If you’ve been living under a rock or deep inside the ravines of an abyss and have no idea what Guitar Hero is, we’ll sum it up for you. You have a plastic instrument, whether it be drums, bass, guitar or a microphone, and the point of the game is to hit the right colour coded notes that are appearing on-screen at the right time. Vocals are a little different, where it focuses on pitch control, but the gameplay overall is simple to get the hang of, and can become inhumanly addictive, particularly when you’re playing your favourite tracks with a bunch of friends.
A reason for the guys.
Guitar Hero 5 does all this, just like the games before it, however it adds a few new neat features which lead to a more casual and accessible level of appeal. The first and arguably best feature added is the Party Play Mode, which literally lets you start playing at the press of a button. It runs something like a screensaver, where a random song from the set of 85 is played in the background, and with the press of a button you can join in and play it with any instrument from the get go. This works with all instruments, so instead of sitting there sifting through all the setup options, you literally sit down and begin playing right away. It’s a very nice addition to the game, as essentially the game is aimed much towards social gatherings and parties, so an addition such as this makes life and partying with Guitar Hero 5 much more streamlined. Difficulty levels can also be adjusted on the fly by pressing start, so minimal customisation is present and everything is easy to access.
Assembling your band is now not just locked to one guitarist, drummer, bassist and vocalist either, with the ability to customise exactly what instruments your band is using. As an example, if all your friends want to play guitar, you can assemble the entire band to only guitar, so everyone can play the same note tracks in a song. This further enhances the accessibility of the game as now you don’t have to fight over who gets drums or guitar anymore. The only thing required though is multiple instruments, which can be a little tricky and expensive to handle, especially when it comes to drums.
With Guitar Hero being primarily multiplayer based, you’d expect a few different modes and Guitar Hero 5 certainly delivers on that aspect too. Four-player local co-op is usually the play of the day for split-screen mayhem, and the game supports up to eight-player online battles, where bands duke it out against each other. Game modes include things such as Momentum, where the song progressively gets harder and harder as you delver further into it, essentially replicating a Last Man Standing style of gameplay, and Perfectionist, where the highest percentage of notes hit is the objective rather than points. There are several other modes which add a lot of diversity to the game’s already robust multiplayer set up, so it essentially removes the repetition of just scoring points.
And a reason for the laaaddiiieess.
Visually and Aurally, Guitar Hero 5 is pretty much what one would expect out of a title that focuses more on its accessibility and gameplay. It’s certainly not stand out, with an art style that’s been around for a while now with the Guitar Hero series, and decently detailed characters and environments animating in the background as you play a song. Motion blur has been added which gives a smoother feel and makes things less distracting, as it blends better overall. The sound is solid, which is required considering the mammoth song listing and the fact the game relies primarily on sound, and also outputs in Dolby Digital, however you may have to activate it in the options. The note board’s are minimalistic and smooth, and don’t contain any fancy effects, but this isn’t a bad thing as you can clearly see where your score is at and how you’re progressing, so the lack of fancy effects is more a good thing than bad. It’s a solid package overall, and stays consistent with the game the whole way through.
Guitar Hero 5 is pretty much what one would expect out of Activision’s giant franchise, which is a consistent and solid sequel to a successful series of party titles. Guitar Hero 5 however is easily the most accessible of the bunch, with the inclusion of things such as Party Play mode and Band Assembly, making partying with the rocking title much easier. GHTunes and GHStudio have also made a return and are much easier to navigate, with a new mode following them named GHJam, which lets you jam to custom songs with trippy visualisations in the background. There’s also the career mode which is standard in the series, and quick play, which now gives you all 85 songs to play with from the get-go. We could go on, but if you’re any kind of Guitar Hero fan, you’d know what to expect. There’s a ton of content to be seen and heard in Guitar Hero 5, and whether you’re a newcomer or veteran to the series, it’s certainly a title worth spending your hard-earned on.
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