Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the third installment in the widely popular Guitar Hero series.  For those who don't know, Guitar Hero is a rhythm game using guitar shaped controller.  For this third entry, Harmonix gave up developing duties to Neversoft so they could create the new Rock Band series. Read on to see my review of the game. 

Note: This review is based on playing the Xbox 360 version of the game.

I picked up the game at my local GameStop store at their midnight release; they had a kiosk outside of the store so that we could play the demo of the game while we were waiting in line.  At first glance, the game seemed to be pretty much identical to its older counterparts.  I wasn't sure how the game would be now that Harmonix was not part of the team, but I still went into playing the game with very high hopes that it would be as good as the older entries.

Now, unlike the previous Guitar Hero games, the career mode of Legends of Rock actually has a semi-storyline.  You start out at the bottom as a garage band, and as you gain fame, you move to bigger venues.  To tie all of your accomplishments together, there are short animation sequences that sort of tell the story of the band, and where their next venue is.  Now don't expect something in-depth, they are short clips about 30 seconds to a minute long each.  But no one would buy Guitar Hero for the storyline; they buy it for the game play.  Because this game is a rhythm game there isn't even really point to have a storyline, and just for the fact that it includes one I have to give Neversoft credit.

The main part of Guitar Hero is the game play.  It is what makes the series so popular.  The game takes most of what was in Guitar Hero 1 and 2 and pretty much sticks to that formula, well, because it works.  You have your career mode, quick play, tutorial, practice, and co-op modes that were all in Guitar Hero II, but Legends of Rock adds some unique additions that should turn some heads.  This game adds in a co-op career mode where you can tackle an entire career with friend and not just one song.  For the most part is just like doing individual songs in co-op mode, but just a lot longer, but there are some songs that you can only unlock once you've finished the co-op career mode.  Another new feature is battle mode.  In this new mode, instead of using star power like in career mode, you have battle points.  If you successfully hit all of the notes in a battle points sequence, you gain that attack.  You turn the guitar right side up, and then you attack you opponent.  Sounds fun right? Well, in the career mode this can be extremely fun.  This is where you take on the "Legends of Rock" referred to in the games title, but when playing against a friend they can be very short and unfulfilling.  But overall, the game play is still the best the rhythm genre has to offer.

The Guitar Hero games have never been known for a very realistic graphical style.  It has more of an intense and cartoon-ish look.  But, that doesn't mean that they don't look great.  Characters look great, they have extreme features, but everything looks really smooth.  The environments are great too.  There is a very wide variety of venues that you play, and each one is more over the top than the last.  Not to give too much away, but when starting off playing in someone’s backyard, the final venue will blow you away.  Also, one more thing that is worth mentioning is the guitars.  Ones that are based on the real things do them justice, and the ones that are made up for the game will impress you just as much (because of how over the top they are).  These aren't going to be the best graphics out there, but for the type of game Guitar Hero is they fit perfectly.

One thing that is better than the gameplay is the sound, the game is based around music so it better be.  The songs this time around are a lot faster, with a lot more notes, which means a lot harder.  All the songs sound exactly the same as if you were listing to them on a computer, stereo, mp3 player, etc.  Although the guitar parts are highlighted more you still can hear the singer singing in the background.  This time around we get to enjoy the original singer instead of just the track sung by someone that sounds like them.  That is one nice touch that gives Legends of Rock that extra push to make it one of the better games in the series.

Because of the new co-op career mode and battle mode, you are able to get a lot more out of a multiplayer experience than you would with previous games.  Also with the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 versions you can go online and play against other around the world.  Although with the Xbox 360 version you will have to have an Xbox Live Gold account. But one advantage of having the Xbox 360 version is there are already two song packs out for the game out on Xbox Live.  There are more planned and that will expand the life of the game until Guitar Hero 4 comes out.

To me, this is the best version of Guitar Hero yet.  Neversoft takes everything that Harmonix did with the previous two installments and includes them and take the game even farther by adding more game play styles in.  This is a game will keep you plenty satisfied until the highly anticipated Rock Band is released, and even then you will still find yourself popping in the Legends of Rock disk to play 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' one more time.  This game is a must have for any Guitar Hero fan, but for those who are new the series I'd start with either Guitar Hero or Guitar Hero II.

Storyline: 6/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Multiplayer: 9/10
Lifespan: 10/10

Overall Score: 8.8/10