenomenon is something that is nearly impossible to avoid, especially if you’re a gamer. The game is both accessible enough for first-time players to pick up and strum along to streaming, color-coded buttons, and difficult enough to make dedicated veterans continually retry songs. It is because of such reasons that Neversoft’s take on the Guitar Hero franchise remains a casual gamer’s wet dream and a hardcore gamer’s rhythmical pleasure. Guitar Hero 3 doesn’t deviate much from Harmonix’s precedent, but has enough new features—both in hardware and gameplay—to keep fans of the series hooked, as well as indoctrinate a new generation of wannabe rockers.
If you opt for the full-on bundle with both guitar and game (suggested), you’ll have access to the series’ first wireless guitar accessory. Complete with detachable neck for easier storage and a changeable faceplate for customizability, the new Gibson Les Paul is a welcomed hardware upgrade. One of the more frustrating issues with the older setup was worrying about rocking a bit too hard and pulling out your guitar from the console, leading to a break in the action, but such issues are cured with no cords to be found. Also, buttons on the body of the guitar have been moved around to prevent unwanted pauses, and the fret buttons have become more streamlined in design. Overall, the guitar looks sleeker and is a great move for the series; it’s just too bad the new frets feel a bit sticky and don’t seem to respond as well as the previous hardware.
While Guitar Hero 2 was a brand new title for the Playstation 2, the port over to the 360 was more of an opportunity to showcase its addictive gameplay rather than an example of next-gen graphics. By building the game from the ground up for the current-gen, GH3 certainly looks better than the previous year’s exploit. Whether you’re playing through a solo or a co-op career, both characters and venues look great in their own distinct, over-the-top way.
In respect to Career play, there have been a few new additions and tweaks to the gameplay that keep things fresh for the 360’s second effort. The goal of the game is still to rock through a number of songs by strumming single-button notes and multiple-button chords for a score, but with fresh licks from both classic artists and newcomers alike. The song list is still made up of covers and original recordings, but nuggets of gold in the form of exclusives are scattered throughout an overall top-notch list of songs; such as when the Sex Pistols reunited for the first time in 30 years to re-record “Anarchy in the U.K.” Covers are still a mixed-bag in terms of quality, as some feel off from their originals—like the ZZ Top classic, “La Grange.”
There is but only one other issue on the audio side of things: the sounds of Star Power. The game lets you know of your greatness after you tilt the guitar, activating the score-multiplying power-up, by amplifying the roar of the crowd and guitar riffs over all other sounds. The effect feels overly intrusive as it cuts in and out while playing through a song, but, luckily, even with a game that revolves around audio fidelity, it’s not that big of a hurdle to overlook.
Elemental tweaks like the new in-game cutscenes offer a bit of a narrative for careers as your band moves from smalltime gigs, straight to the devil’s doorstep. They aren’t an innovative step for the series, but they are enjoyable go-betweens from set list to set list.
Also new to the Career mode are sections which utilize the game’s new battle mechanics where you take on rock legends Slash and Tom Morrello. Instead of stringing together notes and chords for Star Power, a sequence of special notes lead to different power-ups which increase the difficulty for an opponent by adding notes, breaking buttons, draining rock meters, completely switching around the fret board, and other mutative attacks.
Perhaps the biggest and most welcomed addition to the franchise is the inclusion of online play (finally). Although you’re not able to play through a co-op career over LIVE, being able to play competitively over the internet shows-off just how good some people are at shredding on a fake guitar. The ability to play with friends hundreds of miles away, and track your scores via the GH3 Web site, truly set this game apart from its earlier titles.
With all of the changes and additions, GH3 has deviated little from the original formula. It’s essentially the same game as past iterations, but with visual updates, new tracks and features, and the ability to jump online to battle it out for guitar supremacy. Returning guitar heroes will notice an overall boost in the difficulty department, but the cranked-up difficulty is mitigated by a new timing scheme for hitting the notes—which after getting used to, is fairly forgiving. Ultimately, there’s really no reason to miss out on the 360’s second installment of the franchise. There are some reoccurring issues with covered tracks not sounding spot-on, but with the popularity of the rhythm game ever-growing, such issues may be long forgotten by the next game.
A lingering question remains however: what is the next step for the franchise? Each game throws in a slew of new tracks with some variance in gameplay, but is it continually worth it to shell out the full price of a new game when there’s the option to just download songs? Guitar Hero 3 is just as an addictive, fun game as its predecessors, but it will be interesting to see what happens down the road for future games in the series.
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 8.5
Audio: 8.5
Lasting Appeal: 9.0
Overall: 8.5
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