Red Steel 2 offers the player a one of a kind FPS experience with its mixture of gun battles and sword fights. It now makes use of the Wii motion plus to ensure precise movements and actions. This works really well and not only does it react spot-on to the players motions, but it also manages to detect the power of the players strikes. The result? Cutting edge and exciting gameplay that will leave you a little bit sweaty when you’re done.

The visuals are unique and well put together. They carry a stylized water paint, drawing like appearance which blends in well with the atmosphere of the game.

So far, Red Steel 2 looks awesome. It’s got all the ingredients needed to please Wii owners, as well as FPS and action enthusiasts. We can’t wait to get hold of this one next year.

The game follows previous Guitar Hero gameplay elements as players must hit the right colour-coordinated notes and strum as they appear descending towards the player on a moving fret-board. You’ll play through 8 levels (made up of 8 venues) comprising of 42 songs, which range from the calm rock opera’s of the Rolling Stones to the harder intuitive riffs and styles of Disturbed, along with everything in between.

It’s slick and responsive allowing for large sets of notes and combos to be created. A multiplier score will drastically increase your overall points if enough notes are hit in succession. ‘Starpower’ is also gained when specific notes are all hit, allowing the player to tilt the guitar up, unleashing a flurry of electricity on the screen and grabbing some serious points along the way.

More intricate guitar techniques have also been included, such as being able to hammer-on and pull-off certain notes, as well as use the whammy-bar on the guitar controller to warp the sounds of sustained notes. All of these elements add a sense of authenticity to the whole experience, even though it is a video game, you do get a bit of variation in the way you want the song to sound.

Difficulty levels vary tremendously in Guitar Hero 3. While Easy only incorporates the first three notes on the guitar controller, medium to hard throws in some more complex chords, notes and speeds it up, and to top it off expert practically applies the actual songs chord progression to the guitar. Obviously not as dynamic as the real thing, but just as complex. The Easy difficulty will set you off in the right direction with Guitar Hero, but even with Hard and Experts ridiculous gradient, you’ll never find a moment of frustration as determination and pure fun will propel you to complete any song.

Multiplayer modes are also available in the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii versions, such as battle or face-off challenges, where you and a buddy can work in co-op to complete songs, or battle against one another, using power-ups such as breaking your opponent’s string for a few seconds, in order to see who the real rock king is. The battles add some great competitive action to Guitar Hero and the Co-op multiplayer is absolutely awesome with a friend.

Unlockables such as different guitars, characters and even bonus songs, such as Killswitch Engage’s My Curse can be bought using cash earned from Career mode. This adds a significant amount of longevity to the game as there is a whole wealth of songs to attempt and master besides the main Career tracks, not to mention the ever growing library of songs available for download from Xbox Live or the PSN store.

For a game that primarily focuses on music, the presentation and graphics are absolutely fantastic. The style and layout is colourful and vivid, while the band characters are modeled beautifully. While they are interesting, awesomely animated and funny caricatures of real life rockstars, their singing, guitar playing and drumming is all in-sync with the music showing GH3 has some high production values alongside the great gameplay and music.

Ok, so the actual game is rad, let’s talk about the guitar controller. Modeled and endorsed by Gibson, the controller is a replica of a Les Paul, containing 5 colour coded ‘note’ buttons, a strumming paddle and a whammy-bar. It’s excellently made and isn’t one of those flimsy peripherals, this is the real balls-to-the-wall guitar experience you’ve been dying for.

Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock once again pushes the benchmark for innovative and exciting music related gameplay which is stepping closer and closer to the real thing. It’s awesome to see Activision and Neversoft didn’t half-ass GH3 to be just another episode in the Guitar Hero series. It stands proudly on its own and incorporates new gameplay elements and techniques which music veterans or simple rock lover can’t help but to appreciate.

[starreviewmulti id=2 tpl=20]