To say that we have had more than our fair share of Guitar Hero games in the past couple of years would be an understatement.  Activision has been cranking them out nonstop.  In the span of one year we have seen five titles for the home consoles and two for the handhelds.  We’re not done yet either, as another three are scheduled to be released later this year.  They’re on the verge of running this franchise into the ground, and most of it is due to the slew of stand-alone expansion games that have come out.  What we think of those expansion games is a topic for another article at another time.  What we’re here to do today is look at the fifth major release in the series: Guitar Hero 5.

At this stage in the game it’s very unlikely that you would not have heard of or seen a Guitar Hero game, but for the few people that have not, Guitar Hero is a rhythm action game where your goal is to play along to a song, hitting scrolling notes with a guitar shaped controller.  Newer iterations of the series have added the ability to play Bass, Drums, and Vocals, but the formula still applies to those as well.

Being the fifth major release in the series, Guitar Hero 5 has a tall task on its hands in terms of trying to keep interest in the series high and potentially win back a few players that had been put off by the slew of minor releases in such a short time span.  For the most part, Activision has succeeded in that goal and they’ve done it by emphasizing what makes these games fun and trying to remove the stuff that makes them frustrating.

One of the most irritating things about Guitar Hero World Tour and the other games based on it is just how difficult it was to get into the game and start playing.  Before you could start playing you needed to wade through several menus that were less than intuitive.  Inevitably someone would end up signing in with another profile and that would cause a whole bunch of songs to vanish, since those songs hadn’t been unlocked on that profile.  That’s no longer a problem.  For starters all of the songs are unlocked for quickplay right from the start.  You don’t have to work through the Career mode anymore if all you want to do is play with some friends.

Another nice addition is the Party Play mode.  When the game loads up it’ll start playing a song at random.  All you have to do is press a button on any controller and you can jump right into the action.  This is going to make Guitar Hero 5 a much more viable party game since now you no longer have to teach everyone how the menus work.  It’s easy and intuitive and much more approachable than it has ever been.

Guitar Hero 5 has also seen all of its major components centralized into one location.  Career mode, Quickplay, Cooperative and Competitive multiplayer are all accessed through the same central lobby system.  It’s easy to move from mode to mode and bring in players to rock out with, whether they’re on the same console or across the country via the internet.  It’s a very fluid interface that just works the way one would expect it to.

Other than the game’s ease of use, Guitar Hero 5 has seen a number of gameplay tweaks.  Much of these are for the Guitar part, but there has been a significant improvement to the band play as well.  Hammer-ons and Pull-offs have been extended to include chords as well.  This brings it in line with what Rock Band was doing last year, so players going from one game to the other will feel right at home.

The Career Mode has also seen significant changes.  First and foremost is the elimination of any sort of currency system.  To unlock items and characters now all you need to do is complete songs and earn Stars.  Each song in the Career mode has a bonus challenge associated with it.  The challenges range from holding a 4x multiplier to scoring well as a band.  Completing these Challenges can earn you up to three additional Stars per song.  That’s really all there is to the Career mode.  It’s simply a fine example of how less can indeed be more.

The improvements to the band play are significant.  First and foremost is the addition of bandmate revival.  When someone fails out of a song the entire band doesn’t go down with them.  The rest of the band has the chance to bring them back in by playing well and winning back the crowd’s favor.  Another nice change is the way that Star Power works in band play.  Previously there was a single star power meter for the whole band, but now each member of the band has their own Star Power meter.  Any band member who earns more Star Power than their meter can contain will have that Star Power overflow to the rest of the band.  This is something we’ve needed for a long time.

If you’d rather play a Competitive game, Guitar Hero 5 has five Competitive modes for you to play in.  Pro Face Off and Team Pro Face Off are a straightforward free for all score challenge for up to 8 players.  The Band Vs. Band from the previous game makes a return, allowing two full bands to compete for the best score.  New to Guitar Hero 5 is the RockFest and Team RockFest modes.  These modes mix up the gameplay by throwing in interesting twists to the scoring.  For example, with Momentum rules, you start off on the Medium difficulty and as you successfully build a note streak the game increases the difficulty.  If you miss three notes in a row then the game will drop you down a difficulty.

Some of the modes aren’t as well thought out as they probably could have been.  Do Or Die for example is easily the worst of them.  In this mode you will fail out of the section of the song if you miss three notes in a row.  What ends up happening most of the time is everyone in the game failing out at the same time and then having to sit there and wait for the next section to roll around before they can keep playing.  For the most part though, these new RockFest modes are a lot of fun.

Last but not least is the new ability to play with more than one particular instrument.  You can now play with four guitarists, or bassists, or drummers, or vocalists, or any combination of the above.  So now when you are playing with friends, nobody has to play a part they would rather not.  It’s a simple thing, but something that goes a long way to increasing the amount of fun that anyone can have with the game.

All of these improvements have been wrapped up into a nice new presentation.  Though the art style isn’t that different from the previous games, everything does look considerably better.  From the menus to the venues, everything in the game looks more polished than it ever has.  There is one element of the presentation that may bother you.  Previous Guitar Hero games have included the likenesses of famous rock icons like Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, or James Hetfield.  Guitar Hero 5 features polygonal renditions of Shirley Manson, Matthew Bellany, Carlos Santana, Kurt Cobain, and Johnny Cash.  Once these characters have been unlocked it’s possible to use them as part of your band, so you could have Johnny Cash belting out the lyrics to a Children of Bodom song.  Whether the inclusion of deceased rockers bothers you is something you will have to decide for yourself, but it is fair to note that Jimi Hendrix was in Guitar Hero World Tour and nobody seemed to mind that.

A music game really lives or dies by its soundtrack.  Guitar Hero 5 contains 85 songs on the disc.  The artists and styles represented here are all over the map.  It’s clear that this game is trying to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible.  It’s not a bad goal, nor is the music included bad.  It’s just that if you’re the sort of person who has a very focused musical interest you may only find a few songs that will really appeal to you.  This may be a negative point for you, or may be an opportunity for you to broaden your musical horizons.

Guitar Hero 5 is a solid game in every regard.  It may not do anything radically different, but what it does do is deliver the tried and true gameplay the franchise is known for with a new layer of polish that the series has not known before.  This game is a landmark in the series and one that should be built on through steady downloadable content releases and gameplay patches.  It should not be farmed out into countless expansion games that don’t coexist with each other.

Score: 9 | Suggestion: Get it, it’s a solid game.

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About This Author: Filippo Dinolfo

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