At the moment, there aren't many franchises as big and popular as Guitar Hero. There is already four games in the main series, with no.5 still in development for release this year. And with other spin-offs and more games to come soon, Guitar Hero is claimed to be the third biggest franchise after Mario and Madden NFL.
The series has now taken to making spin-off games based around a single band. First it was Aerosmith in 2008. The game received mediocre reviews, with the main problems being the length and its lack of depth. But now Metallica, the biggest name in heavy/thrash metal, have entered the Guitar Hero franchise, and it doesn't disappoint.
The Most Challenging Guitar Hero?
Guitar Hero: Metallica is set up exactly like World Tour, meaning it's a full band game. The music studio is also still in place from WT, with players being able to send each other their own creations. But the difference between this and WT (apart from it being Metallica based) is the way the career mode is set out. Instead of completing each gig, progression is via a tier system - meaning players only have to complete so many songs before others are available.
While this may decrease the difficulty compared to other GH games, it also means that players will be able to rock out to Metallica's more popular and ferocious songs like "Master of Puppets" and "Dyer's Eve" sooner than expected. But it's best to go through all the songs at once, as this unlocks equipment and guitar avatars used by Metallica, as well as interesting facts and behind the scenes footage.
The Ultimate Metallica Experience
It's impressive to see how much dedication has gone into the game to make this a real Metallica experience. The motion-capture for each band member is astounding, which truly captures the feel of Metallica playing live. The setlist has clearly been selected by the band themselves, which includes songs from every album (including "No Leaf Clover" from S&M). Others include songs Metallica covered on their Garage Inc. album, which features Queen and Lynyrd Skynyrd, as well as other "personal influences".
At the same time though, there's a lot of features that could have made this a much better experience. There isn't a lot of back stage material, which could have included interviews with the band and more production videos. The setlist is strong but misses out some songs that could have increased the difficulty - "Metal Milita" and "Damage Inc", to name two. For the Wii and PS2 versions, only four songs are available from Death Magnetic, while the PS3 and 360 versions have access to the entire album. There's also no other available DLC.
What is here is for the fans of Metallica. The band bring out a lot of mixed emotion from people, namely because of the whole Napster incident. So playing through Metallica's back catalogue may not interest some. But for those players who like a challenge, or who live and breath Metallica, this is for them. With a great setlist, superb animations and a real challenge, this is one of the best music games out there.
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