GH3: Becoming A Rock Legend
by Nick West

Guitar Hero 3 is truly a battle for your soul. The game’s career mode centers around you being the guitarist for a band that has a meteoric rise to fame thanks to a manager named Lou, whose contracts require much more than a fifty percent cut.

Where GH3 makes itself worth your purchase though is in the multi-player functions. Jamming, or clicking, your way through nearly any song in the game’s extensive set list is a compelling experience. Songs range from “3’s and 7’s” by Queens of the Stone Age to the perennial crowd pleaser that is The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black.”

Anyone who’s listened to alt-rock stations within the last year will find many bands that are still in the station’s regular rotation included in Guitar Hero. These acts include The Killers, AFI, Rise Against, Senses Fail, Weezer, and Muse.

A new feature to the Guitar Hero franchise is the shred-offs between the player and guitar legends Slash and Tom Morello. Each rock icon recorded a track for the game, in which, the player tries to keep up with the guitar master in a head-to-head battle to see who is truly a rock god. These battles shrug star power and use in its place weapons against the other rocker, including doubling the notes they have to play or raising their difficulty.

Speaking of difficulty, Guitar Hero 3 is much harder than Guitar Hero 2. Some estimate that 3’s Hard mode is equivalent to 2’s Expert mode, and includes a song that has thoroughly defeated everyone who I have seen attempt to best it. “Through the Fire and the Flames” by Dragonforce is quite possibly the most insanely difficult thing ever to be put in a music/rhythm game.

The song is nearly seven and a half minutes long and doesn’t ever let the player catch their breath. Despite this insurmountable song, seemingly included only to punish players who thought they were good, Guitar Hero 3 is the most overall satisfying music game I have ever played. The feeling the game arouses is one that is only topped by the first time I picked up a plastic guitar years ago and played through an entire song in the original Guitar Hero. Anyone seeking to have a fun time with friends that includes possibly looking like a fool should pick up this grade A title.