Love them or hate them, there's no denying the size and influence of Metallica. They're arguably the biggest metal band on the planet and have rocked that stage most of their careers. It was a bit of a no-brainer - after releasing their entire last album as a DLC track pack - they'd wind up with their own game in some form.

That form just happens to be their own Guitar Hero package, and while it could seem like an insane cash-in/collaboration between two evil corporations (c'mon, Metallica are essentially a corporation), the end result is, so far, looking pretty damn sweet for Guitar Hero aficionados.

I say "aficionados" because, while you can most certainly only pick this up for being a Metallica fan having never played a Guitar Hero game before, Guitar Hero Metallica is actually the challenging, music appreciating package you've always wanted. And it packs an incredible challenge punch for the hardcore players out there.



Activision recently sent across a preview build of the game with almost every track in the game unlocked for us. I could have pretended I'm a shredder from way back and did that myself, but the truth is I'm glad it was all already unlocked, because even my actual GH-shredding housemate, Chad, could barely finish half the songs on Hard (and he plays other GH games on Expert). A lot of this has to do, clearly, with the songs being of the heavy persuasion so there's a fair amount of technical playing going, which of course needs to be matched in-game, but it really feels like Neversoft and Metallica thought this one through.

On top of adding more challenge (and an extra challenging mode, to boot), the actual manifest of Metallica songs does not even come close to sucking as hard as I thought it would. There's barely any St Anger or the new one. In fact there are insanely awesome thrash tracks from the 80s where Metallica carved out their name as one of the all-time great thrash-metal bands, and so fans will definitely eat it up.

You can, of course, play as the whole band, and having to sing songs in a more aggressive, gruff voice adds something to the showmanship potential of the game for those all-important Guitar Hero/red cordial parties. Drumming too, comes with a level of challenge World Tour barely scratched upon. And to top it all off, you're not just ripping it up with the Big M's tracks, either - there're a host of rad songs from some of the best bands to set foot in the heavy music circle such as Mastadon, Judas Priest, Slayer, Machine Head, Suicidal Tendencies, Social Distortion, Queen and heaps more.



But it's not just the core gameplay element of this package that stands out. Long-time Metallica fans will look past the modern virtual recreations of the band as it is today, and see the Puss Head artworks that so emblazoned their thrash-metal mark back in the day, the various instruments the band has utilised throughout their career and their ultimate actions, stage movements and general demeanour. It's the sort of thing fans would crave and eat up - the closest thing to being that some kind of monster you've always wanted to be.

The usual Guitar Hero presentation is intact, and the visuals are pretty close to World Tour with a slightly more realistic emphasis (likely at the band's bequest to not be represented as cartoonish characters - which is slightly ironic). There's also a pretty neat film-grain that reminds me a little more of Rock Band's presentation than Guitar Hero, but I doubt this was deliberate - more likely an attempt to match the gritty nature of the tunes found within.

There is one gripe that does follow the impending (slow) release of this game on Aussie shores, and that's the idea that, despite this game being cool and featuring some awesome Metallica stuff from their long history, we really need a GH that covers the whole genre - not just a single band within it. Adding the other "hand-picked" influences from throughout their career just reaffirms this point. Activision would make an absolute killing if they released Guitar Hero Metal, Guitar Hero Punk or Guitar Hero Emo.

Guitar Hero Metallica is due for release in Australia May 27, and we've been ripping it up pretty hard, so stay tuned for our full in-depth review closer to that date. Meanwhile, head over to our game page for all related media and info.