Following on the success of its preceding title,
Guitar Hero World Tour, Activision brings gamers Guitar Hero 5.
Building on the popularity of playing in a four-person band experience,
Guitar Hero 5 opens up opportunities not just to play a new, if
somewhat eclectic, playlist, it also gives players the freedom to play
lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals in whatever combination they
want. If your little brother won’t give up lead guitar, have a band
with two leads. Or two basses. Whatever!
The game is available as a standalone title,
allowing players to use existing compatible instrument controllers, and
as a bundle that provides these controllers. The new Guitar Hero 5
guitar sports an all-new faceplate and rebuilt neck slider for a
completely new guitar experience.
New features were added to make the game more
accessible and simple to use, including drop-in/drop-out play and the
afore-mentioned ability to add to your gameplay experience and play
with up to 4 guitars or compose a band of any combination of available
instruments.
There’s also a Rockfest competitive mode
consisting of several various scoring mechanisms, and both
song-specific and general challenges to unlock new avatars, clothing,
and other extras in the game. It’s definitely a more social experience,
allowing players of different skill levels, both locally and online,
the ability to play cooperatively and competitively against each other.
While playing in a band, you’ll have to earn your
own Star Power now that it’s tracked separately for each player and no
longer shared by the band (thank you Rock Band). A new play mode called
“Band Moments” requires all members of the band to play sections of a
song successfully to gain prizes. The Band Revival meter appears when a
player fails out of the song, requiring the other band members to up
their game together in order to bring the failed player back into the
game. So if you suck, you can be saved. But only if your bandmates
don’t also suck. A nice plus: Guitar Hero 5 incorporates any World Tour
downloadable content that you may have into the various play modes.
Guitar Hero 5’s track list contains 85 songs by 83
separate artists Like previous Guitar Hero games, you can actually play
as one of several musicians like Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, Carlos
Santana, Shirley Manson, and Matthew Bellamy.
The game continues to support the user-created
music studio introduced in World Tour through GHTunes. Thousands of
downloadable content for the game are also available. You can also
import songs straight into GH5 from GH World Tour and GH Smash Hits.
Most downloadable content from World Tour is forward-compatible with
Guitar Hero 5.
The most appreciated improvements is the
accessibility of the game. Where previous games required players to go
through menus and customizations before rocking out, GH5 has a Party
Mode that allows players to immediately jump in. I almost felt like I
missed a step, because it was too easy.
The career and competitive multiplayer modes were
also improved and simplified. However, the game’s track list seemed
pretty random, from No Doubt, Kings of Leon to Bob Dylan. And while I
would never use Kurt Cobain to sing a Gwen Stefani song, I was told it
was an option.
As always, the best thing about playing any Guitar
Hero title for this reviewer is getting my ears (and eyes) opened to
songs to which I may not normally pay attention. While my
neighbors probably figured out I’m a big fan of Kings of Leon in my
quest to reach “Sex on Fire” drum perfection, I had a real blast
learning The Raconteurs “Steady As She Goes.”
The playlist is quite broad in genre, where “a
little of everything” is the best way to describe it. While most may
question how Stevie Wonder and Kiss can co-exist on a playlist, I’m one
of those players who actually likes that they do.
The improvements to the note charts, the ease of
play and the new features make this an exciting new toy for even the
hardcore living room rock legends, but if you’ve waited to jump in and
this is your intro to the Guitar Hero world, it’s a great welcome and
definitely worth the wait.
