I am relatively new to these forums and have not been around to post much, so I thought I would try my hand at a review for a game that no one else has reviewed yet.
Guitar Hero: Metallica is the latest entry in the Guitar Hero franchise. I will not go into too much detail about the structure of the game as GH is such a well known game at this point it would be like trying to explain how Halo works. So instead I will get right to the point with Metallica.
GH:M follows the same structure in a lot of ways as GH:World Tour. There is a single player mode where you can pick from either lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or vocals. In each category there are varying levels of difficulty from beginner to expert. I have only had the game a day and have focused primarily on the guitar so my information is limited to that. There is also a band mode that allows you and 3 of your friends to play each instrument simultaneously giving the authentic feel of being an actual band. During the course of the game there are 49 main set list songs that vary from Lynard Skynard's Tuesdays Gone to Slayer's War Ensemble. However, unlike World Tour, GH:M has less diversity in its stylings as it is primarily focused on the band Metallica and the bands that either inspired Metallica or were inspired by Metallica. It is very similar to the idea of GH:Aerosmith, but with a harder rock library.
Song Selections
The quality of the songs are top notch; each of them is a master recording and save for a few, I have not found any to be boring or annoying to listen to. I realize that is a personal opinion and to each their own, so I will not say which ones I did not like, but let me say that overall, the song choices are excellent on many levels. There are songs that are just great to listen to, songs that are a lot of fun to play, and songs with enough challenge to keep the avid GH player interested.
The difficulty is a bit higher in GH:M than it has been for the last couple of entries (Aerosmith and World tour). It ramped up the difficulty by including songs with fast strum sections and wicked solos that will keep you on your toes the whole time you play. I would say it is actually more challenging than even GH3. However, many would like to point out that it does not have anything to compare to the song Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce. I have yet to play every song in GH:M but I can almost guarantee that this is true, so if you were looking for epic speed metal of that caliber you may be a bit disappointed. But other than that, the difficulty of the game is easily on par with GH3 if not higher.
Visuals
Ok, so the focus of GH is not to push anything too far graphically. GH:M does nothing that is extraordinary. But that is alright, since the point to the game really is not the visual, but the player involvement. It does have decent character designs and the members of Metallica look relatively life like (especially in high definition). The character creator is very similar to World Tour's and offers a deep level of customization for your character so that if you want to put the time into it you will guarantee that you can make something that is uniquely yours.
Online
Here is a large aspect of GH, and unfortunately where it falls just short of what it could be. I am an avid fan of GH and have been since the beginning. When GH3 came out I was very excited about online play and dove right into it as soon as I could. I have somewhere on the order of 2500 pro-face offs online for GH3 alone (with 2000+ of them wins). When World Tour was on its way and I found out about band play being online I became even more excited. Being able to play your career online as a band was a great idea.
Unfortunately the set up in World Tour for the online aspects changed from GH3 and went from a lobby system where you selected what type of player you were looking for and were given a list, to you select what you want to do and it randomly searches for the players. This takes away from the players control and can get a little bit aggravating when you get stuck with someone who wants to play on easy while you play on expert. GH:M does the same thing and I still have the same complaints. Recently today I was playing a PFO online with someone and it picked a player who was playing on easy. He chose the song Dyers Eve and for those of you who don't know its a very strum intensive song. The problem is while I held my own during a sight read (it was my first time seeing the song) he was able to beat me because of score handicaps that I will explain in a moment. This is one of my two major complaints with the online for GH:M.
If you play someone on a PFO, and you are playing expert, your opponent should also play expert. Activision/Red Octane disagree and think that even at expert you should play someone who is playing easy. And to only make it fair the player who is on easy should get many more points per note to keep it equal in scoring. I completely disagree with this concept, and find that it detracts from me and others to trying to play PFO with random players.
My second complaint with the online for GH:M is they took away online band career. To actually do the career mode you must play with someone in the same room with you. That is all well and good if you know someone nearby who can play at your home or vice versa, but in my position it is very difficult as the closest person I know who plays any GH is about 100 miles away. There is still quickplay for online bands, which is great, but not the same (especially when you are trying to get trophies).
Overall
Other than the online issues, the only other complaint I have with GH:M is when you play career mode for guitar (and I am assuming any other instrument as well) after you have beaten a song there is no where to directly see what your high score is on the song. If you are online when you play it you can always check on either the GH Community site or the leaderboards via the game. But to see it when you are in career mode is impossible. Instead it only shows you how many stars you have obtained for the song. Granted if you play a song in quickplay it will show you your score then, but honestly this seems so simple of an idea to have misplaced.
Beyond those problems GH:M is a great game. It has a few flaws that hopefully will be corrected in future titles but as it stands this game is easily one of the best in the series. Between its epic set list, and its challenge, I look forward to playing it for some time. On top of all of this it finally has a trophy system which was sorely missed by many fans in World Tour. If you are a Guitar Hero fan or a fan of Metallica, do yourself a favor and at least rent the game. It is worth it.
