Gone are the stilted animations that we had seen in the past, instead replaced by lifelike movements from James, Lars, Kirk and Robert.
#GUITAR HERO METALLICA HARDEST SONG SERIES#
The band came in for a series of motion capture sessions, and their movements have been transferred into the game quite well. The band members all look great, sporting more realistic (though not entirely) looks than any of the characters previously seen in the franchise, including Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. With regards to presentation, as I had alluded to before, a lot of care was put into making sure this was a die-hard fan's game.
#GUITAR HERO METALLICA HARDEST SONG PS3#
The PS2 version of the game doesn't support any sort of DLC, so it actually includes a couple more songs from Death Magnetic than the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The band's stage presence has been greatly transferred to the game. I'm sure everyone will have their personal favorites, but the available songs read like the quintessential "Best Of" track list for the band.
Still, those seem to be the only two major tracks that I'm sad aren't here. My only complaint in the song selection department is that "Blackened" and "…And Justice For All" don't appear here, likely because of their availability as DLC for Rock Band. You'll find at least a couple tracks from each of the band's first five original albums (up through the Black album), with a scattering of stuff from the latest four, which is great news for long-time fans. As for the song choices, the tracks span the entirety of Metallica's career, pulling titles like "Seek and Destroy" and "Whiplash" from Kill 'em All, all the way up to "Broken Beat and Scarred" from Death Magnetic. Lars' drumming also turned out to be incredibly fun, offering up cool bass work with some thundering toms here and there.
Plenty of fast power cords, blistering solos, melodic breaks that don't bore you to death and just awesome riffs all around. There's just something about the way that these guys play their stuff that translates really well to a plastic guitar (if that makes sense). Speaking of the tracks, as I mentioned before, the set list here is absolutely killer, not only in terms of song quality but the overall enjoyment level with respect to actually playing them as well. Also, it means that you can almost skip right past the early stuff and quickly get to the big tracks, like "Master of Puppets" and "One", if you really want to. Though it presents less of a challenge and winds up taking away a little of the reward for beating some of the game's hardest songs (like Slayer's "War Ensemble"), it's nice to know that you won't get caught up having to repeat the same track over and over to progress. Obviously there are incentives to go back and play everything else in the name of unlockables and so forth (including the band's instruments), not to mention fun, but it's unlikely that you'll get stuck unless you choose a difficulty that's way over your head. I actually "finished" the game after having only beaten 40% of the songs, so there's a ton of leeway in allowing you to move on if you get stuck on something. Rather than the gig-based progression from World Tour, you'll find something much closer to the original two titles where it's a tier-based system, but instead of having to beat each song in a tier to progress, you need only meet a total star requirement. The title is a full-band game, just like Guitar Hero World Tour, so guitar, bass, drums and vocals are all part of the mix. While the game isn't as immense as the franchise's yearly big update, and while it generally sticks to the same tried and true formula of past releases, there's just a feeling of care taken with the experience that makes it a must-play for fans of the band and metal in general.Ĭlick the image to watch the video review. The track list is stellar, the presentation is top-notch, the band is very well represented, and, perhaps most surprising of all, there's a ton of stuff for fans of the band to check out.
Luckily, the game delivers in many of the ways that we had hoped for. After all, Metallica is the band that has convinced countless souls to pick up a guitar (myself included), and their music seems to be a perfect fit for the formula. Fortunately for metal fans, this year's "side project" is Guitar Hero: Metallica, which brings with it a ton of promise and hype. The Guitar Hero franchise seems to be ever rolling, churning out more than one title a year these days.