The overall rating of a review is different from a simple average of all individual ratings.
Advantages:
Excellent soundtrack; awesome gameplay; Guitar Controller is responsive and really immerses you into the experience; lots of value; beautiful graphics engine, though you won't be seeing it much .
Disadvantages:
Costs a heck of a lot .
Recommendable
Yes:
Detailed rating:
Gameplay/Playability
Graphics
Sound
Value for Money
Difficulty & ComplexityAverage - suitable for most
I'm addicted to somthing worse than crack.....videogames!
I'm addicted to somthing worse than crack.....videogames!
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-(Game Information)- Name:Guitar Hero Publisher:RedOctane Developer:Harmonix Music Genre:Rhythm Game Release Date:Nov 24, 2006 Age Rating:12+ for Mild Lyrics Number Of Players:1-2 Online:No Developer Site:www.redoctane.com Product Site:www.guitarherogame.co.uk Memory Card Usage:204kb minimum
-(History)- Harmonix Music have mainly made rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution, Amplitude and Frequency. They have collaborated with companies like 'Konami', 'Sony Computer Entertainment' and 'RedOctane'. Guitar Hero has made quite a name for itself. It has released it's sequel on the PS2 and was recently released on the Xbox 360. Soon, there will probably be a Guitar Hero 3, and Harmonix will be releasing a game called Rock Band, where you not only get to control a guitar, but you can also use drums and a microphone. Think of it as Guitar Hero+Donkey Konga+Singstar Rocks!.
-(The Controls)- The controls are not the same as usual, then again your controller won't be the same as usual. Instead of using your usual PS2 controller, you use a plastic guitar made by RedOctane themselves. To play you basically need to push down one of the five coloured fret buttons on the neck of the guitar and, instead of plucking strings, you push the strum bar to hit the notes. There's also a whammy bar just for some special fun. If you're worried about going into the game with no clue on what to do, don't worry anymore as there are tutorials which show you how to play. There are also tutorials for experts to help them become better. The controller is very well-made and very responsive.
-(The Gameplay)- Perhaps the best thing about Guitar Hero is it's learning curve. If you go into the game on a difficulty like Hard or Expert then you'll suck, i guarantee. So you should start with easy. Basically you only have to hit three of it's notes, then on medium you start to use 4 notes, then on hard you have to hit all five notes
and then on expert you have to really give all your abillity when you play. The songs are also changed a bit when on a difficulty. Basically the songs will go faster and you'll need to hit more than one note. It's really good how Guitar Hero's learning curve is set out, meaning this game can be played by beginners.
The gameplay is quite simple. You have a scrolling fret board coming at you with notes that you need to hit which is similar to Amplitude. Once you hit the notes, you get points and these points affect the score at the end. The more notes you hit in the row, the more your combo multiplier goes up, which can go up to 4x. If you hit star notes then your star metre goes up and once it's full enough, you can activate 'Star Power' which you can activate by tilting your guitar upwards. This basically doubles your combo metre and raises your Rock metre quicker, which is basically your life metre.
You sometimes don't need to jut hit a single note, as sometimes you need to do more than that. There are notes that stretch out quite a bit, and when that happens you'll need to hold down the coloured fret button indicated on the board until it finishes. Another type of note is when you have to press down two notes at the same time (e.g. you'll have to hold down the green and red fret buttons at the same time), which is quite hard considering you have to get your timing right. Sometimes you have to hold two notes at the same time and hold the two fret buttons down until the note finishes. That's really hard.
You're life meter has three sections which are Green, Yellow and Red. If your meter is in green you're safe, if your meter is in yellow then you're good but could be better but if your meter is red then you suck. If your meter starts flashing red then you're on the verge of death and once it goes right to the end then you have failed the song. After you have ompleted a song you will be rated on up to 5 stars. You'll be rated on Points, Percentage of notes hit and number of notes hit in a row. The better you do, the more stars you get.
There are three modes in total. The main mode is the Career mode. You basically play through songs and unlock arenas. There's no real story to Guitar Hero but that doesn't effect the game at all. The story on easy has about 25 songs to play through (5 songs per arena) but on harder difficulties there are more songs. In the easy difficulty you don't have the unlock shop but when you play on harder difficulties the unlock shop is available. On harder difficulties you earn cash to spend in the unlock shop. The better you do, the more money you receive. There's not much to the story mode, as all you do is play songs, but the song selection is so fantastic, that you'll forgive that point. Quick play is like the exhibition mode from the WWE games, where you can play any songs you've unlocked. This is great for practice and is fun to play as the song selection is so great.
