When I first played the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock demo, I was a bit skeptical. I only liked one song in brief five-song demo (Rock You Like a Hurricane) and everything felt uncomfortably different from Guitar Hero II which was what I was playing at the time. But after buying the full game with a Target gift card, I fell in love with this game and is one of my favorite games of all time. Unlike when I was playing the demo, everything has been improved. The setlist is perfect, the small addition of a "story" actually adds more to the game than you'd think, the graphics are much better, and online play is just icing on the cake. Let's start with the setlist. It covers just about every genre of rock ranging from the simple riffs of Foghat's Slow Ride, to Poison's Talk Dirty to Me, to the Rolling Stone's Paint it Black, to the jazzy chords of Santana's Black Magic Woman, Legends has just about everything for you. And while there is a little more metal this time around, it's still Guitar Hero's most balanced setlist. Career mode feels a bit better this time around since in between each level, there's a cutscene showing your band rising to stardom. Three times during the Career, you have a "guitar battle" with three "Legends of Rock" who include Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Slash of Guns and Roses, and the fictional Lou (Satan). In these battles, you earn battle power instead of star power which grants you special attacks against the opponent which can change the difficulty, break a string, and jumble all the notes. Despite being cheap, it's still kinda fun, except when you lose when you're 99% through the song. Co-op mode returns for the better since you get to unlock bonus songs for playing with a buddy. Online is also new for Guitar Hero III and its nearly flawless. The only problem is that it often takes too long to find an opponent only for them to quit. Some of the game's many achievements are also too hard to unlock. (500 online wins? Come on!) Other than that, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a nearly perfect music game that can satisfy the rock star in all of us!
Other Helpful Reviews for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Before November of 2005, few people had any exposure to rhythm games outside of some stumbling on a DDR dance pad after a couple of margaritas on a Saturday night at Dave and Buster's. Then, unknown companies RedOctane ... Read Full Review
I'm going to focus on the gameplay only in this review, since the graphics are what they are and the sound is pretty self explanatory. First off, there are a few new additions to the game this time around. Online pla... Read Full Review
