Game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Ranking: 19/100
Score: 86.45%
It’s time to analyse yet another entry in the ‘games that
use a guitar controller’ genre. I hope my rental company send me something different
soon; I’m running out of things to say about these.
Anyway, let’s crank everything up to eleven, as it’s time to
unleash our inner rock god! Yeah! Let’s Rock! With a capital ‘R’!
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| The bane of tiny hands everywhere! (Source: IGN.com) |
Intro
The manual was decently laid out and explained all of the
options and controls in a concise manner. It even made it clear you could
unlock songs, which gives you a clear incentive to play the career mode. There
was also an unintentionally amusing part detailing how the guitar controller
works, which gives you an idea of the sorts of complaints Activision might have
been getting, such as 'I stood on my guitar controller and now it doesn't
work.' The intro animations are suitably comical and give you a clear idea of
how the career mode will work; a character climbs a mountain and defeats
various other guitar-players through the power of rock until he reaches the
top. This is pretty much your mission. There also isn't too much in the way of
nesting - a menu option on screen generally takes you straight to a new area,
rather than opening up another menu screen.
The manual has art that is in keeping with the game artwork,
but it's all black and white, which doesn't match up to the colourful
atmosphere of the game (also, there were a couple of typos).
I'd like to see the manual have colourful artwork to match
the feel of the game. Plus, all of the intro animations seemed to be a little
lacking in the female representation. As this is not the case in the actual
game, it would have been nice to see the odd female rock rival trying to make
it up that mountain.
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| 'Yeah, this is pretty much a sausage fest right now...' (Source: mobygames.com) |
Getting Going
The tutorial sections were done in a really fun style; you
basically had God himself telling you how to strum and hold down frets in his
booming voice, and the Devil popped up on occasion to show you how chords
worked. It was a great combination of straight-forward demonstration and the
tongue-in-cheek humour that is prevalent throughout the game. When you get into
playing a song proper, there are all sorts of congratulatory effects to
encourage you when you do well; from the guitar parts playing correctly to the
glow of the notes when you hit them at the right time. When you enter 'Star
Power', your notes turn blue and every guitar sound you successfully play is
louder and richer than normal. The HUD gives you information on how well you're
playing a song and any bonuses you've acquired, and they are close enough to
the fret board that it isn't impossible to glance up and look at them - plus
the crowd will cheer or boo depending on how well you're doing.
There is a bit of overemphasis on negative feedback,
however. When you miss a note, that part of the song doesn't play, and it is
often accompanied by a horrible clunking sound. Not only is this a little off-putting,
but it means you lose the ability to use the sound of the music to help you
match the rhythm of the notes. On top of this, I'm not sure how many of those
clunking notes were actually missed; judging by the scores I got at the end of
each song, it wasn't that many.
I would prefer it if missing a note resulted in a muffled
sound of the song you're following; it would at least give you a chance to
carry on more easily. Another thing that would be less distracting is if the
text announcements that tell you of a certain note streak or that you have
'Star Power' were actually voiced instead. That way, the text doesn't get in
the way of you seeing the notes you're trying to hit. The fact that you can
still play even when you miss a note and thus can't hear the part of the song
you're supposed to be playing suggests that sound, rather than visual
information, is the area you can afford to impact more when delivering
information.
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| Hard mode uses four controller buttons and is unforgiving on your tendons. (Source: IGN.com) |
Fun
The game has various difficulty options, so you will never
feel too frustrated or too bored when playing. There is also an option to be
able to set the controls for a left-handed player, which is certainly useful.
There is a quick song mode where you can play any of the songs that have been
unlocked; which is great if you just want a quick game. Career mode has you
playing along to set tracks; in this, you get incentives to do well on songs in
the form of extra money which you can use to purchase customised clothing or
guitars for your character. When playing the songs, the game adds tension by
use of a grating noise whenever you miss a beat by pressing at the wrong time;
the more beats you miss, the more your Rock meter drops and the angrier the
crowd get. This makes it genuinely stressful when you try and claw your way
back to playing without making any errors.
Sometimes when you're playing a song, you seem to have to
hit notes that don't really fit the rhythm of the song you're playing, which
can be irritating. As mentioned before, on more than one occasion I have found
myself making mistakes because some HUD information has been delivered in such
a way that it actively distracted me from the task at hand. One minor, but
annoying, niggle I had is that the songs are always listed in set-list order -
and not alphabetically. If you're searching for a specific song to play in
quick mode, that's a bit of a pain.
The list of songs in quick mode should really be done
alphabetically by band. I'd also like it to show you the amount of songs that
are available to unlock, either by having a 'locked' entry for each song, or
just show a number left to unlock. I think some of the songs need to be put
together differently, so that the notes match up with the guitar rhythm more
accurately (although the fact that the moment you make a mistake, you can't
hear what you're trying to play probably doesn't help).
