Gaming Like a Rockstar

Somebody had a brilliant idea. Games can simulate shooting, flying, even living. Why not simulate playing music? (Thankfully that took the route of rock rather than country….*shudder*). I unwittingly got caught up in the Guitar Hero craze when I was introduced to #3. After being hooked on it for a short while I couldn’t help but rush out and get 1&2. I’m sure I’ll own the rest of the titles before too long.

WHAT IT IS:
GH puts a guitar simulator in the hands of the player and generates music if the player can follow the proper pattern at the proper time. It’s a bit like giving cheese to a lab rat for completing a maze, but if the rat has fun then I guess that is OK.

WHAT IT IS NOT:
This is not some magical way to learn to play the guitar. You are not going to become the replacement lead guitarist for your favorite band by mastering GH. Maybe it will generate some interest in learning the real thing and maybe it will even help you get started, but that is about all it can do.

GAMEPLAY:
Chances are you’ve played #1 or #3 by now (or maybe read my reviews on them) and know the basic game model. I’ll tell you again anyway, just in case. Gems move towards you on the screen. The player mashes the corresponding fret buttons while strumming at the appropriate time. Success equals the sound of the guitar, failure means the band plays on while looking at you funny. Miss too many notes in too short a time and you fail the song. Points and accuracy combine to give an overall rating. In career mode the rating determines the amount of monetary reward for use in the store.

The store offers rewards for earning money such as extra characters and guitars to create a look for your career mode character. Some videos offer a behind the scenes look at the game. The bigger deal is the list of bonus songs.

SONGS:
The focus of the game, of course, is the song list. These are divided into 2 lists: the core career list and the bonus tracks. Career is where you earn money for the store. New for this game is a co-op career in which you can form a band with a second player. One person plays the bass line of the songs. There are also competition options.
Quick Play is a way to access any song you have gained access to without having to get to it in the regular career track. Want to try one of the songs in the last set on expert but are nowhere near it in career? Jump in and try it on QP (as long as you’ve previously gotten to it on another difficulty like easy). It is also a good place to log high scores.

The career list contains well known songs ranging from light rock to heavy metal from the 70’s to the present (well present at the time of the game’s publication. I guess that has been a couple of years now). While there are some songs I’ve never heard of, there are some that I have liked very much for years. “Rock This Town” by the Stray Cats is one of my favorite 80’s songs. The downside is that these are all covers. Not that they aren’t well played, but they still sound different. “Rock This Town,” for example is missing that signature Brian Setzer sound. The Michael Sweet vocals aren’t all that good, either, but the one song that really bugs me is “Misirlou.” This is not the “Misirlou” that I have heard and loved for so many years (which is the version found on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and Dick Dale’s greatest hits). I don’t mean that it sounds a little different, I mean that it bears little resemblance at all to the song I was expecting. Is this maybe the Beach Boys’ version? I have not heard that one. It says it is Dick Dale’s, though.
Despite having a few good tracks, the song list is not as exciting as the ones in #1&3. For some reason even the songs I love in #2 just do not seem as fun. Even though the game features are better than #1 I find myself playing it more often for the better song list. There are 40 songs.

The bonus list provides another 25 songs of indie and underground bands. Some of these are quite good while others are less than impressive. The wide variety of sounds is, no doubt, intended to provide something for every kind of player.
The game adds a sense of fun with the inclusion of fictional bands Spinal Tap, Dethklok, and Strong Bad. In fact, “Thunderhorse” by Dethklok may be my favorite bonus song of the 3 games I’ve played so far with the possible exception of “Through the Fire and Flames.”

Graphics:
Like the other games a band to accompany your guitarist plays on stage in different venues. The band is in sync with the music providing a music video type visual to make playing more fun. There are more venues this time with more complex graphics. The Red Octane club is a makeover of an earlier set. Others include a high school gym, a couple of other bars/clubs of various sizes, a music hall, an outdoor tour (Warped Tour to be precise), and an arena. So the settings are comparable to the first game but there is more detail to each of them than there was before. The last venue is my favorite of all the games so far: Stonehenge. It looks great. It also has my favorite encore animation, but I will not tell you what that is.

DIFFICULTY and SETTINGS:
One big praise for all the GH games is that they provide a great spread of difficulty levels. Easy brings the notes on slowly and uses only 3 fret buttons. It is good for new players or anyone that wants to hear the songs without a challenge. Veteran players may come to find it boring, though. In #2 easy mode does not reward any money or provide access to all the career songs. On the other hand completing it and doing well rewards the player with some unlocked special guitars.

As you go up through the other 3 difficulties the speed, number, and complexity of the notes increases. Additional fret buttons are utilized, too. How much of a challenge do you want?

Added to this game is a practice mode. Having trouble nailing a particular part of a song? Isolate that segment, slow it down, and practice until you get it right. It can really help you play much better. This is a way for a single player to access the bass line of the songs which is fun. There are no rewards for playing it, though.

Needing more help than practice can provide? Check out the tutorials and learn some techniques and game elements that can help.

RATING:
While I haven’t paid much attention to the lyrics for all of the bonus songs, there seems to be less in the way of sexually suggestive material in this game compared to 1 and 3. On the other hand it has more bad language than the others. The worst of it has been removed or bleeped out, but there is still some mild words scattered about (mostly in the Butthole Surfers song I think). It also has some dark images and themes such as animation of the Grim Reaper destroying a city.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is an exceptionally fun series of games. I love the addition of the practice mode, and the store functions are better than the first game. That would bump the first game’s 4* rating up to 5* if not for my disappointment in the song list. The songs that did have me excited, like “Misirlou,” failed to deliver. One plus is the ability to now be able to buy it in a 2-pack with #1 & #2 in a single package. Save some money!