PS3 Review – Guitar Hero: Metallica

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Metalheads rejoice, place your devil horns in the air, and get ready to mosh to Metallica.  Unlike Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, this isn’t a story of the band’s career from beginning until now. Instead, it’s something much more fan oriented and fits with the features that were added to the series with Guitar Hero: World Tour. However, are Activision pulling your strings, or does the game succeed in being some kind of (ROCK) monster?



The game opens straight away to you playing as the band. Once you’ve got enough stars to continue, the story truly begins with you walking away, inspired by Metallica. And from there, you go on to create a band which later becomes Metallica’s support band. It’s as simple as that. Now this is where the gameplay gets interesting, but also becomes a bit of a letdown.

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When playing Metallica songs you play as the actual band, Metallica. But when you play other bands’ songs i.e Foo Fighters, System of a Down, Motorhead and so on, you play as your custom band. But the fact that there is a switchoff between the two groups means it doesn’t feel like a genuine Metallica game. Tthe game looses its appeal until you’re playing as Metallica again. And once you do, it’ll bring a massive smile to your face.

It’s nice to see what other bands that the group likes, or what they were inspired by. But when you’re playing every last Metallica song ever, then nothing else matters (sorry, had to do that). If you purchased the DLC album: Death Magnetic, which can be used with Guitar Hero 3 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, then you can play that exact DLC content within Guitar Hero: Metallica. Obviously, this is only possible on PS3 and 360, not the PS2 or the Wii.

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Every instrument makes you feel like you’re playing as the band, especially the drums. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, World Tour’s band feature is included in the game. And to top things off, you can even use your existing Rock Band gear to play the game. Although for drums, we recommend you get the World Tour kit for an even better experience, which the game constantly reminds you to do at the beginning of every song.

For any massive Metallica fan, Metallica Hero is worth getting. However, the casual Guitar Hero audience may miss some of the features and trivia that only Metallica fans are going to catch onto. That said, it is a fun game that hits its high notes when the player is put in control of the band, and is a worthy purchase any who loves Guitar Hero.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score



Creation of a custom band seems unnecessary, and sort of drags the game down.

Support for Rock Band instruments is a plus, and even the band feature from World Tour makes a return.

No words can describe how awesome it is to take control of this legendary group.

7 out of 10

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