GUITAR HERO: METALLICA review

Guitar Hero: Metallica is the latest Guitar Hero game from Activision featuring the famous band. It was released a few weeks ago for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. It isn't sold with instruments since all/most instruments from previous games are compatible depending of the platform. On Xbox 360 any guitar/drum/mic from Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero 3, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band, and Rock Band 2 are compatible. I tested the game on Xbox 360 but from what I read the same can be said for the PlayStation 3 version (except for the guitar from Guitar Hero 2 since the game was never released for PS3) but not all instruments released for Wii are compatible.

Story
The story of this game is pretty simple. You are a young band playing the first part of Metallica concerts. Another band ("hair metal", quite funny) is trying to steal your place but you stand your ground.

Gameplay
If you have played to previous Guitar Hero/Rock Band games you know what to expect. This game is based on Guitar Hero: World Tour so it has the same gameplay features. The major difference from previous games is that this time the music really rocks. While many songs from previous games are good, you are often stuck with Bon Jovi and other crappy groups (no offense to Bon Jovi fans... but I doubt school girls will read this blog anyway ;p).

Most of the popular Metallica songs are available (Master of Puppets, Enter Sandman, One, Battery, Fade to Black, Orion, The Unforgiven, Seek and Destroy...). I still think that some important songs are missing though such as ...And Justice For All, Ride The Lightning (ironic since this was the subtitle used for the game), Call of Ktulu, Blackened, and Four Horsemen. Some of these were available as downloadable content for Rock Band so maybe there was some sort of exclusivity :(. If you bought the Death Magnetic album downloadable content from Xbox Live you'll happy to see that it can be used in Guitar Hero: Metallica (as well as Guitar Hero 3 and Guitar Hero: World Tour). On top of the Metallica songs, the game also includes songs from other artists that are somehow related to Metallica. Unfortunately in my opinion most of them are not as good as Metallica so I think more songs from Metallica should have been available instead.

A new difficulty level was added for the drum (not available for every song, only when justified). This mode is called Expert+ and pretty much requires a second drum pedal to match the drumming style of Metallica's Lars Ulrich. This mode is simply crazy! The game also contains live performance videos and facts about the songs. When the song is not from Metallica you can understand how it is related to Metallica by reading the facts.

Sounds and graphics
As you would expect, audio quality is important in a music game and the quality is really good. The graphics are the same as Guitar Hero: World Tour. They are great and the Metallica characters look quite good. Motion capture was used with the band members to recreate the on-stage experience. The character models are nice since they look like the real Metallica members with a bit of a cartoony look to match the other Guitar Hero characters. Don't expect to see previous members of the band in the game, only the current members are available. On the other hand 3 models can be used for each member: current, classic and zombie.

Multiplayer
The game supports many multiplayer modes (the same as Guitar Hero: World Tour). You can play 1 vs 1 (battle, face off, pro face off), 2 vs 2, coop (2 guitar/bass or whole band), band vs band (this mode is really fun)... Of course you can play these different modes with friends in front of the same screen or over Xbox Live.

Conclusion
If you like Guitar Hero/Rock Band games and you are a Metallica fan this game is a must have. Guitar Hero seems to be taking over Rock Band (across all platforms, US sales for 2008 stand at 3.4 million for Guitar Hero: World Tour and 1.7 million for Rock Band 2) and I am not sure how Rock Band can make a comeback. I don't believe they are heading in the right direction with Lego Rock Band. Personally I would take a Metallica music game over a Lego music game any day. Don't get me wrong I think the Lego Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Batman games are fun games but a music game featuring Lego characters? Shouldn't they be concerned about the music?

Score: 8.5/10