Love it, but....
Guitar Hero: Metallica is basically a song pack, with some nice touches here and there. But, unlike GH: 80's, GH: Aerosmith and so on, this one just feels right. Every one of the track is a joy to play on guitar, bass and drums (not much of a singer...) and though there are some odd choices here and there, most of the 45 songs feels like a good match to the aura of the game. the 27 Metallica songs can get difficult to play, but hey... it's Metal and Metal is hard. Hard as it might get, there is something about these tracks that I don't feel as much as I do from Guitar Hero: World Tour. That is this actual feeling of emotion of playing them. Rocking out the drums on Fuel, Toxicity or Ace of Spades has this amazing rush to them, and I found myself slamming on the drums, not because it didn't register properly, but because I actually felt that doing so is the only way to play them. Similarly, playing the guitar on songs like Enter Sandman or Master of Puppets, had me moving around and really getting the rocking feel.
Of course, the gameplay is the same as in GH:WT with solo quickplay and career on each instrument, band play and online matching. Though, unlike GH:WT, the guitar battles from GH3 make an online return, featuring the same gameplay of hitting note groups that give the player "weapons" instead of Star Power. Those weapons are used on your opponent to make him miss notes and lose on either points or even failing the song. Another little added feature is the Metallifacts. After completing a song on any instrument (and on any difficulty level), you can access the "facts" which basically plays the song in full, with the gameplay animations, but added is a window that has facts about the song or band, like the album on which it first appeared, awards if any and other fun facts like how Metallica all dressed as Motorhead's Lemmy for a special show, called themselves "The Lemmy's" and played Motorhead covers.
In the end, this is a track pack, but a fine one at that. If you enjoy rock and metal, you'll probably enjoy it more then the World Tour. I know that ever since is got GH:Metallica, the GH:WT disc hardly comes out...
