Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Publisher: RedOctane
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
Genre: Music
Release: October 28, 2007
Platform: Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Reviewer: Dan

I have to say that it was hard to write this review. Not because the game caused any difficulty as to what I wanted to say, but the fact that my fingers hurt. Let me give you a breakdown of how my day went. Woke up at 8:30 am, drove to Monroville Mall, purchase Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at 9:15 am, saw some zombies, drove home 9:20 am, started playing 10:00 am, stopped playing and watch the Steelers kick the Bungles' asses until 4:00 pm, played more Gutar Hero 3, beat the game and started writing this review at 5:30 pm. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ultra-good at Guitar Hero. I play on medium difficulty so I can unlock all the songs right away, then I switch to hard/expert. So I guess you want to hear how the game was.

Guitar Hero III is a freakin great game. Neversoft picked up where Harmonix left off and added just enough to the game to make it fun for experienced players. Unless you've been hanging out with Osama for the past 3 years, then you probably already know the basic gameplay of the Guitar Hero games, so I won't bore you with the details. I will say that even on medium, some of the songs can be quite difficult, even early on. I don't really want to blame it on a "New Guitar," but there is a different feel to itif you are going from the PS2 version to the PS3 version. If you've ever played the XBox 360 version of Guitar Hero II when you're used to the PS2 guitar, then you know what I mean.

The songs appearing on this one are all very good. It's a huge mix of hits from the 60's to today, so rock fans will probably find something they like. I will say that they could have thrown in more modern songs during the first few stages.

The one really big new thing Neversoft added to Guitar Hero III was the "boss" battles after every other stage of the game. If you've ever seen the movie Deliverance and the scene with the dueling banjos, then you should recognize what the boss battles are. These battles against other legends of rock are really just what you'll find in the multiplayer battles. Instead of star power, you get the power to screw over your opponent with various hinderances that causes the other player to mess up the song. The object is to make the boss fail the song before it is over.

There is also a multiplayer mode which I haven't explored too greatly. There were very few players online when I tried, but I'll write that off as the game being on the shelves for only 16 hours at the time I tried.

Final Verdict

If you're waiting for Rock Band to show up on store shelves and not buying this game, then you are a fool. The gameplay hasn't changed in Guitar Hero III, but I say "why try to fix what isn't broken?" The boss battles are a nice addition to the game and the soundtrack chosen for the game is top notch. They even give you a surprise for the ending credits, which is awesome. Oh, and BTW, The cover for The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band is freakin awesome. You'll stop complaining about it so much once you hear and play it. Ok, I'll finally do it. 10 out of 10.