Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero III has been breaking sales records left and right, showing that even after three years, gamers still have the desire to rock. This year also marks the most platforms ever to host a Guitar Hero game, with the series making its debut on the PS3, Wii, and PC in addition to the PS2 and Xbox 360. GameZone was given the opportunity to check out what the PC version had to offer. For the most part, the game did a fine job of emulating the look and feel of the console version, with Aspyr offering tantamount features and packing in all of the songs and game modes that were found on consoles. However, there are a few limitations that work against the Guitar Hero formula to make it feel not as sharp as the console game, and even a little sloppy in comparison.

Guitar Hero III introduces some story elements to the career mode, told through cartoon cut scenes in between tiers. These show the rise of your band from dingy basement shows to world (and ethereal) fame. They don’t really add a whole new element to the game’s presentation, but don’t really take anything away from the game.

Guitar Hero III features a bevy of new tracks from a variety of different musical eras throughout the history of rock. While the first few tiers are predominantly ruled by classic rock tracks (with tracks from the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Heart, Foghat, Cream and so on), but the game gradually begins to crank out some newer tunes from artists like Muse and Queens of the Stone Age modernizing the rock.

The amount of master recordings featured in the game quite impressive. Whereas the masters were sprinkled around a little bit in Guitar Hero II, they seem to be all over the place in Guitar Hero III, making for a much more authentic experience. The game even managed to score some actual artist likenesses, with Bret Michaels, Tom Morello, and Slash making appearances (the latter two being unlockable characters that you can play as).

The gameplay mechanics in Guitar Hero III on the PC are fundamentally equal to the console game, but fall prey to some flaws. Although lag can be calibrated (both for video and audio lag, a problem found only on the PC), calibration doesn’t really cut the mustard when the notes are streaming down the screen. This can be very frustrating during intense solos (like in Cult of Personality or One for example), as slowdown and generally lagginess will become huge issues. Something just feels very off in Guitar Hero III on the PC, and unfortunately could shy away potential fans with only a PC that may be wondering what the big deal is.

The inclusion of the new Battle modes is an element wholly unique to Guitar Hero III. In Career mode, the Battles are original compositions written by Tom Morello and Slash for the game(as well as a Steve Ouimette rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia on behalf of “Lou”) where you’ll have to beat them at their own song, causing them to fail. You do so by employing Mario Kart-esque power-ups to fling challenges their way, like a mid-song lefty flip or causing all of their notes to double up.

The Battle mode is a great idea, but unfortunately falls prey to some problems. For starters, the power-ups that you gain aren’t terribly balanced and tend to randomize the gameplay a bit too much. While some power-ups are very easy to rebound from (the “Whammy” power-up only requires you to push the Whammy bar a bit until you restore your fretboard), others like the double notes will murder you. This is a huge problem during the final battle with “Lou,” since you’ll go through about half the song before he gets the first power-up, and if it’s a double note, you might as well restart right then. At this point, the game is no longer about skill, but becomes a luck situation where you just hope that “Lou” won’t get the double note.

Another issue with the Battle mode is that they’re a bit few and far between. It seems like this was an idea that the developers wanted to test, but were leery of going all out with. I say this since there are only the two other battles throughout the career, aside from “Lou.” For a game called “Legends of Rock,” it seems to be a little bit lacking in the star power.

The PC version doesn’t feature a wireless controller akin to the console versions, instead opting for a USB X-Plorer guitar similar to the one that shipped with Guitar Hero 2 on the Xbox 360. As a matter of fact, you can even use an Xbox 360 X-Plorer guitar to play it, if you happen to have one lying around. Of course, you will want to play the game with a guitar, since even though the game does support several different keyboard-and-mouse configurations, playing it that way is like trying to scuba dive in a kitchen sink; you lose the whole effect.

The PC version has all of the multiplayer features found in the console versions. There’s a full-on co-op career mode with a few new songs picked out with co-op in mind (like “Sabotage” by Beastie Boys and “Reptilia” by The Strokes), as well as the aforementioned Battle mode (unfortunately, you can’t do the boss battle songs with a friend), and face-off modes online and off.

Guitar Hero III on the PC is pretty much on par with the look of the next-gen versions, if you have a PC that can handle it. And trust me, if you want to be able to play the game on the PC, you’ll either want a high-end gaming rig or you’ll definitely want to scale down the graphical quality as low as it will go in order to keep the framerate dips and lag to a minimum.

Guitar Hero III on the PC packs an impressive amount of punch, with all of the great features, game modes, and songs as the great console versions. However, the basic gameplay elements are too laggy and the slowdown is too prevalent to make the game truly capable of standing with its console brethren.

Gameplay: 7.5
The PC version offers all of the great features and songs as the console versions, but the basic gameplay feels compromised on the PC due to laggy performance and slowdown.

Graphics: 8.0
As good as the next-gen console iterations, if you have a high-end computer that can handle it.

Sound: 9.5
A varied and diverse soundtrack spanning several decades of rock, Guitar Hero III has some great songs and some of the most technically complex that you’ll find in any entry to the series.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.5
Guitar Hero III introduces some great new features, but could’ve seen them through a bit more (like the career Battles). The PC version is a noble effort, but falls prey to technical shortcomings.

Multiplayer: 9.0
The co-op career is a fine addition, as are the two-player Battles. A majority of the multiplayer modes are now playable online.

Overall: 7.5
The PC version is a nice attempt that finally gives PC gamers the chance to experience one of the best game franchises to start up in the past few years. However, the laggy performance and slowdown makes the PC version pale in comparison to its console brethren.