So, when I heard there was a new game coming out, I was genuinely intrigued, especially when I heard there would be a new guitar and restructuring of the game mechanics. I will admit, though, after the debacle that was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, I was a bit nervous about Guitar Hero. Here are two Activision franchises that were once beaten into the ground, and now getting a 2015 rebirth. Would we get another mess of a game, or would this actually rock?
Let's get to it, here is what I think of Guitar Hero Live.
To begin with, let's compare the original guitar with the new guitar:
Original:
New:
Pretty substantial redesign. Sure, that is the original from the first Guitar Hero game, but even subsequent guitars had the basic design of that one. The biggest change is the button placement. Before, you had five colored buttons going down the neck, meaning if you wanted to get that orange note, you moved your hand down and got it with your pinky finger. Now, there are six buttons (three white and three black), that are stacked along the first three frets. No longer do you have to move your hand down the neck, now you just move your three fingers up or down on those three frets. I'll get to the actual gameplay in a second, but let's keep going on the actual instrument.
The strum bar is longer and still has that comforting "click" that I really like. There is a dedicated "Hero Power" button you can hit to deploy your special power, though you can still tilt the controller like we all do anyway (The original guitar used the select button to deploy Rock Power as well). There are two black buttons next to the Hero Power button that acts as the Start button (or whatever they are calling it now on consoles). Under the whammy bar is a knob/button and another button. The knob/button doubles as an analog stick when navigating your console menus (not in-game menus) and the button on that knob is your guide button to get back to your console's main menu. The 2nd button is the GHTV button that will take you to the GHTV main menu. (more on that later).
The controller is wireless, takes two AA batteries (included) and is as simple as plugging in the included USB stick into your console, pairing the guitar to your console (few button presses) and off you go. At least that was how it is on the Xbox One version.
I really like this redesign. Whether I was sitting or standing, it felt comfortable. Sure, my fingers started to cramp up after a while, but that's more because I hadn't played a Guitar Hero/Rock Band game in quite a while and my fingers were getting used to all this. I've always preferred GH guitars over RB guitars because of the better feedback I got from the actual instrument. I like the "click" I hear and feel from the strum bar, telling me that I am definitely strumming. I like the buttons because I can feel the button being pressed, it all feels really good and helps me feel like I am really nailing these notes.
NOTE: Because of this redesign, any older guitars WILL NOT work with this new game. There are TWO buying options for Guitar Hero Live: $100 gets you the game and one guitar and $150 gets you the game and two guitars.
Now how does that guitar translate to new gameplay? As you can see, the only colors you have to worry about are black and white, what's SUPER helpful is the fact that the pick shape is actually pointing up or down, helping you get your finger placement on the frets (white being the bottom three and black being the top three). On the harder difficulties this does get tricky as certain chords utilize both white and black buttons in them. There is also the bar chord note, so you'll have to deal with holding the respective black and white buttons together. The result is actually A LOT of fun. I have played Guitar Hero games on Expert mode and rocked hard, but with Live, I felt like I had to relearn Guitar Hero and that was/is an absolute blast. It's not more of the same and the button layout really makes the feel of a real chord possible. It will take some time to get used to the new mechanics, but when you start to rock and get on a good groove, it is very rewarding.
The only thing I will say is when dealing with hammer-ons or pull-offs (specified notes where you don't need to strum but only have to press the button) it's tough to tell sometimes if it's a black note or white note, since they are specified with a blue glow. This could be because the notes are flying at me fast, since I am playing at a harder difficulty, and that my brain can't figure out which way the note is pointing fast enough, but sometimes it trips me up because I don't know which way to go. Nothing a little practice can't hash out, and not a huge deal, just something I noticed.
Alright, now to the game modes. Here is seems like there are two separate games in here: Guitar Hero Live, and Guitar Hero TV.
Live is the single player mode where you are part of several different bands, playing 3-song sets across two venues. Gone are the cartoony characters and video game crowds, and in with actual people, actual crowds, and a lot of cheesy dialogue. The crowd reacts to how you are doing, but it basically boils down do either they like you, or they hate you. The dialogue amounts to stagehands and bandmates giving you thumbs up and saying things like "Good job", or "Keep going", or "You okay?". I totally get what they were going for and it's actually a pretty cool thing...the first couple times. Each time you play the song, it's the same video, so it loses a lot of that punch. Besides, any and all Guitar Hero players really never look in the background, since the focus should be on the notes coming at you. Cool idea, just really nothing to write home about.
