Guitar Hero: Metallica is the latest game in the Guitar Hero series; released March 29th, 2009 in North America.
Gameplay[ | ]
Guitar Hero: Metallica, like other games in the Guitar Hero series, allows players to simulate the playing of rock music using special instrument controllers. The game is based on the band approach presented in Guitar Hero World Tour, and features parts of lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. To successfully complete songs and score, players must use the instruments to play notes that scroll on-screen in time with the music. For lead and bass guitar players, this is done by holding down colored fret buttons on the guitar neck while striking a strum bar; for the drum players, this requires the player to strike the appropriate drum pad or kick with the bass drum pedal; for vocals, the player must attempt to match the pitch of the notes through a microphone. Players earn scoring multipliers for playing several consecutive notes or phrases correctly, and by correctly completing marked phrases, players can earn Star Power which can be released for a higher scoring multiplier. If players miss too many notes, they will eventually fail the song and will have to retry it.
Lead developer Alan Flores has stated that the difficulty of the game is much harder than previous games and is designed to challenge the hard-core player.[5] To meet the "ferocity" of Metallica's songs, the game features, in addition to the same five difficulty levels in World Tour, an "Expert+" mode for drummers that allows them to add a second bass drum pedal, though results of this mode are not tracked through online modes.[6] Additional drum pedals and a splitter, to allow two pedals to be used, were made available upon the game's release and as part of pre-ordering bonuses.[7] While the game allows two guitar players to play lead and bass guitar, it does not give the players the option to play lead and rhythm guitar, which does not allow for notable "Hetfield/Hammett riff-trading" on certain songs.[3] Lead designer Alan Flores explained that the decision not to track the lead and rhythm (in addition to the single player guitar, bass, drums, and vocals) "was simply a workload issue."[8]
Similar to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Metallica presents songs from Metallica's history roughly in chronological order, but it focuses more on the group today than the band's history.[6] The songs in the game are presented in a linear series of sets as with older Guitar Hero games such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, instead of the gig progression used in World Tour. However, instead of being required to finish a certain number of songs in each set, the player has to earn a total number of stars (earned from their performance on the individual songs) in a given set to progress to next one.[9] The game's story is based on a band that wants to follow in Metallica's footsteps, and the group accepting them as leading acts for them on a tour; as such, they are better able to order the songs in difficulty comparable to other Guitar Hero games, as Metallica's earlier works frustrate the player enough to "throw the controller against the wall and stop playing".[5] Flores described the difficulty for most of the game to be comparable to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and World Tour after the complaints of the difficulty level in Guitar Hero III, but further noted that the most difficult songs in the games will be very challenging. Real-life venues are used for the game, including The Stone nightclub in San Francisco, the Hammersmith Odeon in London, Tushino Airfield in Moscow, and The Forum in Los Angeles, and one final venue representing the pinnacle of Metallica's success. The game was completed before Metallica's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and thus does not include reference to this event. The game's interface remain similar to World Tour with some Metallica-based artwork added to it. Two changes have been made from World Tour; individual performance and Star Power meters are now located next to each track on screen instead of grouped together to make it easier to keep track of one's own performance, and when the band's performance is failing, the edges of the screen glow red to indicate this.[12]
The music creation mode from World Tour is available, giving the player the option of using tones from Hetfields' ESP Truckster guitar and Slayer's Tom Araya's ESP Bass in addition to Metallica drum sounds. The "GHTunes" services, which allows players to share songs created in the music creation mode, is cross-compatible with both World Tour and Metallica. In the new "Drum Over" mode for this game, players can select any song, and play drums without any fixed drum track or without any failure, allowing them to create their own drum line using the song's existing drum kit sounds.
The Battle mode of the game, based on that from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, has been slightly altered to add Metallica influences; for example, a power-up named "Fade to Black" completely blackens the note tracks for the opposing player, "Trapped Under Ice", which freezes the whammy bar, and an electrical attack called "Ride the Lightning" (based on the "Amp Overload" attack from Guitar Hero III) is added.
