When the internal politics surrounding Activision's 'Guitar Hero' franchise finally settled down, a new developer, Neversoft, found itself holding the reigns and facing the unenviable task of creating 'Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'.

Many an Activision board member were probably holding their breaths in anticipation to see what Neversoft did with it, so the pressure would have been immense.

Selecting what worked and tweaking what needed tweaking must have been an enormously difficult task. Trying to reinvent the series was probably considered to have been way too much of a risk.

So the brief would have been simple: get some new songs, create better-looking graphics if you can, try to get rid of the bugs, and please, pretty please, just don't stuff it up!

The result is quite predictable: 'Guitar Hero III' manages to keep the basics intact, without sinking the ship, but not really moving forward either.

This game rocks

There are certainly quite a lot of good things to be said about 'GH3'.

For one, the gameplay has been given some good, solid tweaking. New and improved features include a greatly improved multiplayer mode (on- and offline); boss battles; the ability to go into practice mode mid-song; a new wireless guitar (unfortunately we didn't get the opportunity to try this baby out); downloadable song packs, themes and pictures; skins for your guitar; and new concert venues, which literally goes all the way into hell.

If you found the gameplay in 'Guitar Hero II' to be addictive and fun, you won't have any reason to complain in 'GH3'. It's still very easy to pick up and begin playing, but on the more difficult settings you will fry your fingers trying to master it.

The tutorial of a game tends to miss it a lot of the time, but fortunately 'GH3' is easy for newcomers to get into. The tutorial explains the basics quickly without overloading your mental system with facts, allowing you to try the basic skills out immediately in the game. After you've become comfortable with them, you can then go back to the tutorial and learn the advanced moves.

Graphically-wise the game looks good, without blowing your mind. The sound is top-notch, with the songs coming through strong and clear — depending on your sound system of course. Playing the song on a serious sound setup rewards you with way better sound than one would find on a normal TV, increasing that sense of rocking out.

The online multiplayer experience is a pleasure to engage in. The net code is strong, with almost no lagging, and it's quite easy to find people to play against and set up a battle. Multiple song packs are also available to download, extending your song list considerably.

But it also blows

Unfortunately 'Guitar Hero III' is not the galactic event that one would have liked to see. While the new modes and songs certainly make it worth it, there are a number of considerations that need to be highlighted before you go out and spend R900 on it.

By far the most prominent complaint to be lodged against it is the unbelievably high amount of Satanic content. These range from "666" and Antichrist signs all over the place, stage props of monsters that feature goat horns, right down into the pit of hell where you'll be fighting a boss battle against the devil himself, flippantly called "Lou".

Why it is deemed necessary to include this in a guitar simulation is utterly beyond me. It contributes nothing to the game — in fact, it only serves to detract from what would otherwise have been a good, clean, and fun game to play. And then it carries an age restriction of only 12 too. (I wouldn't let my kids play this game.)

Considering that the gameplay isn't really all that much different from 'GH2', your primary reason for buying 'GH3' would be to get new songs. Depending on your music tastes this might be a hit and miss affair to you, but one thing that is most certainly true is that not all the songs are exactly kosher.

Being considered cool is no excuse to feature songs about sex and Satanic rituals — e.g. "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden, "Raining Blood" by Slayer, "Slow Ride" by Foghat — in a game that is supposed to be OK for kids over 12 to play.

Looking at the gameplay itself, there are also some niggles worth mentioning.

When playing in battle mode especially — although this is also true in the single player mode — the sound effects of the different actions sometimes drown out the music, making it difficult to concentrate on playing.

Movements in the background are also quite distracting at times, but these two niggles could be plus or minuses to you, depending on whether you enjoy a good challenge from unexpected sources in a game.

The same can be said about the gameplay in general — 'GH3' is most certainly more difficult than its predecessor. The boss battles especially might require a replay or two.

Although the colour pallet is much bigger in 'GH3', the improvements in graphics are not all that much better. The character modulation is still a bit on the stocky side and crowd movements are slightly of the zombie variety, i.e. moving from side-to-side in a foot-dragging fashion.

In the end, each gamer will have to weigh up the good and the bad for himself and then decide whether it's worth forking out big dolla for this game.

Personally, the unnecessarily positive portrayal of Satanic imagery left me with a very bad taste in my mouth in what would otherwise have been a very sweet-tasting experience.