April 11, 2009

  • "Guitar Hero : Metallica" has recently been available, and I'm happy to say that as a Metallica fan and a fan of these plastic musical instrument video games, the game is great. The game succeeds in the one thing I could only really ask for, a chance to play tons of Metallica songs without having to learn how to play the real thing (although that would be nice). There are 28 songs by Metallica in this game, plus 21 songs from other bands like Judas Priest, Foo Fighters, Slayer, Queen, and many more. Just the chance to play favorite songs of mine like "Seek & Destroy," "Master Of Puppets," to "Nothing Else Matters," is something that I've been waiting for, ever since I picked up one of these music games. In addition, the game also supports the Death Magnetic downloadable content which adds 9 more Metallica songs to the total, not to mention that the game also supports the Guitar Hero Tunes feature that supports downloading songs made by other gamers. The band members themselves (sans Burton or Newsted though) and the famous venues they played in (as well as their headquarter) are greatly recreated for the game. There are also music videos, song lyrics, and "metalli-Facts" to add to the overall package.

    This game's other target audience besides Metallica fans are of course the Rock Band / Guitar Hero fans out there. Those fans may not necessarily want to play a game that's primarily based on Metallica, but on a technical level, they may at least want to play the note charts for the songs in it. The game supports all the instruments from both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, which helps save on the costs of needing to buy more plastic toy guitars or drums. For Guitar fans, the charting feels really nice, and just might be the best work done by Neversoft, ever since they took over the GH franchise when Harmonix left it to work on Rock Band. The drums now also include an "expert +" mode, which uses two double bass pedals to further make it feel like you are actually playing the song like a real drum kit. Bass is great, and finally allows us to really appreciate the bass work done by Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted, and Rob Trujillo. Vocals are what they are, karaoke.

    Like many games out there, Guitar Hero : Metallica is not without it's flaws. While the overall visual presentation is nice, there are slight quirks that detract things a bit, like the lack of variety in the audience, the seemingly weak premise of a "story," the half hearted reason to creating your own band, to the choice for the last song of the game. Some will also argue that GH:M is best played as a single player game, as the "full band" experience is not as well tuned as one would find with Rock Band.

    Overall though, if you are a Metallica fan, you will want to play this game. It may not be as easy justifying this game to non-Metallica fans, but playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero will definitely sway them to at least check it out.