Song List[ | ]
The game features 49 songs, 28 by Metallica and 21 by other bands.
| 2008 | "Ace of Spades" | Motörhead | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 1994 | "Albatross" | Corrosion of Conformity | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | No |
| 2008 | "All Nightmare Long" | Metallica | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | No |
| 1982 | "Am I Evil?" | Diamond Head | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 1980 | "Armed and Ready" | Michael Schenker Group | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | No |
| 1986 | "Battery" | Metallica | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 2007 | "Beautiful Mourning" | Machine Head | 7. Donington Park | Yes |
| 2008 | "The Black River" | The Sword | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 2004 | "Blood and Thunder" | Mastodon | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 1976 | "The Boys Are Back in Town" | Thin Lizzy | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | Yes |
| 2008 | "Broken, Beat & Scarred" | Metallica | 9. The Stone Nightclub | No |
| 1984 | "Creeping Death" | Metallica | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 2008 | "Cyanide" | Metallica | 9. The Stone Nightclub | No |
| 1994 | "Demon Cleaner" | Kyuss | 2. Tushino Air Field | Yes |
| 1986 | "Disposable Heroes" | Metallica | 7. Donington Park | Yes |
| 1988 | "Dyers Eve" | Metallica | 7. Donington Park | Yes |
| 1991 | "Enter Sandman" | Metallica | 3. Metallica at Tushino | Yes |
| 2008 | "Evil" | Mercyful Fate | 7. Donington Park | Yes |
| 1984 | "Fade to Black" | Metallica | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | Yes |
| 1984 | "Fight Fire With Fire" | Metallica | 7. Donington Park | Yes |
| 1984 | "For Whom the Bell Tolls" | Metallica | 1. The Forum | Yes |
| 2003 | "Frantic" | Metallica | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 1997 | "Fuel" | Metallica | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 1978 | "Hell Bent for Leather" | Judas Priest | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | No |
| 1983 | "Hit the Lights" | Metallica | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 1996 | "King Nothing" | Metallica | 3. Metallica at Tushino | Yes |
| 1986 | "Master of Puppets" | Metallica | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 1997 | "The Memory Remains" | Metallica | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | Yes |
| 1998 | "Mercyful Fate" | Metallica | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 1998 | "Mommy's Little Monster" (Live) | Social Distortion | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 1986 | "Mother of Mercy" | Samhain | 2. Tushino Air Field | Yes |
| 2008 | "My Apocalypse" | Metallica | 9. The Stone Nightclub | No |
| 1994 | "No Excuses" | Alice in Chains | 2. Tushino Air Field | No |
| 1999 | "No Leaf Clover" | Metallica | 3. Metallica at Tushino | Yes |
| 1991 | "Nothing Else Matters" | Metallica | 3. Metallica at Tushino | Yes |
| 1988 | "One" | Metallica | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | Yes |
| 1986 | "Orion" | Metallica | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | Yes |
| 1991 | "Sad but True" | Metallica | 3. Metallica at Tushino | Yes |
| 1983 | "Seek & Destroy" | Metallica | 6. The Meadowlands | Yes |
| 1988 | "The Shortest Straw" | Metallica | 7. Donington Park | Yes |
| 1999 | "Stacked Actors" | Foo Fighters | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | No |
| 1974 | "Stone Cold Crazy" | Queen | 6. The Meadowlands | No |
| 1986 | "The Thing That Should Not Be" | Metallica | 8. The Ice Cave | Yes |
| 2001 | "Toxicity" | System of a Down | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | No |
| 1973 | "Tuesday's Gone" | Lynyrd Skynyrd | 2. Tushino Air Field | Yes |
| 1976 | "Turn the Page" (Live) | Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band | 2. Tushino Air Field | Yes |
| 1991 | "The Unforgiven" | Metallica | 1. The Forum | Yes |
| 1990 | "War Ensemble" | Slayer | 7. Donington Park | No |
| 1990 | "War Inside My Head" | Suicidal Tendencies | 5. Damaged Justice Tour | No |
| 1986 | "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" | Metallica | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | Yes |
| 1991 | "Wherever I May Roam" | Metallica | 4. Hammersmith Apollo | Yes |
| 1983 | "Whiplash" | Metallica | 7. Donington Park | Yes |