Unfortunately, it feels like this game was developed for the hardcore GH players instead of the casual fans.
First off, there are a few new additions to the game this time around. Online play, co-op careers, a streak counter and boss battles all make an appearance in GHIII. But some of them are just bad ideas that don't add positively to the gameplay experience.
The addition of online play is a great one. Finally, players can hook up with friends online for battle modes, or meet up with some folks for co-operative play. Setting up a session is somewhat clunky, but it's a welcomed addition to the game. Also a good addition is the co-op career mode (which plays on the same system) and it adds more structure than the co-op single song play of GHII. The streak counter is a neat little detail that will be appreciated by some and completely irrelevant to others, but it's definitely not a bad addition.
The bad addition comes in the form of the boss battles. In these battles, you have to face off against a couple real rockstars in order to advance in your career. These battles consist of facing off against the computer by playing opposing parts to songs and picking up power ups (such as cutting a string on your opponents guitar or an amp overload which causes the notes to flash on and off) and attempting to use these power ups to force your opponent to fail. On the harder difficulty levels, these battles are WAY more frustrating than they should be and don't do anything to add enjoyment to the career mode. They seem out of place and will turn off many of the casual GH fans. If it were a separate game mode, then I'd be all for it, because we'd have the option to play/not play this mode. But to throw it in the career mode and force players to be more frustrated than anything is a bad move.
The difficulty has been bumped up as well, with more notes in the songs than before and a seemingly faster pace. Hammer on's and pull-off's are much more prevalent this time around, which is fine for some and bad for others. This game will be very well put together for those GH players that tore through GHII on expert. But for the casual player who just enjoyed playing the songs (and those who may have beaten the medium and partially beat the hard levels on GHI), this game seems filled with more frustration and less addictive gameplay than its predecessor.
Is the game bad? No, not by any means. But I was personally expecting more after enjoying GHII so much. I was the type who mastered the medium mode and was on the last few sets of hard songs in GHII. The frustration I found in GHIII has really taken away from the experience. I don't find it as addictive as I thought I would.
Don't get me wrong... I really, really want to love this game. But it just doesn't "hook" me like GHII did. I still enjoy shredding some songs on this game, but my focus will be on quick play after beating the Medium career instead of continuing on with more careers.