While you are choosing which set to play, you get a fake radio show where a couple hosts say generic things about what's going on at these venues along with fake Twitter accounts saying how awesome everything is. These things really feel unnecessary and it could be just me, but I am starting to get tired of games that shoehorn social media stuff in it. Basically you'll want to speed your way through the campaign mode so you can unlock all the songs for Quickplay. It's pretty lackluster, but basically serves for the real meat of the game...
Guitar Hero TV.
This thing is rad.
Remember when MTV used to play music videos? That's what GHTV is. This is the online mode. There are (as of now) two channels that will stream videos 24/7, and allow you to play along, trying to get the best score possible and ranking you on leaderboards. For instance, you jump into channel 1 because you see you can play "Epic" by Faith No More, so you jump in and start shredding. Song ends, you get some XP depending on how you rank, you get some in-game currency, next song loads, and now you are playing "More Than A Feeling" by Boston, lather, rinse, repeat.
The channels lump songs together be genre. For example: Channel 1 may be running Rock from 1 - 1:30 and channel 2 could be running an Indie hour from 1 - 2, and so on. When selecting a channel, you can see what's coming up over the next hour or so, so you can plan ahead. Though, if you don't like what's playing on either channel, you can always go to the On Demand section and play any available song from the relatively huge library. Though there is a catch that I will get to in a second.
When you play a song, you are given XP and coins depending on how well you did, which you get to see in real time on the side of the screen. Leveling up will unlock new player cards, new highway skins, new Hero Powers and so on, and the coins you get can be used to purchase unique items as well as "Plays". These Plays are how you use the On Demand service. So if you want to play a specific song you have to use a Play, and you have the option of (dun dun dun) buying Plays with REAL MONEY! I haven't found this to be too egregious since I usually have more than enough Plays, as leveling up will also yield them, and there is usually something on the Channels that I will play anyway.
This does pose some things worth considering. You do not actually buy any of these songs, so you can't just play them whenever you want since you have a finite amount of Plays. Also, because of this, if you played a particularly difficult song and want another crack at a difficult part of it, you have to be cognizant of how many Plays you have. Also, they are selling a pass that will get you access to the entire library (Play free) for 24 hours for around $6.
Microtransactions tend to scare people off, but it's really not that big of a deal here. You can totally enjoy GHTV for FREE. Sure, you can throw money at Plays, at Coins, or even at Premium (time-based challenges that unlock around level 6) but this mode is at its best when you just pick a channel and play, and you can do that for free. Guitar Hero TV is one of the most unique modes I have ever seen in a rhythm game, and it's super addictive. I can't tell you how many times I tried turning the game off, just to see a certain song was being played on one of the channels, and then jumping in again.
The question will be longevity. There is a great shell here with Guitar Hero TV and it's an absolute blast and something that I see myself going back to often. My hope is that this will get updated with more content on a regular basis. More songs, accessories, channels, more, more, more. My current biggest gripe is that there are only two channels. Many times you will be sitting there waiting for something to come on either channel because both just happen to be showing a quick preview of a song that's On Demand. Hopefully the addition of more songs will create the need for a 3rd and 4th channel.
As far as the music itself goes, the single player soundtrack is fine overall, nothing that really blew me away. Music is all about taste though, right? So I am sure you will find something to love and things to not like. The songs featured on GHTV go across a pretty wide spectrum, so there really is something for everyone there.
Guitar Hero Live changes the fundamental aspects enough to feel fresh, yet still be simple enough to pick up and enjoy, and while the single-player campaign may be lacking, Guitar Hero TV is going to be where you spend most of your time and will eat up hours and hours of enjoyable shredding as you climb the leaderboards. I don't know if "Return to Form" is the right term, but Guitar Hero Live certainly is worth a look and is still as enjoyable now as it was 10 years ago.
Also, as of this morning when I left for my day job, I was number 13 in the world at Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom", bring it!
No comments:
Post a Comment