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Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:43 pm EDT
17 Game Reviews

Written By: Daniel Richtmyre
D&W Reviews Editor

I've never really liked what Neversoft and Activision have done with the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero 2 always has and always will hold a special place in my heart as the "near-perfect" music video game with a diverse setlist and functional gameplay. Guitar Hero 3 tried too hard to be the most difficult game ever, and while it succeeded, later portions of the game were only fun to those who wanted to drop out of school in order to study and remember note charts. While World Tour was a refreshing change of pace in difficulty, it was an obvious Rock Band rip-off with a bunch of headaches, and quite frankly, a horrid setlist. And don't even get me started on the Aerosmith and Metallica variations of the series.

With Guitar Hero 5, the series goes back to its numbered roots. At first, I was sceptical on the game’s ability to be fun, functional, and not seem like a complete Rock Band clone. With any music game, the most important aspect is the setlist the game includes. Guitar Hero 5 has 85 songs that vary throughout a; vast amount of genres: metal, indie rock, rap, alternative, and more. It’s refreshing to see such a varied setlist after some of the garbage the previous games in the series included. In essence, there’s pretty much a song for everyone.

The gameplay hasn’t changed much. There’s drums, vocals, guitar and bass; the standard fare since the last game. (On a little side note, If you don’t get the concept behind the Guitar Hero games by now, it might be time to call it a day and check into a retirement home). The newest and most notable feature in the game though, is the new "Party Play" feature. What it does is it allows you to jump in an out of a song at anytime, change difficulties, or change instruments, all without going through the trouble of having to pause the game or stop the song. This mode, as well as the game as a whole, allows any combination of instruments. So if you’ve always wanted to have a 3 drummer, 1 singer band, now you can.

The career mode now works on a star system. Any stars you get for performing a song go into your overall star count. Furthermore, you can also get bonus stars for performing challenges that are different for each song. Once you compile enough stars, you unlock a new venue and new songs to play. That being said, every song is unlocked and playable from the start in the “Quick Play” mode in Guitar Hero 5, so if you’re just here for a party game you don’t have to spend multiple hours unlocking everything. Neversoft finally changed up the monotonous menu system of the previous game. It is now extremely simple to navigate and play your favourite songs; even the “Party Play” mode can be easily accessed by the press of a button from the home menu.

Other than the aforementioned additions, not much else has changed from Guitar Hero: World Tour. The character creation mode is relatively the same and the song creation system is still in place and works similarly. What I do have an issue with in this game, is how broken the note charts can seem at times. Sure, maybe I need to spend less of my time being productive and doing more Guitar Hero training, but Neversoft really loves its triple chords. (Like seriously, why hasn’t Neversoft proposed yet)? They’re not even cleverly used; they only exist because certain people think putting annoying amounts of them in makes songs harder.  Hammer-ons and pull-offs have become an aggravating game mechanic. Back in Guitar Hero 2, I could guess what notes were hammeronable or pulloffable. I didn’t even notice the notes were lit up until World Tour. In 5 though, their placement is completely random, and you can never decipher which you have to strum unless you can see if they’re brighter than the rest of the notes around them.

Guitar Hero 5 isn’t perfect, but it is a refreshing revival of the series. It’s got a diverse enough setlist and enough game modes to keep you entertained enough to forgive the small kinks in the gameplay. Neversoft’s interest is in simplicity and their latest effort really shows that. Because of that, many of the frustrations that lied within World Tour are now gone. In closing, Guitar Hero 5 is the best post-Harmonix Guitar Hero game to date, and if you’re a fan of music games, I recommend it.

Overall: 9/10

Pros:
-All songs are unlocked from the start
-Diverse setlist
-Option to mix and match instruments
-Fixed almost all of the issues of World Tour

Cons:
-The note charts could use some work

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