Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock Review (PS3): Rock, With Cheese

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he songs in Warriors of Rock...well, they are just pure epic awesome. All the greats are there: Queen, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Pantera, Rammstein, with some newer bands thrown in here and there for variety. The true power of Warrior of Rock undoubtedly lies in the true rock warriors that grace its song list. Had I been asked to concoct a wish list of *the* best rock songs for an epic music game, I could not have done than Activision did on Warriors of Rock. Been Caught Stealing, Sudden Death, Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody, people! I think a tear just came to my eye. These songs are just...epic.

But with epic songs comes epic responsibility. There needs to be high quality sound that accompanies these great songs, and I think the developers did a great job in that regard as well. These songs are equally as awesome to listen to as they are to play. Perhaps more so, as the listeners hands will likely not be permanently deformed after a set. This is the real deal, sound-wise: great songs that sound great: who could ask for more?

Turns out, I can. The story is just so cheesy. Painfully cheesy. Do I have to watch cheesy. The legendary guitar has been stolen by some Iron Giant looking robot bad guy, and the king of rock enslaved...in rock. You must recreate the warriors of rock, and transform them from ordinary rock bad-asses to supernatural rock bad-asses. Each of the eight rock warriors has a setlist of corresponding songs. The rate of their transformation is measured by completion of a glowing circle, and the speed of their transformation depends entirely on how epically you can rock out. Once the metamorphosis is complete, the warrior gains a special power such as speed freak or resurrection. You'll need those later.

After you have transformed the first four warriors of rock, you'll need to retrieve the legendary guitar. Cue horrendously long and incredibly weird song "2112" by Rush. After you finish that song, you will most definitely feel deserve you cookie. Instead, you get to transform four more warriors of rock. (To be clear: no cookie.) And of course, once you've found all eight warriors, you'll have to fight the bad guy. It's expected. I don't want to be a spoiler, but I'll give you a hint. It involves songs that actual humans are nearly incapable of playing, and a big glowing guitar.

The story itself isn't so bad, but it is presented in a horribly cheesy rock voice that really grated on my nerves. It was just bad enough to miss cool, and not quite bad enough to be awesomely bad. It was just bad. The narrator voiced over each portion of the story, introducing each warrior and announcing their metamorphosis. If you can get past the overdone voice, though, the graphics are pretty cool. The warriors are presented first as cool rock stars with equally cool rock star names like Pandora and Lars. Once each f them finishes their sets, you are treated to some super cool transformation scenes where rock stars become demons, mummies, is that a headless horseman? Whatever they are, they look awesome, with their glowing eyes and monster faces. Cause monsters rock, yo.

All in all, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a challenging and fun music game with an over the top list of legendary rock songs. The quest mode isn't real long, but once you finish it you can play around with all your unlocked songs, costumes, and guitars indefinitely. And of course, the multiplayer mode is a definite bonus for party games and just fun with the family. I give Guitar Hero a 4 out of 5, and recommend it to fans of music games, families, partiers, and of course-disciples of rock.