Guitar Hero: World Tour
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft
Genre: Music/Rythm
Release Date: October 26, 2008
Reviewer: Dan
Ever since the release of the first Rock Band, it seems like the
Guitar Hero franchise just lost its luster. Realizing that people
just love to bang away at their drums, Activision decided that it
would be a good idea to toss them in along with a microphone to
create the complete band experience, along with all of the difficulty
that comes with the average Guitar Hero game. But considering all I
ever play is the guitar, the difficulty really isn't a bad thing.
Like the other Guitar Hero games, you have to go through the
career mode in order to unlock all 86 of the songs in the game, which
is a decent mix of 80's, 90's, and classic rock with a bit of the new
stuff tossed in there. A lot of it does seem to be older music, so
if you're expecting the Billboard Hot 100, then you might be a bit
disappointed. The good thing about all of these tracks is the fact
that they are all master recordings and not covers.
There is, however, another Beastie Boys track in this
game. *I'm facepalming right
now* When will these deveolpers learn that Beastie Boys tracks are
ONLY fun to play in games like Singstar? Yeah, No Sleep Till
Brooklyn is a great track, and probably their most notable
rock-oriented track besides Fight For Your Right To Party, it
still sucks to play. The only acceptable Beastie Boys song would have
to be Riot Fight, which is the first ever Grindcore song.
Anyway, enough with that rant. If you're like me, and only use
the guitar, then GH: World Tour will be much like
Rock Band 2. Just a big song update
with a few new features added, but the added features are fairly
interesting. Depending on the difficulty setting you have the game
on, you may run into one of the new features, but extended sustains
add a nice bit of realism to the game. You know those long notes
you have to hold on to the fret button for? Well, extended sustains
require you to hit and hold another note while holding the original
note.
The other added feature you'll probably all notice will be the
translucent notes that the new Guitar was designed for. These notes
can be played by tapping the touchpad on the new guitar, or by simply
hitting the frets on the older guitars. They work in almost the exact
same way hammer-ons or pull-offs work, except no strumming is needed.
You can find these two features added to the bass guitar as well, but
I'm certain you'll run into a surprise if you're not properly warned
about the bass guitar in this game.
The first thing you'll notice about the bass guitar is the purple
lines going across the "highway." That is your indication to strum
without hitting any frets, much like the bass pedal for the drums.
It's an added wrinkle they tossed in to actually make playing the bass
guitar in this game somewhat difficult and actually fun to play on the
harder levels.
Singing works, for the most part, exactly like Rock Band, so those
of you who like belting out the lyrics should feel right at home here.
The drums, however, I can't really comment on, since I don't own them.
I guess I'm sort of lucky there. A lot of the people I've played with
online have reported that the drums aren't working like they should.
There are also reports that, while it is a nice guitar when it works,
the new guitar is also a bit flaky. I'm just glad I took advantage of
Best Buy putting the Guitar Hero II bundle on sale for $20 when they
were trying to get rid of stock (A brand new Xbox 360 Wired Guitar
without a game costs $59).
The career mode has also been changed for the better. Instead of
the static listing of songs in each stage of ever increasing difficulty,
you have a selection of gigs you can perform, once again much like
Rock Band. I happen to like the presentation better here simply because
you don't have to navigate between cities to see if a gig requires you
to play a song you like. It's no better than the way Rock Band does it,
I just happen to like it more.
Going online gives you the options of several styles of face-offs
with guitar or bass. I've always done the band quickplay, but once
again, that's just personal preference. There is also a mode that
allows you to create your own song, which seems limiting, but there
are some real gems that some people have made for you to download and
play. I particularly liked the Chocobo Theme someone did;
very challenging but sounds great, considering most songs sound like
ringtones.
This time around, we also get the option of creating our own
characters to use in the game. While they all still look cartoonish,
there is a large number of options when creating your character's look.
A lot of the facial and body features can be modified, which leads me
to believe that we could see a bunch of real life people created by
other players. Too bad your character has to have two thumbs,
otherwise I'd make Jamie Jasta.
Final Verdict
Guitar Hero: World Tour is not a perfect game by any stretch of the
imagination. There are a few things that I would have liked to have
seen done differently, but Activision did a nice job in making a
Rock Band clone. Now if only they could build quality equipment, then
I think it would be a bit better than Rock Band for two reasons. First,
the added twists they have for the guitars, especially with making the
bass actually fun to play, would have made it better. Also, there's
the fact that a lot of the songs are more challenging, which I think
adds to the replay. Let's just hope that they live up to their promise
of more downloadable tracks. 8 out of 10.
Official Trailer
