Guitar Hero 3 review

Authors note: I wrote this review 2 months ago on my personal website, and have rewritten it and condensed it for cross posting here. I know its a few weeks late for the subject matter, but felt that given GH 3′s popularity this holiday season, it was still a current enough topic to warrant discussion. Had I been a part of 360 sync at the time it came out, this would have been a MUCH more timely review, heh. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say from your point of view in the comments!

Initially I ranted and raved about how great Guitar Hero 3 was when it first came out. I down right wouldnt shut up about it. Well you see, when the gleeful joy of the early adoption lust has worn down, and you have a moment to sit back and reflect on what you just did, things always take on a new light. As they say, hind sight is 20/20. I for one kind of wish I had been wearing my glasses when I first took at look at Guitar Hero 3. To be honest I did give it a few low marks, well I should say, I made a basic attempt to tone down my praises with a few counter comments at best. In either case, in reflection I didn’t do that enough. I beat the game on Medium, which was for the most part easy. However now I have gone back and taken a stab at Hard and Expert, and let me tell you, here is where they fracked up. Guitar Hero 1 and 2 flowed when you played, even when you worked up in difficulty. When you played those songs, even the ones that were tweaked for maximum concentration and dexterity, you still felt like you were playing a guitar, with a natural flow to it all. Medium on GH3 felt the same way, so in reality, it was nothing I was looking at, or comparing. It was all a subconscious understanding that I was happy. However now that I took a stab back at Hard and Expert I have learned something, Neversoft said ‘frack that noise’, and just decided to stick notes wherever it looked like it would cramp your fingers and be considered harder to play. They gave no thought whatsoever to the concept of music and flow and rythm.

These are base instincts to Harmonix, a dev studio that has an entire employment roster engaged in one or another personal band. Not a week goes by in the Cambridge area where SOMEONE from the studio is playing a show with their band. With Harmonix, the music comes first, and the game comes second. Neversoft, I think, simply does not have the innate understanding Harmonix did to get this concept. It is most evident in the expert songs. You do not feel like you are playing a more complex version of a song, trying to really rock it out like a pro. You feel like your fingers are playing a torturous version of DDR in a futile attempt to keep time with a pack of drunken river dancers. These are not words based on my inability to beat these songs, just because its hard I don’t feel this way. Even the hardest songs for me on 2 and 1 made me feel like i was playing real music. This simply restates the obvious, this is an unproven and unwelcome genre for Neversoft to dabble in, and that Rockband (a review of which is a separate endeavor, as is a direct comparison between the two) will triumph over all. GH3 for all intents, is more like the Episode II:Attack of the Clones of the GH trilogy. You know what I mean.

The songs are a good selection, with plenty there for everyone’s tastes. When I was unlocking extra tracks I found Kaiser Chiefs “Ruby” which just about made my day, and in the normal course you play Knights of Cydonia which is by far my favorite song of the latest Muse CD. I was dissapointed to see there is no Freezepop songs for the first time, but this is none to surprising because they are personal friends of the Harmonix crew.

The menu, interface, etc are more or less the same they have always been. My biggest gripe, and its purely cosmetic and just a personal thing, is the bastardization of Judy Nails. She was the character I always used, because in games I and II she could have been a digital clone of my best friend Ariel. It’s not that I have some sick twisted fascination with my best friend (well ok maybe a little, but its purely sexual attraction, nothing weird! haha) but simply if I am going to stare at the same person rocking around on stage for hours on end, I want it to be someone who’s easy on the eyes. However in 3, when Neversoft got their grimy little Tony Hawk skateboard axle greased fingers on Judy, they seemed to have, well I don’t know. Its like the squashed her down a few inches and plumped her out oddly. Her chest is now 2 sizes two big for her body, shes a few inches shorter than before, and now oddly out of proportion because of it, her face seems far too chubby for the rest of her body because of this, and they beefed up her arms and legs to look rather creepy. All in all looking at her in the selection menu made me go running to the next character option, which was Lars Umlaut, and as we all know hes none to easy on the eyes either, but it was an optical reprieve for me none the less.

Thew new multi player battle mode is nice with the twist of having “attacks” to use, instead of star power. Their concept of using this mode against 3 “bosses” made of famous musicians is also a nice change for the campaign mode. It eases a new player into the concept for online play, as well as breaks up the tired chain of “beat this song… now this one.. OK, good now this one” which is otherwise the only aspect of the campaign mode. One other nice addition is that the cut scenes between venue upgrades got a small but awesome tweak. Gone is the simple graphic of a map with your tour bus driving from point A to point B. In its place is a full cut scene, with a nice artistic twist of no vocal audio. It shows things for example, of after the back yard gig, a guy walks up, shows a business card, throws a ad for a battle of the bands competition in you face, flashes some money and smiles. In other words, you just got a manager and your first gig. The animation style is on par with the guitar hero look and feel, and the lack of spoken dialog is actualy nice, plus there is some good visual comedy in each one, and they are each 10-15 seconds at most to keep it short and simple. Again, this was a good twist that broke up the same ole same ole of the past games, without really changing anything.

I think my complaint is, Neversoft took a solid formula… and got innovative with it in all the wrong ways. Everything that was just fine the way it was they tweaked, and things that could have really benefited from a little creativity.. were left stagnant. With only a few new features that are worth while, it seems that Guitar Hero 3 has gone the way of the Madden franchise, replacing the tired repeat of nothing more than a “roster change” in Madden, with a different song library change in Guitar Hero. With Rockband making record hits across the board and having redefined the rhythm game genre, i think the franchise is close to its end. Activision will undoubtedly keep cranking more out to capitalize on the financial stake in it, but from a gamers point of view, the series is now dead to me.