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Quite possibly the best music game yet. Guitar Hero 5, Neversoft’s third stab at the Guitar Hero franchise and second band-oriented game, couples a massive 85-song library and numerous gameplay enhancements to deliver a thoroughly entertaining package.
Activision didn’t pull any stops with the game’s soundtrack. You’ll find bands like 3 Doors Down (“Kryptonite”), Blink 182 (“The Rock Show”), Brand New (“Sowing Season”), Coldplay (“In My Place”), Elton John (“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”), Iggy Pop (“Lust for Life”), Iron Maiden (“2 Minutes to Midnight”), Jimmy Eat World (“Eat American”), The Killers (“All the Pretty Faces”), Nirvana (“Lithium” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit”), The Rolling Stones (“Sympathy for the Devil”), and Weezer’s (“Play That Funky Music”). As you can tell, it isn’t quite as rock heavy as you’d expect from a main Guitar Hero but with a soundtrack this varied it’s hard to complain. It’s a soundtrack that spans decades from classic rock to this summer’s “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon. There’s no lack of star power in the game as you’ll be able to rock out as Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Kurt Cobain, among others. On the Xbox 360 and Wii, you’ll also be able to play as Avatars and Miis respectively, which is a nice touch. The game has all of the songs unlocked from the beginning.
The core Guitar Hero gameplay is well familiar by now and the core mechanics have been wisely left unchanged. However, Neversoft did add some great tweaks to the formula. The one that’s going to get the biggest kick at parties is the ability to have up to four of the same instrument playing at once. This means you can have four guitars (or drums) going at it instead of relinquishing one person to the singing role. There’s also a new “Party Play” mode that lets you enjoy the game’s soundtrack without playing and jump in with the press of the button. It also lets players change difficulty or even instruments on the fly. It’s surprisingly easy to drop in and out of gameplay in all of the game’s modes, making it even more accessible to a mainstream audience.
There’s even a “Rockfest” mode that tasks you with minigames like Momentum (where the game adapts your difficulty based on your playing), Perfectionist (where you see how long you can last without missing a note), Streakers (where you get points for playing perfect sections) and more. Lastly, there are new challenges that task you with a particular challenge (clever, huh), allowing you to earn Diamond, Platinum or Gold medal. The challenges add up to stars that can be used to unlock new outfits and avatars.
Neversoft also tweaked some of the minor annoyances of World Tour. For instance, star power is now calculated separately for each player instead of a collective band. Like Rock Band, players will now be able to use their star power to revive failed band members. Similarly, Guitar Hero 5 borrowed Rock Band’s “band moments” where the entire band has to play a section successfully. Another nice change is the ability to easily change game modes in the online lobby, something that required exiting and re-entering in World Tour.
Guitar Hero 5 is also the first game in the series to allow for importing of songs from previous games in the franchise (something introduced in last year’s Rock Band 2). Most of Guitar Hero World Tour’s DLC works with Guitar Hero 5, as well as almost half of the disc-based songs in World Tour (which you’ll need to pay $3.50 to import). Activision is working on a patch to allow importing songs from Smash Hits as well, though that ability isn’t yet available.
As a special note, the Wii version of the game continues Vicarious Visions’ strong development record for the console. New for Guitar Hero 5 (compared to World Tour) are the ability to download full albums, support for 32GB high-capacity SD cards, eight-player online multiplayer, an ability to communicate with the Nintendo DS games for the Mii Freestyle mode (which makes a return), and Roadie Battle, which is similar to Guitar Hero III’s battle mode but is done though a combination of the Wii and Nintendo DS.
Guitar Hero 5 is the ultimate party game. The solid, addicting Guitar Hero gameplay has been made even more accessible and compelling with all of the new additions Neversoft has added for this version. The ability to drop in and out easily and change instruments and difficulty on the fly will surely please casual gamers while the minigames and challenges will test hardcore players. It’s rather amazing how well Neversoft was able to straddle both markets while tweaking nearly every annoyance we had with World Tour (even if some of the fixes are borrowed from Rock Band). -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Sep 1, 2009
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