Caltrops - Guitar Hero - Guitar Hero III

Forum Overview :: Guitar Hero

by bink 10/26/2007, 4:25am PDT

I got the PS2 version via nefarious sources, and I have to say it's a vast improvement over Guitar Hero II. The primary reason for this is co-op career mode. If you're not so much of a loser that you have no friends, the fun of the game is effectively doubled, and there are just as many songs for co-op career mode as there are for career mode. Many of them are even unique. I don't know how they fit that all on one DVD, but they did!

I was expecting it to suck given the controversy over the change in developers and all, but aside from a minor change in the look of the fretboard and different looks for each of the characters, the game is pretty much the same. The only effective difference is the timing required for hitting notes is a lot more lenient than it used to be, which is just fine by me. That and the 360 and PS3 versions allow you to play two characters that aren't available on the PS2 version: The Grim Ripper (from the first two) and the God of Rock (Zeus-looking dude). Another thing: the song selection is awesome (MMM YEAH).

The boss battles on the other hand pretty much suck just as bad as everyone suspected they would. I had to play the first one at least 15 times before I figured out the only real way to beat it is to save up your "attacks" and unleash them one after the other, hoping like hell that the computer AI decides to miss enough notes to go below the redline. For some reason, the attacks that change the fretboard have no effect until a little while after you activate them, so you have to learn when a long sequence of fast notes is coming up and release the attack a little bit early, so the computer AI has a chance to fuck up a lot.

Verdict: positive!