 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Music Developer: Neversoft Interactive Publisher: Activision |
Over the past couple of years, the Guitar Hero franchise has gone from its new title once a year, to a few new titles in a single year.
Fortunately for metal fans, this year’s project has churned out “Guitar Hero: Metallica” which brings with it a ton of promise and hype.
Metallica is a great band for this series due to their music fitting perfectly into the new full band formula of the Guitar Hero franchise.
The game delivers is many of the ways that players will hope for. The track list for the game is amazing, the presentation is top notch,
the graphics are very realistic and the game comes with a lot of extras for fans of the band to check out. While the game isn’t as large
as last year’s yearly update, it sticks to the same formula that has been successful for the series in the past. Though the game
presents less of a challenge and takes away a little of the reward for beating some of the game’s hardest songs, it is nice to know that
players won’t get caught up having to repeat the same track over and over again to progress.
As for the song choices in the game, the tracks range the entirety of Metallica’s career, titles such as “Seek and Destroy,” “Blackened,”
“For Whom The Bell Tolls,” and many other titles that have made the band famous over the years. There are a few albums that didn’t
make their way into the game, but it may be DLC in the next couple of months. Everyone who is a fan of Metallica will be able to find
their personal favorites. The largest complaint with the game is actually tied to the available songs which are sure to be a
disappointment to many folks. The only DLC that the game supports is Death Magnetic. None of the downloadable tracks for World Tour
work here, which means that you'll have to swap back to that disc to play the bulk of the downloaded library if the player has invested in
some new tunes. Really, downloadable content like this should be cross-franchise, and the game feels like it's a little separated from
the rest of the game.
The presentation of the game goes way beyond the way the four members of the band look and move. Players will find a ton of content
that will bring them inside the band’s inner circle, including behind the scenes footage from the motion capture sessions, fan shot
video from club gigs, a photo gallery and song lyrics. The one piece of content that most fans will enjoy is the Metallifacts, VH1 Pop-Up
Video style sets that allow players to watch the game play a song while notes and information pop up on the lower part of the screen.
This isn’t available for every song, but there is a lot of interesting stuff for the numerous selections that players can watch.
When it comes to the game play mechanics of the game, it doesn’t stray too far from that of the original game, but there are a few new
things related to the drums to be used. The first is the Expert+ setting which turns on every bass drum note. Usually on faster music
the bass drum notes are scaled back so that players can actually play them with a single pedal, but the new mode gives players the full
deal so that they can attempt to mimic Lars by playing with dual bass pedals.
The other new mode is a “secret” mode called Drum Over where players are able to turn off the required notes for a song and just play
whatever notes through the song. The drums are samples from whatever track the player is playing, so if players are using Drum Over
on “Master of Puppets,” the skins will sound like they do on the album. This is a fun mode to try out, and adds a new element to the
game; this is something that many will probably hope to see more of this mode in the future.
“Guitar Hero: Metallica” is a great music game and a great addition to the Guitar Hero franchise. This is a game that has a track list that
almost seems like it was written solely for the purpose of this game. A lot of time was put into the production to ensure that it is both
true to the band and the band’s music from their lengthy career, while also offering fans cool insight into the group’s work. The game
doesn’t make any new additions to the series and sticks to the controls created in the original game, but it has been a while since a
music game of this type has been this much fun. The only thing that keeps this game from being amazing is the fact that is doesn’t
support most of the additional Guitar Hero downloadable content that can be played on other Guitar Hero games. Other than that,
“Guitar Hero: Metallica” is a great experience the fans of the band will want to go out and get their hands on.
Fortunately for metal fans, this year’s project has churned out “Guitar Hero: Metallica” which brings with it a ton of promise and hype.
Metallica is a great band for this series due to their music fitting perfectly into the new full band formula of the Guitar Hero franchise.
The game delivers is many of the ways that players will hope for. The track list for the game is amazing, the presentation is top notch,
the graphics are very realistic and the game comes with a lot of extras for fans of the band to check out. While the game isn’t as large
as last year’s yearly update, it sticks to the same formula that has been successful for the series in the past. Though the game
presents less of a challenge and takes away a little of the reward for beating some of the game’s hardest songs, it is nice to know that
players won’t get caught up having to repeat the same track over and over again to progress.
As for the song choices in the game, the tracks range the entirety of Metallica’s career, titles such as “Seek and Destroy,” “Blackened,”
“For Whom The Bell Tolls,” and many other titles that have made the band famous over the years. There are a few albums that didn’t
make their way into the game, but it may be DLC in the next couple of months. Everyone who is a fan of Metallica will be able to find
their personal favorites. The largest complaint with the game is actually tied to the available songs which are sure to be a
disappointment to many folks. The only DLC that the game supports is Death Magnetic. None of the downloadable tracks for World Tour
work here, which means that you'll have to swap back to that disc to play the bulk of the downloaded library if the player has invested in
some new tunes. Really, downloadable content like this should be cross-franchise, and the game feels like it's a little separated from
the rest of the game.
The presentation of the game goes way beyond the way the four members of the band look and move. Players will find a ton of content
that will bring them inside the band’s inner circle, including behind the scenes footage from the motion capture sessions, fan shot
video from club gigs, a photo gallery and song lyrics. The one piece of content that most fans will enjoy is the Metallifacts, VH1 Pop-Up
Video style sets that allow players to watch the game play a song while notes and information pop up on the lower part of the screen.
This isn’t available for every song, but there is a lot of interesting stuff for the numerous selections that players can watch.
When it comes to the game play mechanics of the game, it doesn’t stray too far from that of the original game, but there are a few new
things related to the drums to be used. The first is the Expert+ setting which turns on every bass drum note. Usually on faster music
the bass drum notes are scaled back so that players can actually play them with a single pedal, but the new mode gives players the full
deal so that they can attempt to mimic Lars by playing with dual bass pedals.
The other new mode is a “secret” mode called Drum Over where players are able to turn off the required notes for a song and just play
whatever notes through the song. The drums are samples from whatever track the player is playing, so if players are using Drum Over
on “Master of Puppets,” the skins will sound like they do on the album. This is a fun mode to try out, and adds a new element to the
game; this is something that many will probably hope to see more of this mode in the future.
“Guitar Hero: Metallica” is a great music game and a great addition to the Guitar Hero franchise. This is a game that has a track list that
almost seems like it was written solely for the purpose of this game. A lot of time was put into the production to ensure that it is both
true to the band and the band’s music from their lengthy career, while also offering fans cool insight into the group’s work. The game
doesn’t make any new additions to the series and sticks to the controls created in the original game, but it has been a while since a
music game of this type has been this much fun. The only thing that keeps this game from being amazing is the fact that is doesn’t
support most of the additional Guitar Hero downloadable content that can be played on other Guitar Hero games. Other than that,
“Guitar Hero: Metallica” is a great experience the fans of the band will want to go out and get their hands on.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