I played it with a mate and have lots of fun with the multiplayer. The screen is split in half and you and your friend (or enemy) do solos and the song is split up so both of you can play. The songs are split up very well to suit multiplayer and this mode is fun to play as well. Unfortunately the game costs a lot, even after being released for nearly a year. It's still £50 with the guitar and that's too much as far as I'm concerned and with the sequel out now they should reduce it. But that's my opinion, and it obviously doesn't affect the gameplay, but it may affect the purchase.
-(The Graphics)- Most rhythm games aren't much to look at, but Guitar Hero is very different. It looks fantastic. The character models look very detailed. There are quite a lot of characters, ranging from punk chicks, to hard rock men and even death himself. Come on, isn't death himself enough to make you buy this game? Anyway the arenas look just as fantastic, with arenas like your garage, to pubs and even live arenas. The crowd themselves look great, and though they're not much to look at, or have much variety, if you compared them to crowds from games like WWF Smackdown:Just Bring It, then you'll find they're great. The guitar models look great, with a lot of variety. There are lot's of guitars as well which is even better. The frame rate remains smooth throughout the whole game, which is good as if a rhythm game has a unsteady
Pictures of Guitar Hero (PS2)
Dude, this rocks man. YEAH!
frame rate, then that makes the game laughably easy. It's a shame you can't look at the graphics much, as your mind will be focused on the notes coming across the screen. The fret board itself reminded me of a person with a tattooed arm, as it has lots of patterns and rock symbols, as well as the rock notes.
-(The Sound)- The sound really stands out. I mean what's the point of a rhythm game with rubbish music. The soundtrack has some old rock songs like Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon" and Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'," and some new songs like Sum 41's "Fat Lip" and Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out.". You are more than likely to find a favourite song on here. There are a total of 30 songs in career mode, plus another batch of unlockable tunes from the developer's various bands. The sound effects are just as good. If you miss a note it just has an evil realistic fret noise. You can also hear the crowd clapping which is another good effect and when you do a star power move, the whole game goes louder than usual.
-(Replay Value)- Guitar Hero has a ton of value under it's guitar strap. The career is quite long, clocking in at around 15 hours. Once you've completed the game on Easy you can try to complete the game on the other three difficulties, try to unlock everything in the unlock shop, play on the multiplayer and quick play modes and play on all the songs.
-(Ending Comments)- Guitar Hero is very creative, sounds extremely fantastic, has lot's of re-playability and looks terrific. This game is perfect and one of my best games ever. You will love this if you love Rock. And if you don't really like music then you may like this for the challenge. Obviously if you're mad about Hip Hop or Pop then this game will disgust you, but if anything else then you will like this. If you don't mind paying a lot of money, then this will be well worth it.
-(If You Like This I'd Suggest)- Amplitude Frequency
-(Where You Can Buy It)- Amazon=With Guitar:£49.99 Guitar Hero Solus:£22.99 Guitar Hero Guitar Solus:£24.99
-(Track List)- I Love Rock & Roll-Joan Jett & The Blackhearts I Wanna Be Sedated-The Ramones Thunder Kiss '65-White Zombie Smoke on the Water-Deep Purple Infected-Bad Religion Iron Man-Black Sabbath More Than a Feeling-Boston You've Got Another Thing Comin-Judas Priest Take Me Out-Franz Ferdinand Sharp Dressed Man-ZZ Top Killer Queen-Queen Hey You-The Exies Stellar-Incubus Heart Full of Black-Burning Brides Symphony of Destruction-Megadeth Ziggy Stardust-David Bowie Fat Lip-Sum 41 Cochise-Audioslave Take It Off-The Donnas Unsung-Helmet Spanish Castle Magic-Jimi Hendrix Higher Ground-Red Hot Chili Peppers[1] No One Knows-Queens of the Stone Age Ace Of Spades-Motörhead Crossroads-Cream Godzilla-Blue Öyster Cult Texas Flood-Stevie Ray Vaughan Frankenstein-The Edgar Winter Group Cowboys from Hell-Pantera Bark at the Moon-Ozzy Osbourne
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Advantages: Rocking out to the greatest songs of all time | Great graphics for those watching Disadvantages: Could use some more songs | More unlockable / purchasble content
DBZKing 19.11.2008 (19.11.2008)
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