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| The 'Metroid' franchise called; they'd like Meta-Ridley back. (Source: IGN.com) |
Visuals
The quirky cartoon style is kept throughout the intro
sequence and the cut-scene animations, and adds a consistency to the overall
feel of the game. The visual feedback you get in the game is generally both
useful and not too distracting, and each stage has a unique look to it, from
someone's house party to a theatrical stage with beheaded dragons. Encores are
announced with a funny animation of a minor riot or some pyrotechnical mishap,
which adds a nice break to the game. I'm not sure this is quite the right place
for it, but you can't move for song and band puns. They are everywhere, from
the stats breakdown of each song (one of the Kiss songs has an entry called
'Ace, soloing freely'), to the posters for each 'gig' that you reach (the first
one references '22 Arcadia Avenue', which is clearly a nod to the Iron Maiden
song '22 Acacia Avenue'). They are really nice touches that are amusingly groan-worthy, but also make it
clear that the people who made the game genuinely care about the genre they are
using (or at least they're good at faking it).
As much as the HUD information is well put together, some of
it is irritatingly distracting (such as the text information that is plastered
over the screen when you hit a certain note streak). The animations can also
potentially be off-putting as characters gurn over the screen; I maintain they
are there for the entertainment of anyone who might be watching someone play
this game. Also, some of the crowd scenes look a bit lazy - often you will have
one or two characters copied and pasted all over the place, performing exactly
the same motion.
It's a bit of a shame that the 3D graphics are used in a
semi-realistic way for each level; I'd actually like to see the pure cartoon
style used to the cutscene videos to be used in the game. Given that the game
does its utmost to stop you from taking any of it seriously, I think it would
fit the theme better. I'd have also liked to see some of the NPCs have a bit
more variety to their looks and movements; it can't be that hard to copy the
models, amend their hair or clothes and vary their movements.
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| Bret Michaels of 'Poison' in CG form. Little known fact; Bret Michaels wrote, directed, produced, scored and starred in a film called 'A Letter from Death Row' which is arguably the worst film I have ever had the misfortune to sit through. (Source: IGN.com) |
Intelligence
The player can choose from Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert.
The harder the mode, the more notes you get thrown at you and the more frets
you have to press (Easy only makes you deal with three, whereas Extreme makes
you deal with five). As you play through career mode, you do notice a definite
increase in the learning curve, regardless of the difficulty level you've
chosen. Songs I was paying in the third stage were noticeably more difficult to
keep up with than those in the first. There's not really much one can say about
the AI beyond the fact that you can choose a difficulty level and that it
recognises your actions.
It's annoying that if you're not good enough, you can't get
through an entire song; that's perfectly acceptable behaviour in career mode,
but when you're just playing a single song, it means potentially never getting
to hear the track you're trying to play. Some of the song groupings seem a bit
strange, in terms of their difficulty. One stage may start off with a trickier
song than the song used to open a later stage.
I think the song groupings should be amended so that you
don't end up in a situation with simpler songs being played in later stages.
I'd also like to see an option you could choose where players don't get booted
off a track for the quickplay section however badly they perform; it would be
helpful in giving players a chance to practise certain songs and make the
Careers mode more accessible in the process.
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| 'When you're in solitary confinement, you learn to keep your mouth shut!' Yeah, preach it, Michaels. Both Martin and Charlie Sheen were in that film, albeit for a few seconds. It must have been during a dry spell. (Source: IGN.com) |
Immersion
The game is absorbing on two levels; one, you can simply
play a song via quickplay mode or two, you can dedicate time to playing career
mode. The latter certainly sucks you into the world of Guitar Hero and makes
you want to keep playing to obtain encores and unlock new gigs, whereas the
former is good if you only have a short amount of time free to play a quick
game. You unlock a song during each encore in career mode, so there's incentive
to keep going in order to discover what that new song is going to be.
Sadly, there really isn't much more to it. You play a rhythm
game set to a popular song, over and over again. You can either play a single
song, or a series of levels. That's pretty much it, and there's only so long
you'll want to keep doing that for. Another weird thing that pulled me out of
the experience slightly was some of the song themes. For example, there is a
'gig' called 'European Invasion', complete with an animation of your band being
given aeroplane tickets to the UK, along with Union Jack symbolism and nothing
else European. Two of the songs are by UK bands. Three of the songs - including
the encore - are by US bands. Why would you not, in a level that is called
'European Invasion', have songs solely by European artists? You only have to
licence five! Half of the bonus tracks you can purchase through money earned in
career mode are by European bands! There's no excuse!
As there's not really much you can do to the gameplay
itself, adding things like mini games or more customisation elements would be a
good way to draw people into the world more. Oh, and make the European themed
levels have songs by European artists. Make any themed levels utilise songs
that meet that theme.
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| Not sure if made up, or actual quotes from films and rock stars. It really could go either way. (Source: mobygames.com) |
Camera
There is really nothing to say about the camera in this
game; it is fixed, single screen and focused on a tilted guitar fret board.
This is great for the type of gameplay, as when you see up and coming notes,
they look further away and it's easier to only focus on them when they get
close enough for you to care. This type of perspective also makes the game feel
more three-dimensional in a way that, say, using a top-down view would not.
