Jokes about hand cramps aside, you can’t help but feel that firing up Guitar Hero: Metallica and heading straight for Expert level as I did is akin to standing in a boxing ring with Tyson at his prime and telling him that he has a free first shot. About a year ago I sat down with the track pack from the band’s latest record Death Magnetic and consequently needed a weekend for my arms to start working properly again after playing each of the songs a couple of times, so it wasn’t as if I hadn’t been warned either. To compound this mistake, I then went and decided to play all eight plus minutes of Master of Puppets as my first tune. Did I mention I sleep on a bed of nails and clean my teeth in the morning with a hammer and chisel?

Metallica are a band who, of course, have taken a while to get used to all this new fangled technology, as anyone who remembers their slightly embarrassing Napster rants can attest. Up until recently they didn’t seem a mite bothered that they were not featured in any Guitar Hero or Rock Band game, but perhaps the prospect of a beefed up bank balance was enough to tempt them out of their shell and into our consoles. Either that or they have mellowed with age, although I still suspect Lars Ulrich would actually bite my face off or spit acid at me for suggesting such a thing. Or sue me, possibly.

Anyhow, yeah, Guitar Hero: Metallica comes loaded with 28 of their songs that span from the early years with Cliff Burton right through to their newest stuff. Also loaded in for a bit of variety are twenty tunes that the band themselves picked as influences, and seeing as one of them is an early Queen song they deserve a bit of a high five for that too. The Metallica tunes can all be accessed immediately through the quick play option which is a good plan for those rock gods who want to get straight into riffing away, but the other bands’ tunes need to be unlocked via Career.

That Career mode is actually pretty well presented, given that coming into the game I really had no clue how it was going to be done. Opening up with a classic Metallica concert intro to the hallowed tune of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’s ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’ (of which Metallica did a bloody good cover, which is sadly missing from the tracklist), you then rock your way through a couple of tunes as the band themselves in front of a vast audience, a member of which is so inspired that they decide to create their own tribute/support band. Spot the part where you come in?

Having created your own rock avatar (from a pleasingly large amount of customisation options) you thus kick off on the road on your way to superstardom. The structure is similar to previous Guitar Hero games; you have a group of songs at each venue, and you work your way through gaining as many stars as possible by performing each. This time around, however, the game will unlock further songs and locations based on those star ratings and not simply based on how many songs in a group you have played, which opens the game up nicely.

The other thing that makes the game so much fun is that Metallica tunes are particularly well suited for Guitar Hero type efforts, with their massive chords and up-and-down-and-up-again solos. They are also charted pretty well too, so if you’re a complete newcomer to Guitar Hero you’ll be able to jam along to your favourites fairly easily, whilst if you consider yourself to be a god with plastic guitars you’re in for a heck of a challenge by the time Expert level rocks up. In addition to this, those drummers among you will no doubt want to test out the Expert+ level that is offered and throws double foot pedal action at you, although we were unable to test this ourselves. Given my lack of skills with the sticks, it’s probably for the best.

As that last few sentences indicates, Guitar Hero: Metallica is a full band deal should you be up for it, allowing you to try to emulate all facets of the bands. Those gravel-voiced chaps out there who often have to keep their singing tones well under wraps will no doubt rejoice at being given the chance of replicating James ‘Best Late 80s Moustache’ Hetfield, whilst anyone under any doubt how good Rob Trujillo is on the bass will pretty soon get the idea by playing some of the Death Magnetic stuff on Expert bass level. The man has tarantulas for hands, seriously.

Also, what with this being an offshoot of the World Tour framework, the game also has the music studio loaded in for good measure. A quick blast on it proved that I didn’t have the faintest clue on how to use the thing, but as some people have proved, it can be a pretty nifty little feature if explored properly. Something that won’t work, however, is any DLC that isn’t Metallica’s aforementioned Death Magnetic pack, so that’s not such a good note.

Still, it’s a pretty decent package all round, with some great songs to play and a well-worked career to rock through. It might have taken everyone’s favourite aging millionaire rockers to jump on the music game bandwagon, but thankfully once they did they got it done properly. Add in the fan service through making-of videos and Metallifacts (basically the game plays the in-engine performance of a tune and brings up facts about each) and you’re onto something that will appeal to anyone who enjoys the band, as well as a good few that aren’t into them as much as the rest of us. Don’t expect your hands to be given an easy ride, mind.