I rate the game an 8 out of 10
Guitar Hero: Metallica is the latest entry in the Guitar Hero franchise. I will not go into too much detail about the structure of the game as GH is such a well known game at this point it would be like trying to explain how Halo works. So instead I will get right to the point with Metallica.
GH:M follows the same structure in a lot of ways as GH:World Tour. There is a single player mode where you can pick from either lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or vocals. In each category there are varying levels of difficulty from beginner to expert. I have only had the game a day and have focused primarily on the guitar so my information is limited to that. There is also a band mode that allows you and 3 of your friends to play each instrument simultaneously giving the authentic feel of being an actual band. During the course of the game there are 49 main set list songs that vary from Lynard Skynard's Tuesdays Gone to Slayer's War Ensemble. However, unlike World Tour, GH:M has less diversity in its stylings as it is primarily focused on the band Metallica and the bands that either inspired Metallica or were inspired by Metallica. It is very similar to the idea of GH:Aerosmith, but with a harder rock library.
Song Selections
The quality of the songs are top notch; each of them is a master recording and save for a few, I have not found any to be boring or annoying to listen to. I realize that is a personal opinion and to each their own, so I will not say which ones I did not like, but let me say that overall, the song choices are excellent on many levels. There are songs that are just great to listen to, songs that are a lot of fun to play, and songs with enough challenge to keep the avid GH player interested.
The difficulty is a bit higher in GH:M than it has been for the last couple of entries (Aerosmith and World tour). It ramped up the difficulty by including songs with fast strum sections and wicked solos that will keep you on your toes the whole time you play. I would say it is actually more challenging than even GH3. However, many would like to point out that it does not have anything to compare to the song Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce. I have yet to play every song in GH:M but I can almost guarantee that this is true, so if you were looking for epic speed metal of that caliber you may be a bit disappointed. But other than that, the difficulty of the game is easily on par with GH3 if not higher.
Visuals
Ok, so the focus of GH is not to push anything too far graphically. GH:M does nothing that is extraordinary. But that is alright, since the point to the game really is not the visual, but the player involvement. It does have decent character designs and the members of Metallica look relatively life like (especially in high definition). The character creator is very similar to World Tour's and offers a deep level of customization for your character so that if you want to put the time into it you will guarantee that you can make something that is uniquely yours.
Online
Here is a large aspect of GH, and unfortunately where it falls just short of what it could be. I am an avid fan of GH and have been since the beginning. When GH3 came out I was very excited about online play and dove right into it as soon as I could. I have somewhere on the order of 2500 pro-face offs online for GH3 alone (with 2000+ of them wins). When World Tour was on its way and I found out about band play being online I became even more excited. Being able to play your career online as a band was a great idea.
Unfortunately the set up in World Tour for the online aspects changed from GH3 and went from a lobby system where you selected what type of player you were looking for and were given a list, to you select what you want to do and it randomly searches for the players. This takes away from the players control and can get a little bit aggravating when you get stuck with someone who wants to play on easy while you play on expert. GH:M does the same thing and I still have the same complaints. Recently today I was playing a PFO online with someone and it picked a player who was playing on easy. He chose the song Dyers Eve and for those of you who don't know its a very strum intensive song. The problem is while I held my own during a sight read (it was my first time seeing the song) he was able to beat me because of score handicaps that I will explain in a moment. This is one of my two major complaints with the online for GH:M.
If you play someone on a PFO, and you are playing expert, your opponent should also play expert. Activision/Red Octane disagree and think that even at expert you should play someone who is playing easy. And to only make it fair the player who is on easy should get many more points per note to keep it equal in scoring. I completely disagree with this concept, and find that it detracts from me and others to trying to play PFO with random players.
My second complaint with the online for GH:M is they took away online band career. To actually do the career mode you must play with someone in the same room with you. That is all well and good if you know someone nearby who can play at your home or vice versa, but in my position it is very difficult as the closest person I know who plays any GH is about 100 miles away. There is still quickplay for online bands, which is great, but not the same (especially when you are trying to get trophies).
Overall
Other than the online issues, the only other complaint I have with GH:M is when you play career mode for guitar (and I am assuming any other instrument as well) after you have beaten a song there is no where to directly see what your high score is on the song. If you are online when you play it you can always check on either the GH Community site or the leaderboards via the game. But to see it when you are in career mode is impossible. Instead it only shows you how many stars you have obtained for the song. Granted if you play a song in quickplay it will show you your score then, but honestly this seems so simple of an idea to have misplaced.
Beyond those problems GH:M is a great game. It has a few flaws that hopefully will be corrected in future titles but as it stands this game is easily one of the best in the series. Between its epic set list, and its challenge, I look forward to playing it for some time. On top of all of this it finally has a trophy system which was sorely missed by many fans in World Tour. If you are a Guitar Hero fan or a fan of Metallica, do yourself a favor and at least rent the game. It is worth it.
I rate the game an 8 out of 10