Guitar Hero III Review
I'm going to start this review, by taking you back to pre-release. Guitar Hero fans were going nuts, thought it looked awesome.
Well, the day of the release it basically said BOOM and every single copy was sold. Even the ones without a guitar, gone. But, I got a hold of one since one store was smart enough to atleast buy in several without a guitar. So, I was happy with that. But, I couldn't play the game. It wouldn't get past the intro, after the intro it would instantly freeze. Well, I went back switched several times and realized that it was my Xbox. So I sent it for repairs, but it took WAAAY longer then it did last time I sent it. So I got it for the PS3, only to find out that the PS3 guitars started hitting notes late after a while. I had basically wasted all my money and it really sucked. But, I got my Xbox back and i got abit happier cause now I could finally play through the game.
So, let's start off with the career!
I was shocked. I had a great time, it was really fun actually. But, the charts were overcharted, but at the time I didn't mind that. I wasn't AS good at the game back then, and then I got to the 6th tier after an annoying battle against Slash. I picked The Metal. I failed almost instantly, and I just said to myself "WHAT THE FUCK?!", but i did laugh, since I do like the song but I didn't know it was going to be so hard. I made it through the rest of the 6th tier fairly well though, no problem. And then... Here's where it began. Where Neversoft's stupidity started to shine through. This is when i wished Harmonix was still working on the game, cause then the game wouldn't have these godawful charts. I picked Before I Forget first.... oh god what a huge mistake. I failed pretty quickly and after almost 2 hours of trial and error, I gave up. Picked another song, I beat all other songs but Before I Forget was still there, almost taunting me. I actually beat the song and i was really happy. I cheered with joy and screamed "YES!!! FINALLY! WOOO!".
And then came the encore.
The solo made me instantly just FAIL, it was almost funny. After 2 hours, almost like Before I Forget, I actually beat it. But.... The gates of hell opened. No, not venue wise (since you play in hell), song wise. The last songs in the game were probably some of the best tracks in the game but OH MY GOD was it hard! The first song I beat was The Number Of The Beast after just about 20 minutes of practice. No throwing of guitar or rage outbreaks here. Yet. Cliffs Of Dover was the second one I actually passed. It was painful, I practiced day and night and nothing. I didn't even get past the Intro Solo B! That was actually what I had difficulty with, that's why it was so hard for me. And then, first time I get past the Intro Solo, I fail after the REAL solo. I threw the guitar and just screamed FUUUUUUCK!!. Because, I couldn't control it. I just went nuts. I eventually actually got past it though, with extreme luck. Here's where it just stopped for me. I couldn't beat the game at ALL. I couldn't beat Raining Blood, or One. After a month of almost TORTURE to beat this song One, since it was more simple, I got past it. But this time, I couldn't get happy. Cause I knew, that right AFTER that, I would have to beat Raining Blood. Hardest song on the setlist. It's over.
What was my problem with beating the song? If you haven't played Guitar Hero 3 before, let me explain...
It is a section called Mosh 1. At the time, it seemed like a mess of notes to me. Search it up on youtube. You'll see... Make sure you also search for it on Expert. Then you'll hopefully know why I hated it so much. And when I learned to get past it, there was Flood! Which is almost literally a mess of notes. Of course, I got past the song after a LOOOONG time...... And I don't get an encore. I get another boss battle. I HATE battle mode so much.... And the battles in the career weren't much better.
I got to meet Lou (Neversofts version of the devil appearantly). Oh boy, i'm so dead. I beat him before christmas though! Wait, technically I didn't, I beat him on Christmas Eve.... Oh well. As you probably understand though, the career is simply torture. Yes, they would have to make it more difficult some day, but come on. This was for most people a step up WAY to far. But, it is undeniable that this game forced everyone to get better, so everyone did.
Well, let's get on to the rest of the stuff in this game. I am going to make the part with the other stuff shorter, since the Career is what the majority people of people play first since it's the only way to unlock all songs.
Co-Op Career Mode: This mode was a good idea executed poorly. Not only do nearly all tracks in this game have boring back up parts, this mode is the only way to unlock 6 Quickplay songs. These are 6 songs that you unlock after completing in Co-Op career, and are only playable in quickplay (counting out Co-Op career of course). Not everyone has friends who play Guitar Hero! And the achievements for Co-Op Career are ridiculous, they require you to 5 star all songs on all difficulties TOGETHER. Not only do they require your friend to actually play the game, to get a 1000 gamerscore you need a friend who is awesome at the game and can 5 star all songs on expert, and YOU need to be that good too! Sorry, but when the criteria for a 1000 gamerscore is 2 Professional gamers it's gone to far. They also require you to play through all songs as both guitar AND back-up. And this mode has some bugs, I experienced being unable to fail at some points but unable to hit notes. Which really is weird, I don't know how it happens.
Online: I'm not even going to start on the achievements for online. You need to win 500 online matches, you need to win 15 matches in a row hosting ranked matches AND joining them. You also need to win 15 times only using your controller, switching to guitar at any time breaks the streak. And all this gives you barely any gamerscore at all. Now, let's get to the actual gameplay here. It's generally good, but a few bugs stop it from being fun at times. For example, when you play co-op, sometimes when you activate star power the game thinks you have infinite star power and at the same time knows you don't. You can't activate star power, but you don't get any extra points at all. At times, in battle mode, it is impossible to make your opponent fail. This bug doesn't appear often but enough to be a nuisance. It's basically an instant win for the opponent, becasue of a bug. Otherwise, gameplay here is good but there are alot of leavers which suck.
Achievements: Well, ever since the DLC most of these have become easy. Getting 750k on a song alone isn't so bad anymore thanks to Death Magnetic for Guitar Hero 3. Most people have played the game and become good now, so Co-Op isn't so impossible anymore. But, my friend that actually was really good at Guitar Hero stopped playing, so iIm never gunna get those achievements. Oh well.
Other Stuff: Let me start about the HDTV Lag options that this game has. They are simply horrible, since the auto calibration sucks; which means that it's a guessing game that takes hours. And even when you get it right, it will never be good enough. Hyperspeed is still considered a cheat to the game; even though Neversoft stated that they don't see it as a cheat. Stupid, ain't it?
But i have to admit, even though I have said all these bad things about the game, it was still enjoyable. It made me a good player, my friends envy me because of my skill at this game and I think I owe it to this game, because, if you wanna get better at Guitar Hero; get this game! It is indeed REALLY hard, but that's what makes the player play good after it. And, it's Guitar Hero, it's just fun.
3/5 Stars!
