Guitar Hero 5 is now rocking out loud on the Xbox 360, and being the original music rhythm game it is expected to be of high caliber. While overall the game is still solid it is starting to fall behind the competition. With a 85 tracks from 83 artists, and a handful of new features Guitar Hero 5 offers a lot in quantity but lacks some quality.
Of the 85 tracks in the game many are from big artists but they aren’t of those artist’s big hits. Many casual music listeners will know the bands but will be clueless on the songs. GH5 does offer a wide variety of artists ranging from legends like Johnny Cash and Nirvana to more modern acts like Wolfmother and Muse. On-top of all the tracks on the disc you can also import prior DLC tracks, and if you still need more tunes you can create your own! The GH Studio has been upgraded since Guitar Hero World tour and now offers musicians more and easier to use tools to create and share their original tracks.
As far as gameplay it’s the same mechanics we have been playing for years. However GH5 does offer some new gameplay modes. The mode that will be most popular is Party Play Mode. Once you start up a setlist people can come in and drop out of the songs as they feel. This is perfect for house parties, all you need to do is load up a setlist and leave the instruments out for people to play. All people need to do is hit a single button and they will be put right into the action. The other new gameplay mode is Rockfest. Rockfest is a multiplayer mode which can be played offline with 4 other players or online with 8 players. Rockfest is broken down into 6 gametypes:
Momentum: Songs get more difficult or easier on the fly depending on player performance.
Perfectionist: Rewards players with the highest percentage at the end of each song section.
Elimination: Players are eliminated throughout a song based on their performance in each segment and the last man standing wins!
Do-or-Die: Missing any three notes for a song section temporarily knocks players out of the game and keeps them from scoring.
Streakers: Players are awarded points for each note streak in multiples of 10.
Pro Face Off: Head-to-head battle where players all play the same song on the same difficulty with the same instrument.
For those wanting to go down the single player path, you can jump into quickplay with all the songs unlocked, or hop into a career. In years past Guitar Hero featured a great career mode, with a bit of story and some variety. However in GH5 they took most of that away, now you start at one venue play a few songs, go to the next, and so on, there really is no sense of story and its rather boring.
Graphically the game looks stellar. I haven’t picked up my axe since Guitar Hero first arrived on the Xbox 360 and the graphics have come a long way. I found myself paying attention to what was going on onstage many times. The character models have much smoother movements and the arenas look much more full. One thing GH5 does offer is some real life artist characters in the game. The representations are very good even in the slight GH cartoony look. The only issue I found graphically is the minimalistic HUD approach. Your meters are built into sides of the onscreen guitar neck, which leave more room to see the onstage action, but makes it a tad harder to quickly pick-up on where you stand while trying to pay attention to the notes flying by.
Overall GH5 remains solid, but the track list really hurts the game. And being a music based game, the music is the most important part. I would have liked to see more hits, especially from the lesser known acts. Basically if the song didn’t get decent radio play it shouldn’t be in the game initial track list. Graphically the game is great, and the music creation is going to be a sell for many musicians. The online play is solid and give players plenty of modes to choose from.