Controls
The in-game controls are roughly similar way to a real
guitar - the strum action is what you use to play a note, so you can hold down
the fret button long before you have to play the note. Although the tutorial is
helpful in showing you the ropes, you don't need it; a player completely new to
the genre of game could pick it up fairly quickly. There is also a calibration
option if you feel that your actions aren't matching the results you get on
screen.
The main issue I have with the controls apply to all of
these types of game; the controller becomes painful to use after a rather short
period of time. I have tiny hands, and it ends up dictating how much time I
want to spend playing. I found the controls seemed to be a little on the
inconsistent side; every time I thought I'd found the optimum moment to strike
a note, I'd miss after a while. It's difficult to judge whether it's my poor
playing skills or the controls, but when you do the same thing and get
different results, it leans towards the latter.
I wonder if there should be an option to select the
sensitivity of the controls - so you can make them a little more forgiving for
newer players, and more pixel perfect for advanced users. You could even factor
that into the scoring system - the more pixel perfect the setting, the higher
the points or cash you get. This game should definitely come with some kind of
alternative controller - I know I mention this every time I analyse one of
these types of games, but trust me. These controllers are not built for tiny
hands.
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| You can battle Slash with your guitar! By which I mean you have a riff-off, not that you bludgeon him into submission with the body. (Source: IGN.com) |
Ideas
There are some fun ideas in this game; in career mode you
are also introduced to boss battles, 'Guitar Hero' style. The game has a number
of guitar battles where you are pitted against famous guitarists; the player
has to accurately hit the series of notes that appear along the fret of their
guitar onscreen in order to win power-ups. Once collected, you simply tilt the
guitar controller up to hit your opponent with them. You keep going until one
of you hits the red and is booed off. At first, when an animated Tom Morello
wandered through a stage to challenge my character, I thought this was a little
silly. On reflection, it's an interesting way of utilising the gameplay you
have been used to throughout the game in a different enough way to make it feel
varied. Also, as you make your way through career mode for the first time, you
are guaranteed to play a brand new song on every stage. It's nice that you
unlock songs early on, and once they're unlocked, you can play them in quick
mode. There's also a career co-op mode, so a buddy can join you on your quest
for Guitar Hero glory. You can also do two player guitar battles as well, so
that aspect doesn't just show up in career mode. As I've mentioned before, the
sheer volume of band related puns is quite amusing in a groan-inducing sort of
way. There are also some unlockable characters, too; I must confess I did
giggle at the robot character you can unlock whose bio states he started out as
a Russian warhead.
Once you've completed career mode and unlocked all of the
songs (and bought the bonus tracks available with the Guitar Hero cash won
in-game), there's not a lot to come back for. Unless you've got your mates
round and want to play along to any of the songs you have available, there's no
real incentive to fire up the game again.
There's a little bit of customisation available for your
characters; the more money you get by ascending the career mountain, the more
clothes and guitars you can buy. This could be expanded on so players can
create their own characters (which has been done in later editions). On a more
basic level, as each of the pre-defined characters you have to choose have
their own personalities, so why not change the in game messages based on this?
No matter who you play as, when you complete a stage and get a cut of the pay,
the message always reads, 'Go and buy yourself something pretty.' It would be
straight-forward enough to have the messages vary depending on the character
you've selected, and potentially entertaining enough to make you want to play
as every character to see what happens. They could also expand on the mini-game
aspect by introducing things like jamming sessions or perhaps even a timed boss
run.
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| Why can't I go and do the things I'm getting deducted from my pay, game? In other news, you'll be called pretty whichever character you play as. (Source: mobygames.com) |
Memory
The thing that most sticks in my mind about this game is the
humour running through it. From the daft band puns, to the amusing list of
'expenses' you as a band incur at the end of every stage which generally
involve having set something on fire, everything is geared towards making you
smile as you play through the game. The stages you play are also fun, along
with the animations that lead you into an encore. Another good thing about the
way the stages are arranged is that you always have one more song available
than you need to complete a stage, so if you find one of the songs just too
difficult, you can move onto another. When coupled with the difficulty levels
on offer, the balance between being challenging but not boring appears to have
been met well.
The main problem with this game is that there's just not
much to it beyond playing a rhythm game to rock songs. You either play a single
song, or you play songs in a pre-set order. This continues until you get bored
or you develop RSI; whichever comes first. I found I was keen to keep going
through career mode to see what songs I could unlock, but it got to a point
where it was too painful to keep playing.
With a tongue-in-cheek game set around the world of trying
to make it as a guitar god, there seems to be a lot of scope for increasing
gameplay variety by adding some silly bonus mini-games so players can jam, or
even something such as trashing as much of a room as possible with their guitar
before a timer runs out. Something to keep the variety going - or even
something to allow the player a rest from the control mechanism used to play
through songs - would definitely make it more enjoyable to keep playing.
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| Not Jimmy Hendrix. No, really; it isn't. This is Xavier Stone. Not Jimmy Hendrix. (Source: IGN.com) |
Overall, the choice of songs and the commitment to creating a consistent rock/metal theme make this a fun rhythm game, but there isn't a massive amount of features to distinguish it from any of the other versions on the market.
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