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Guitar Hero 5
by Activision
I guess its true, once you’ve played 1 band game you’ve played them all. Guitar Hero 5 is basically the same game regergatated into a pretty, new package. Before I go to far for those that are unfamiliar with the Guitar Hero series, this game allows you to play some of the most popular songs ever recorded with the help of a controller modeled after an actual guitar. The guitar controller, also known as the Stratacastor, allows you to place one hand on the neck and press buttons on the neck resembling the strings on the guitar. The strum bar replaces where you would strum with your fingers or pick. Its just like playing a real guitar.
The aspect of this game that I was looking forward to the most was the track list. The Guitar Hero franchise had never failed me, and still continues to put together a good playlist. I can’t say the playlist is as good as G.H. Legends of Rock or Greatest Hits, but with the ability to important the playlist from Guitar Hero Greatest Hits and Metallica the playlist got that much better.
Another addition to the game were the guest star rockers, such as Shirley Manson into the game As of right now I haven’t finished the game so I’m expecting a few other high profile guest. Another welcome addition is the challenges they offer for the whole band or specific insturments. These challenges, such as hitting the whammy bar for 30 seconds thru 1 song or hitting the snare drum 200 times in a song, create replay value. The best addition to this game is the ability to have any combination of up to 4 instruments for one song. You could have 4 guitars for example, or 4 drummers, or 2 drummers and 2 singers. any combination.
What I’m missing from the game are the boss battles from Guitar Hero Legends of Rock and the fire works, when you activate your star power. For those who don’t know, Star Power is your “overdrive button”. It doubles your score multiplier and can save you if your failing a song. The characters on screen now move regardless you miss the note or not. In previous games, if you weren’t playing the controller the character wouldn’t play the instrument on screen.
The game is graphically beautiful. The controls seem more responsive and as you progress thru the career mode, the game becomes more challenging. The playlist isn’t as hard hitting as past games, but thats really a matter of opinion. The new playlist and the ability to import playlist from previous games are nice but not revoluntionary The ability to have any combination of up to 4 instruments going is an awesome addition. I give this game 5 Max@Plays out of 7
Stay tuned for the multiplayer Review
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