From the moment you create your band forward, it’s a steady diet of standard Guitar Hero fare. You play five songs of non-Metallica stuff with your user-created band and then five songs of Metallica tracks with the “real” Metallica rockers. Towards the final tiers (separated by venue), this breaks up a bit and there’s more Metallica and less non-Metallica, but once the stage is set don’t expect anything to change clear through to the end. Even the “story” of your fledgling band falls largely by the wayside, which may leave you wondering why you spent all the time and effort in creating it in the first place. Certainly, if you’re very happy with the existing Guitar Hero format, there’s nothing wrong with what you’ll find here, but if you are growing tired of it, don’t expect to walk away inspired.

As for the most important thing, the actual playing of the music, it’s fair to say that the note charting in this game seems to have taken a step up from past efforts. Gauging the note charting in a game like this is always going to be subjective, but far more than has been the case in the past, I actually found myself forgetting about where those colored dots are showing up on the screen and just playing the song. It’s a good feeling to have, even if it didn’t last consistently throughout the game. Really, it feels like the note charting is best when you’re playing actual Metallica music as opposed to the other licensed material.

It’s hard not to think that, as a band, Metallica got hands-on with their stuff during the development of the game. If so, kudos to them, as the effort seems to have paid off. The rest of it still feels like the people composing the note charts are game developers first and musicians second and that leads to some moments at the higher difficulties where it’s hard to figure out how what you’re doing with your instrument translates to the music that you’re hearing.

Additional features include a host of videos that includes making-of stuff and live performances from various tours. Once you successfully complete several of the songs you unlock the ability to listen to them in a sort of pop-up video mode that reveals information about the history of the band, song, etc. There’s even a photo gallery that includes tour notes. What is missing is the ability to play other Guitar Hero content that you’ve downloaded or purchased within the game (Metallica’s downloadable Death Magnetic album excepted).

Ultimately, if you like Metallica (a lot), and if you like the standard Guitar Hero gameplay formula, then this game is well worth the price of admission. If you don’t meet both those criteria, however, you really should move on. Even if you are a fan, however, it’s hard not to think that Activision and Neversoft are missing out on some opportunities with these band themed games to really play with this genre, experiment a little and truly revel in the notion of having a band exclusive game. Make no mistake, this is a high production value game and there’s a lot of attention to detail, but it’s also a very safe game and in a genre as well-established as this one has become that’s more than a little disappointing.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .

Comment on our forums!