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Game Objectives:

For those who have been living under a rock these last couple years, Guitar Hero provides a fake plastic guitar with 5 "fret buttons" that you press down in time to the series of colored dots on the screen. If played correctly, the notes will sound for the guitar or bass parts (depending on which part you're playing) on the recorded song.
Guitar Hero III is the next installment, with a few new options, including online play and a Battle Mode, in which you can use Power Ups to attack your opponent with in attempts to make them fail the song. A few new characters have been added, and a couple taken away from the previous titles. There are 42 new songs and the usual 30 bonus tracks of titles from less well-known bands.
Just like before, you can play in Easy (three buttons only), Medium (four buttons), Hard (all five buttons), or Expert (all five buttons, but more complicated) mode for different levels of difficulty.

My review will be organized like this:
I'll make a general opinion on Expert (the long chunk);
Then I'll delve a little into the other difficulty levels;
The next section will be on Battle Mode, since that's the real change from the other releases (and my biggest complaint with the game in general).
Then I'll conclude my ramblings in the final section.

Expert Level

Guitar Hero (the original) was one heck of a challenge for me when I got to Hard and then Expert mode. Eventually I got to the point where I could beat any song without much of a challenge. Then Guitar Hero II came along, introducing three note chords, which brought on a whole new level of insanity, but it was a welcome challenge. Another major change was in the leniency with hammer-ons and pull-offs. It was darn near impossible in the first one, and part 2 would have been nearly impossible to beat in Expert if they didn't make this change. GH3 follows in the same timing feel with hammer-ons and pull-offs as in GH2. So, thank God for that!
My big complaint with Expert mode is that some songs were made wayyyy too difficult for their own good. I don't mind trying to beat a song with extremely quick three-note chord changes, or doing two-note switches up and down the fretboard in a nearly impossible-to-comprehend pace as long as the logic of that difficulty applies to the song itself. A lot of what I find interesting with this game is how well they made certain aspects of the music fit with the motions of playing the song on a real guitar. The Stevie Ray Vaughn trills and double-stops match consistently with the button order on this game. Or when you're playing a blues shuffle, you actually make chord changes that feel like you're playing the guitar.

This time, I felt that many of these songs were way too complicated. I don't think anything by the Sex Pistols should be a massive challenge in GH, and that Slipknot song was a pain in the fucking ass, when it really shouldn't have been. There were also too many instances in other songs where I barely made it through because of those crazy-ass rhythm setups ("3's and 7's" and "Number of the Beast" are great examples).

It's one thing to try to up the ante each time a new installment comes along, but there comes a time when players are no longer having fun.
I beat the first 32 songs without a failure. I also defeated the Tom Morello and Slash Battle Modes on the first try. Then came that stupid-ass Slipknot song. Previously, I had two songs that were three starred, and the rest were four or five stars. So when "Before I Forget" came up, it felt like I had reached a newer, Higher-Than-Expert level. I might have called it "Insane for Experts" Expert level. I went into Practice Mode to get the timing right for the first minute of the song. Then, 12 tries later, I finally got 94% completed... and then a new monkey wrench was thrown in at the last section to make it even HARDER to play!
The final two tiers bring about a new definition of challenging game play. There were a few more songs that took me up to 8 attempts before I beat them. I also found a new favorite song to play EVER with "Cliffs of Dover". That was A BLAST to play!

I will talk more about Battle Mode against Lou later on...

It's obvious that Expert was made to be a challenge to top other Expert level challenges. This is the first time I beat the game on the first day I played it - if you exclude the showdown with Lou. It's also the first time where I felt that I wasn't having as much fun doing it, because they went out of their way to make it harder than the songs themselves require.

Medium and Hard Levels

Most people will spend more time in Medium and Hard than they will with their attempts at going for Expert. This makes sense, because Expert becomes more of a job (ESPECIALLY in this game), so why work so hard when you want to have FUN, right?
Medium is just about as difficult to play as it would be for the other GH releases. Once again, the final two locations will bring about just a couple more challenges than what most Medium players will be used to. It's good, though, because it actually helps Medium players who are afraid to get into that elusive fifth button become more confident if they are playing with proper habits (USE THAT PINKY for the fourth fret!). If Medium players have been using only three fingers, then the final songs will be more work than it should be, but those with strong pinkies will be able to practice their hammer-on and pull-off skills more often than before. I got 8 gold starred (100%) songs, and I missed more than 4 notes for maybe 3 other songs. All were 5 starred first time through.

After playing GH3 in Hard, I noticed that all but three songs were 4 or 5 starred after my first attempt. I remember that in GH2, I had a bit of a challenge with a couple of the harder songs. So I seriously think that Hard mode in GH3 is easier than it should be. This is even more glaring of an issue when you consider the work that is required when you jump up to Expert. If you have experience in Hard, then this will probably be less work than you'd expect. Which sucks if your first foray into Expert is with GH3. If you want to "level up" in difficulty, I recommend attempting Expert for the first time with either of the first two games before trying it on this one.

