Guitar Hero: Metallica | Xbox 360 | Rythm-Music | March 29th, 2009

With the release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was only a matter of time before another band-specific Guitar Hero would hit the shelves again. One could say that you might be surprised that it was Metallica of all bands. With Aerosmith you covered the infamous rock genre and with Metallica you’ll get the thrill of being a metal head. It came as a surprise considering the band themselves probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to being publicized on a medium such as video games, but with Activision and crew at the helm it probably took some convincing and a nice bonus to cover the bases. Thus, Guitar Hero: Metallica is born and we’ll see if it stacks up for the long run.

All the elements of Guitar Hero are here, if moving over a bit from World Tour. Most of the gameplay modes haven’t changed and you’ll still be able to play with create-a-song and 4-player band sessions. Completing songs in Career mode still takes top priority here although the system has changed. No longer will you have to clear venue after venue to unlock the entire library. Here all you simply have to do is earn is set number of stars to move on to the next venue which unlocks another set of songs. This of course allows for players to skip around and make there own path. This structure ends up giving the Career mode a more accessible feel that allows players to easily grasp the game. All of this includes bonuses such as unlockable videos, items for the store, cash and more. 

If you’re in the mood for multiplayer, the quickplay option is there and gratefully, the entire library of tracks is unlocked for you from the start, thus eliminating the need of career completion or cheat codes to jam. A new feature to the game called “Drum Over” allows you to play any sort of percussion set over any song making it as unique as you’d like. With bass and cymbal samples taken from each song you could easily perform at your own pace. For casual play it’s enjoyable and adds an extra plus for the games replayability for the drummer in you.

 

With 49 songs at the helm split between guest artists and Metallica themselves, Guitar Hero: Metallica is everything but low maintenance. The band brings back all of those thrash heavy tracks of the 80s to the hard rock metal of today. Classics like Master of Puppets, King Nothing and St. Anger all make an appearance. With a few surprises here and there, Guitar Hero: Metallica manages to cater to just about all groups of metal lovers. While the guest selection isn’t quite as unique as Aerosmith’s was it still has its high points. Artists like Thin Lizzy will get you going and remembering the lyrics to each of there songs. The consistency is what matters and with the game being about the metal head, you shouldn’t be too disappointed here. Guitar Hero: Metallica somehow manages to wrap everything together just right and runs away with it.

A few mishaps from the rather stingy online modes and DLC are just a small portion of minuses against the game. DLC doesn’t seem to be recognized by the game outside of the extra Metallica tracks from the band. Other than that, the online modes haven’t changed much from the previous formula and still have you fighting off your friend with the power of your instrument. Now with full band support, it’s an even bigger challenge to make sure those notes are matched against the other.

If you didn’t realize by now or haven’t heard by now, Metallica is about the metal and the art of thrashing. This ends up translating into some pretty hefty notes on the main screen. Screams of notes will fall from the sky upon you and will definitely show no mercy in your attempts to conquer the song. The guitar solos are worse and will only slow your advance through the career mode. However, you should know full in advance it’s a metal game and the difficulty level in general isn’t all that bad. It’s quite varied and is easily accessible through the games choices. To make things even more interesting there is an Expert Plus mode for drummers, which when tried will see you aching in wrist pain only a few hours later. So, this is where you’ll want to lower the difficulty a bit and the power chords won’t seem as stressful. Just be warned, that if you kick things up to the max, you’re in for quite a good run. With the addition of the extra bass pedal, I wouldn’t be surprised if ankles were reported being bruised or numb through game sessions.

 

It’s undeniable that Guitar Hero: Metallica finds itself as being one of the most difficult and challenging titles to date. However, it’s only a fraction of what World Tour was despite the fact that it costs just as much. So, in the long run you’ll end up measuring the titles worth over whether or not you’re a true metal head looking for a challenge, or someone looking for a good rental. Either way, despite the increase in difficulty, the game still provides an updated good time.

Using motion capture to fully incorporate the bands likeness was essential in giving Guitar Hero Metallica the look that it has today. It also helps that the band themselves was completely into the idea. For instance, in one backstage video the band is recording a master track of “Master of Puppets” and you can easily see the band recording the song as if they’re in a live concert. This is the kind of passion that makes the game that much more enjoyable if both the band and developers enjoy working with each other. The 2D artwork of the games story mode makes another return to keep the overall style of the game still relevant with past Guitar Hero titles. The venues look great and keep a consistency with each other.

Guitar Hero Metallica contains master recording for just about all of the tracks. Everything is business as usual here; pump up the volume for the full effect and to dig into your metal personality. With Metallica capturing their full likeness into the game you don’t have to worry about getting botched performances from the games motion captured characters. Each track has its own vibrant sound and offers the thrash heads something to cheer about. Dolby 5.1 surround sound is supported throughout the game so you can easily get blasted and bring out the metal head in you.

 

Guitar Hero: Metallica’s greatest strength is its accessibility. Metal is a hard genre to please fans of the game as well as fans of the genre itself. With Metallica, you don’t have to worry about getting fans of the band on board; it’s a matter of appreciating the gamers as well. Guitar Hero veterans might find it a bit challenging to conquer some of the games guitar solos as well as Lars Ulrich’s drumming skills. Guitar Hero: Metallica’s focused on star completion rather then venue completion changes things up during Career mode and gives players a chance to feel like they’re accomplishing something. The addition of Expert plus mode is a bit of a snicker to those that mastered the effects of Expert mode.

Other then that, Guitar Hero: Metallica gets a huge plus based on its motion capture likeness of the band. It looks like Activision is getting better at matching everything about a Metallica concert in its animated form. Metallica is a metal favorite and even the slightest deviation of the source material and you got a crisis on your hands.

 

Guitar Hero: Metallica in the long run is nothing more then a spin-off release during a time where Guitar Hero continues to print money. The effort is definitely here for the project as a whole and taking on the metal genre is definitely a step in a different direction. You could also make the argument that Activision could’ve easily just use Metallica’s tracks of the past as DLC, but then again why pay what will end up occurring over 60 bucks the paying the same price for a game with everything included? Seems like a rather easy decision for music lovers. In the end, it’s up to taste and whether or not you feel the need to explore your metal side and thrash your head out.