Third Guitar Hero with a high quality hard rock and metal setlist. Introduction of online mode and aggressive song selection mark a mature and demanding entry. Slightly less balanced than Guitar Hero II but an intense and memorable rock experience.
Your verdict
Category
Rhythm4 players12+
Description
Released in 2007, the first Neversoft entry (after Activision acquired the franchise). Seventy-three mostly master tracks, a Battle versus-boss mode and an expanded Career progression. The first Guitar Hero to truly hit the mainstream and a massive commercial success.
Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
The art direction brings real legends onto the stage. True to its subtitle, this entry incorporates real guitarists as game characters, modeled and playable or set up as the career's ultimate opponents. Meeting these recognizable icons, strapped in their stage look, places the player as a worthy heir shoulder to shoulder with his idols.
An anthem to the guitar gods, the game rolls out a deluge of rock and metal classics to strum on the famous plastic guitar. From legendary riffs to frenzied solos, every track galvanises the urge to play louder, faster. This infectious electric energy turned shredding into a living-room phenomenon.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
This entry toughens the tone with frenzied solos, guitar battles against rock legends and an online mode that opens up rivalry. Landing a perfect combo on a dizzying track delivers an all the more intense thrill. More spectacular and more demanding, carried by a blazing setlist, a rhythm game that pushes the rock fantasy to its peak.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Chaining the colored notes tumbling down the neck while strumming right on the beat delivers the exhilarating illusion of holding a real solo, and the urge to replay a song to master it never fades. Stars, score and new titles keep refreshing the setlist. The repetition of the patterns and the plastic guitar show their limits, but this onstage thrill stays furiously infectious.
A milestone of the plastic-guitar music game, which turned the living room into a rock stage and launched a global cultural phenomenon around mastering songs on the instrument controller. Still very widespread in the West, its interest lies in this pioneer status of a genre turned commonplace rather than scarcity. A prime piece for music-game fans of the PS2 era.
Better with friends
A virtual concert that cranks up the challenge, with its famous guitar battles where you sling note assaults to break your opponent. The competition becomes a musical tug-of-war, tense and heady, punctuated by bosses to topple with frenzied solos. The difficulty climbs seriously and the dedicated instruments become a must, but the intensity of the face-offs makes every win a shared moment of glory.