Battle Mode

This "Boss Mode" thing is wayyyyyy lame. It's a quaint concept (guitar "Battle" against a recognizable opponent), but in reality it's bull-crap!
First of all, playing for the first time in Expert against the CPU - that NEVER MISSES A NOTE - is somewhat of a challenge when you're trying to get a difficult run for that PowerUp. I'm just going to talk about LOU here, because he's the one I had trouble with....

The song is a fun little ditty about meeting the Devil and competing on a diddle with the fiddle. ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia", Heavy-Metalized)
You're playing rhythm for the tune for a good minute before the solos kick in. Lou gets his solo FIRST. And of course he doesn't miss ONE NOTE. So next thing you know, you're doing a super-sophisticated legato run in expert mode LEFT HANDED, or DOUBLE NOTED. The amp overdrive is also lame (the notes flicker in and out of view), but at least you can SEE what's going on - sort of. Having to wank on the whammy bar for 3 seconds doesn't make it easy passing the song while 50 notes already flew by. Or having to press ONE BUTTON when you get a "broken string". So you have to pound down on the yellow fret while also trying to hit 20 notes per second.
The problem is, you're so busy getting beat down trying to not fail the song after you're trying to TWO-NOTE CHORD a super fast legato run that if you even MAKE IT PAST your part, you have NO FU-up (I call it an "FU-Up" instead of a PowerUp; because it's made to FUCK YOU UP) to give Lou when it comes his turn to solo.
So then Lou does his FU-Up free solo run, doesn't miss a note so you get FU-Up'd AGAIN when it's your turn. So once AGAIN you get no FU-Up to give back to Lou, because you're too busy frantically trying to keep that Rock Meter from bottoming out in the red! And so after about my third or fourth solo, I fail and Lou never even gets touched with a FU-Up.

What's worse is that you can't play the Boss Battle songs in practice mode. So, I actually haven't SEEN how my solos are supposed to be played yet, because every single time I play, I'm getting messed up by Lou's FU-Ups and have a totally different perspective on an unpracticed run.

Something here is very stupid, IMO.

Then I went to Medium and Hard mode, and this was not nearly the challenge that it was in Expert. I can see how it would be a lot of work for someone in Medium who hasn't done Hard to get a "Difficulty Up" FU-Up. They have to try to do their part in Hard mode for a few seconds (for Hard, they move to Expert). This is tough, but at least it can be DONE. Or Lefty Switch, when the notes are reversed for a left-hander. In Medium and Hard there are not NEARLY as many notes flying across the screen, so if you don't hit that many during those few seconds, the rock meter isn't going to deplete as quickly. And when you get a Double Note FU-Up, Medium mode is just a kinda-challenging chord frenzy for a few seconds, and in Hard it gets fairly difficult. Once again, I reiterate that in those levels you're hitting less notes within those seconds, so you still have a decent chance of recovery compared to Expert mode.

Here's how I beat Lou in Expert:

On Monday - after 2 hours of frustration on Sunday night failing repeatedly against him - I only attempted to beat him three times. Twice I failed on my second solo part because it was a Double Note FU-Up. The third time I failed with a Lefty Switch. I told myself, "OK, one more time and I'm quitting for the day."
This time, my first FU-Up attack was Amp Overload... so I was able to get a FU-Up. I halfheartedly threw my "Whammy Bar" FU-up to Lou just before he even started his solo run, and next thing I know it says "FINISH HIM"! I didn't even START the battle before I defeated him with a lame-ass Whammy wankering FU-Up.
Before I could blink or register what was happening, I beat it in Expert. Why? Just because of DUMB LUCK. NOT because of SKILL! Which is why Battle Mode pisses me the hell off!

Final Thoughts

I'm a huge fan of the Guitar Hero series. I spent more hours than I care to admit with the first and second titles. (Rocks the 80s was not so inspiring for me.) I was very impressed with the song list this time around, actually hating only two of the songs. That Slipknot song is the first I ever heard by them, and I totally hate it.

I got GH3 on Sunday, beat it the next day in Expert, beat Medium on Wednesday, and Hard mode on Friday. So there is replay value, mostly because I like these songs enough to hear them over and over again.
The players of the other two games know what they're getting into with Guitar Hero III and are sure to like it just about as much. It depends on one's opinion of the Boss Battles. I myself think it's a great idea, but only if you can skip past the first two if you really can't do it. Otherwise you won't be able to unlock the other songs in the game, and that would really suck. I forgot to see if you can skip them or not. Sorry!
If you can't beat Lou, then you just won't unlock Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames". So, you aren't missing out on all the other titles.

Oh, about "Through the Fire and Flames"... it is the hardest song yet because of the opening - in Expert. I actually beat it once after an hour of practicing the opening. I tried again yesterday, and I couldn't get past 2%. Don't know how I did it last time.

GRADE:  B+
Guitar Hero Grade:A
Guitar Hero II Grade: A

Reviewed 11/4/07