Guitar Hero Metallica Review
With the release of Guitar Hero: Metallica, Neversoft not only proved that they can release a viable and entertaining band-centric game, they also proved that they have it in them to create a full-band game that is able to please hardcore fans of all varieties. Neversoft provided a challenging and entertaining experience for vocalists, guitarists, bassists and drummers.
The game even introduced Expert+ mode, which is mainly to please the top drummers in the world, as it adds the double-bass hits into the charts. The songs often-times require players to obtain a second drum pedal and a splitter in order to be successful in this mode. The mode has been carried on throughout the subsequent games in the Guitar Hero series.
Perhaps the most important aspect that contributes to a music video game’s success or failure is the song list. In terms of Guitar Hero: Metallica, the setlist is phenomenal, given that you’re a fan of metal. The setlist consists of 49 songs, 28 of which are Metallica tracks. All of the songs are master recordings, which is a huge plus in the eyes of many. The guest artists (i.e. artists in the game that aren’t Metallica), span from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Slayer. The songs that are by Metallica are chosen very well, but the game definitely leaves a few major tracks by the band out.
The graphics of Guitar Hero: Metallica were the best of the series when the game came out. The motion-capturing that Metallica, Lemmy from Motorhead, and King Diamond from Mercyful Fate went through is thorough and very well-orchestrated. James Hetfield looks spectacular while singing and screaming through Metallica’s signature hits (including a very memorable motion-capturing for “Master of Puppets”). Other than the motion-captured artists, the graphical stylings of Guitar Hero: Metallica follow along with the graphics of Guitar Hero World Tour, which I am definitely not a fan of.
In terms of gameplay, the game is nearly identical to that of Guitar Hero World Tour, but there are a few very welcomed changes that have been made. The first one is the obvious inclusion of Expert+, as mentioned above. Aside from Expert+, however, Neversofts seems to have opened up the timing window a bit for hammer-ons and pull-offs, as well as fixing the timing window for slider notes. The slider notes were obviously a little broken in Guitar Hero World Tour, but in Guitar Hero: Metallica, they work just like hammer-ons and pull-offs without the necessity of strumming, which is really the way they were intended to work.
Overall, Guitar Hero: Metallica seems to show that Neversoft learned from the failures of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour and worked to combine the two concepts (full band and single-band centric) to make one very good game. The only reason that someone wouldn’t want to pick this game up would be if you despise Metallica or the metal genre. The game is great fun for new players and experts alike.
