PS2: Guitar Hero Metallica Review

Guitar Hero is responsible for filling the cavernous void left by the death of what was once known as Music Television. It's an outlet for bands to get their material heard by potential fans across the globe. It's also an outlet for fans to play songs from legendary bands, like Metallica.

I cold spend a good portion of this review name dropping various Metallica tracks featured in this edition of Guitar Hero, like others have on gaming sites. But such a thing is beneath me. If you like Metallica, buy the game. Nothing I say in favor or against this game will sway your opinion about the band or their catalog.

What is this, the 34th or so Guitar Hero title thus far? Seems like a new one is released every 6 months. Nothing is drastically different in Guitar Hero: Metallica from Guitar Hero: World Tour. If you had fun with that game, odds are, you'll like this one as well.

Just like World Tour, you have the option of playing more than one instrument. So this means you won't have to throw your drum peripheral in the back of the closet because you have no use for it anymore. Unless you have a friend who doesn't make it a point to obliterate every good song they hear with loud screeching noises from their esophagus, you will need to hide the microphone.

Track selection is pretty good. You have songs from the early Metallica years, and some of their more recent material as well. Because the PS2 has no active online capabilities, there is no downloadable content available.

Graphics are what you might expect form a GH title. Lighting effects are neat, in game characters are cartoony and exaggerated(less so than usual) stage backgrounds with the crowd noises set up a great atmosphere to rock out to. It's a formula that has been used in this series before, and it works very well still.

Because of this, I can't get too excited about what this game has to offer. I've been down this road before. World Tour was great because it was in direct competition with Rock Band. This game is nothing more than a remix of Guitar Hero World Tour.

I notice that the learning curve has been lowered this time around. You don't need to play any of the songs that well in order to complete the game.

Nothing in Guitar Hero Metallica's feature set really wowed me. As a remix/add on, it's good. As a full fledged "new" game, it's somewhat disappointing. This game is for people who thought World Tour would have been a little better if it was branded with Metallica. Everybody else should wait for a true sequel.