Nerd Mentality

XBOX 360 REVIEW: Guitar Hero 5

Posted September 24th 2009 by Will Davey.

Just ten months after the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero 5 is now in stores. There are 85 songs from almost as many different artists, meaning that this game has the widest variety of songs in any game in the series so far. On top of that, a few new modes and mechanics have been thrown in to try and convince the customer that this addition is worth the money. Adding all of this together though, I'd have to say that Guitar Hero 5 is potentially the best game in the series so far.

At its core, Guitar Hero 5 is still the same game it has always been. Notes scroll down the screen and you have to make sure you're holding in the correct fret buttons when you hit the strum bar. Since Guitar Hero: World Tour and the addition of drums and vocals, the ways to play the game have increased. Guitar Hero 5 doesn't add any new instruments, but the things that have been added make for a much more enjoyable experience than in previous games.

Arguably one of the best additions to Guitar Hero 5 is Party Play. On the main menu, there's always a song playing in the background. Pressing a single button will get rid of the main menu and bring up a chart for the song, at which point you can pick a difficulty to play on, and notes will start to appear after a couple of seconds. Not only that, but if someone wants to join you mid-song, just turn on another controller, press join, pick a difficulty, and they're playing the game with no interruptions. You can also change difficulty on the fly, which is a nice touch. The best addition to the game for me though, is the ability to play with any combination of instruments. This sounds like the setup for a cheesy TV advert, but I was literally sitting at home on Party Play, my brother walked in the front door, he picked up a second controller and jumped straight into the song on a second lead guitar. By eliminating the laborious way that multiplayer games had to be set up in previous games, it makes the game much more accessible.

Music is, obviously, completely open to opinion. For me though, the track list for the game is quite disappointing, and the main problem seems to be that it's too varied. There are a few big names in the game such as Bon Jovi, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, but then at the other end of the spectrum, you've also got some death metal tracks. I can't understand who Activision are trying to appeal to with some of the song choices. In the process of picking such a variety of artists, I do think they may potentially alienate a lot of customers. Rather than people liking all of the songs, it's much more likely that they will like half of the track list, or less, and why buy a game when you won't like half of the content?

A lot of the songs seemed more like filler. There aren't really any memorable tracks that would make me go back to Guitar Hero 5 as opposed to another music game. That's not to say all of the songs are bad, but playing on lead guitar, I did find the majority of the track list a bit disappointing. One thing that helps alleviate the track list problem is, via a free update, all downloadable content for Guitar Hero: World Tour will be compatible with the game, so if you've bought songs for that, you can play them on Guitar Hero 5 without having to change discs. You can also import some songs from World Tour and Smash Hits, and while it does cost you 280 Microsoft Points, it should mean that you won't be changing discs as often.

In previous Guitar Hero games, you could get up to a five star rating depending on how well you performed on the song. In Guitar Hero 5, if you play a song perfectly, you can earn a sixth star on every song, and with the addition of Challenges in Career mode, you can earn up to nine stars per song. Challenges can range from getting a long note streak to keeping a  high band multiplier, and there three levels of difficulty for each challenge. It's a nice addition that adds a bit more incentive to play a song that you may have otherwise been less inclined to play, and with in-game content up for grabs as rewards for completing challenges, there's definitely a lot to play for.

The new multiplayer modes are enjoyable too, with my favorite being Do or Die. You face off against other players with the objective being to play each section of the song as best you can. You get a strike for each note that you miss, and when you miss your third, you have to sit out for the rest of the section. For each section you get through you get a point and the person with the most points at the end wins. It's a high pressure mode where a handful of missed notes can mean you lose, and I had plenty of fun playing through some difficult songs with a few friends.

As a complete package, I'd have to say that Guitar Hero 5 is the best game in the series so far. Party Play is a great addition, and being able to play any combination of instruments is a dream come true for me. It's a shame, then, that the track list for the game is so disappointing, because although I'd go back to the game for the new game modes, I wouldn't go back to play the songs. That said, I would still recommend Guitar Hero 5 to anyone who's remotely interested. I may not like the track list, but that doesn't mean you won't, and with some great new modes to get your hands on, you could have the best Guitar Hero experience yet.

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Tags: Guitar Hero 5, Xbox 360

Posted in: Reviews, Gaming

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