Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero II set the bar for rhythm games really high with its great track selection and extremely addictive gameplay, and it made us fall in love with the idea of performing in front of a packed audience. Although I’d hoped for a lot from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, I doubted that it could surpass – or even match up to – its predecessor.

After spending countless hours with the game, my fingers are sore and I can barely type this review. The good news is that though this game’s developed by Neversoft (unlike the older games that were developed by Harmonix), it stays true to the series and is just as addictive as its predecessor. The visuals are sharper, the controls are tighter, and there seem to be definite improvements... but are these tweaks enough to one-up the older games?

At its core not much has changed – keys shows up on screen, you play them, the crowd either goes wild or boos you off the stage. The timing required to play notes seems to have become a lot less forgiving though, and the speed at which the notes get thrown at you has increased significantly, scaling up the overall difficulty. This is a good thing for those who spent ages with the older Guitar Hero games, mastered them, and are looking forward to the next challenge. But if you’re new to the franchise, or have slacked off in the meantime, it can all be a bit unsettling.