The first Guitar Hero game without Harmonix's soul, and it shows. Guitar Hero III is certainly a competent game that tweaked the feedback and mechanics a bit, but doesn't really sport any visuals or style I found charming. It all felt either generic or forced, and I think slapping legendary guitarist Slash on the very front of the box kind of tells me they were more interested in gaining sales through recognition in the rock genre, rather than trying to sport its own rock aesthetic. They surgically removed Harmonix's soul, but forgot to replace it with another.

The soundtrack is overall fine, certainly sports some classics, I just don't really care for the game's refusal to evolve its core design, and the visuals are nothing if not garish to me. This rock god known as Guitar Hero would only roll further and further down that hill . . .