The Boys are Back in Town, but are you Armed and Ready? The famous Guitar Hero franchise is back with its second band-dedicated game, Guitar Hero: Metallica. Containing 49 songs, of which 28 are Metallica, and the remaining hand-picked by the band, including tracks from Slayer, Machine Head, Queen and many more. Those who have downloaded Metallica’s Death Magnetic album already will also be able to use it in this game. Die-hard fans of Metallica will be pleased to know that all songs are master tracks recorded by Metallica.
Fans of the Guitar Hero series, including myself, will know some of what to expect. There are, like in the previous title, World Tour, four instruments that can be played using different peripherals. Guitar and Bass modes can be played using any of the Guitar Hero guitars, or for those new to the series, there is a bundle that retails featuring the game and an exclusive Metallica version of the Guitar. The distinction between Guitar and Bass is not large, and those adept at playing Guitar will find Bass quite easy to pick up.
However, the challenge of Bass, as in the previous title, lies in the open notes, which require the player to strum without holding any notes. Although it may sound simple, the fretwork becomes very complex when mixed with patterns of held notes, especially in Metallica's Own Fight Fire with Fire. The Guitar also has a unique feature, making use of the Guitar Hero World Tour & Metallica guitars touch-sensitive strip, which allows players to slide their finger along to hit notes in specially marked purple section. Accomplished players will truly be challenged trying to earn the achievements for this game, two of which involve scoring 330,000 on Enter Sandman and 575,000 on Creeping Death - no easy feat.
Although both Guitar and Bass have remained the same since the previous title, albeit the addition of new songs, drummers will be very pleased to know that Guitar Hero Metallica supports double bass pedal for the World Tour kit! With the utilisation of a 3.5 millimetre headphone splitter, easily available from any electronics store, players can use two foot pedals. This goes hand in hand with the new mode on the game, called Expert +. This difficulty takes the normal Expert tracks, but adds the double bass pedal note chart. This is extremely challenging, even for the most skilled of drummers, but no doubt very fun. Tracks such as Machine Head's Beautiful Mourning and Slayer's War Ensemble will truly test every player’s stamina with gruelling note charts and fast double bass pedal.
Don't fancy using any of your limbs? No problems. Guitar Hero Metallica also features the vocals career. Most would assume that singing in a video game would just involve correct lyrics. They, however, are proven wrong, especially with tracks such as Queen's Stone Cold Crazy - good luck trying to pull a Freddie Mercury Junior! You can try though, using the Guitar Hero microphone, or, if you still think holding a microphone is too much work, you can use a wired headset, just by plugging it into your controller!
Each instrument features its own career, with respective achievements upon completion of them, titled with the names of Metallica members. Guitar Hero Metallica picks up a different format to previous titles, and unlocks songs depending on your ratings of previously played songs. The system works on your stars, a minimum of 3 for completing a performance with a low score to 5 for an excellent performance. After you earn 10 – 15 stars, a new location will unlock, and fans of Metallica will notice these are memorable locations to the band, such as Donington Park and Hammersmith Apollo. To complete the game, a player must gain 72 stars, and complete the final song.
This system allows players to play select songs, and come back to others they may have wanted to skip, but those who persevere with a higher total star count will unlock new costumes, including zombie versions of the Metallica band members! The game also gets personal into the history of Metallica, with completion of a song unlocking certain facts about the song, called Metallifacts.
Overall, the game is an excellent addition to the series, with no flaws besides a lack of online players at peak Australian times. Fans craving for Rock and Metal, as well as impressive note charts and new unique note highways should not look past Guitar Hero: Metallica.
