Guitar Hero 5 for Xbox 360

I got Guitar Hero 5 a couple of months ago, I bought it because it came with a free copy of GH Van Halen (I’ll review that later but there’s a good reason why that’s a freebe). Now I don’t know if GH 5 is the 5th in the series or just the 5th released last year. There was GH Metalica, GH Smash Hits, Band Hero, DJ Hero, GH Van Halen. And lets not forget there rival franchise Rockband had two music games, so 8 games that are pretty much the same with different music no wonder why the franchises didn’t do too spectacular last year, the cash cow was bleeding blood. Oh well I review them on individual performance and GH 5 is the most different from all the games I played last year, not that is necessarily a good or bad thing.

Story.
No real story here but you do get clips of the god of Rock and Lou the devil sitting around watching your band in a crystal ball and that’s pretty much it. The whole goal of carrier is to unlock enough stars to unlock the final stage.

Graphics.
Like previous GH the main graphics you worried about is the scroll bars with the notes (or in the case of the singer the lyrics) scroll across the screen. The backgrouond where it shows your band doing a concert are the best yet. Gone are the more cartoonish robotic look, now the character sport a more realistic look. And so do the stadiums they perform in. On the downside the character roster has been cut in half, however the character customization and the ability to use your xbox avatar more then make up for that. \

A few different things can be seen on this version compare to past. The rock meter is now a bar on the edge of the track, and the star meter is now also a similar blue bar on the opposite side of the track. Not a big deal but you don’t have to look has far to see how much star power you have and that helps.

Sound.
This is a music game so the music is important. Not nearly has many good songs in this compare to world tour, but there is a smorgus board with a lot of unique songs from classics, to more modern, and even some country (with Johnny Cash ring of fire and unlockable character). There are 93 songs + you can now import some songs from world tour and other GH releases (for a small fee). The music in the game may not be has good but it’s adequate enough to keep you playing.

Gameplay.
First the GH basics still apply. Round color notes appear on screen, you press the corresponding color and strum when it gets down to the line. You do good and the rock meter fills up, you do poorly it goes down and you eventually get booed off the stage. There are special star notes when you hit them fill up your star power meter. When it gets filled tipping the guitar uses that power to double your score and fill your rock meter ultra fast. The harder the difficulty faster the speed and the notes go.

Now on to how this game is different. First off there is no cash, only stars that you earn in career mode. Like the previous games 5 is max in each song normally. However to add a little more challenge there are now bonus challenges for each song requiring use of an instrument. These challenges can be getting a streak, earning enough star power, a high score etc. The challenges present themselves in color discs going from gold to diamond and you earn extra stars based on what you get for these challenges. Along with the stars you will also unlock new stuff for your customizable characters.

Now this will be the biggest problem with the game there is no rewards really for what level you beat it, granted to clear the challenges you will have to tone the difficulty up. Or do you it seems that if you have friends good at the game or meet someone online who is good at the challenges the rewards go to you, so basically a beginner can unlock everything in the game without even trying. Now I am ok with opening it up for everyone but please some rewards should be dolled out for trying to beat the game on expert.

Speaking about online band in career if you want to beat the band challenges or just feel like playing with someone else to improve your chances hooking up is easy. Just hit the orange button on the guitar controller and it starts looking online for fellow band mates. Also the standard band is no longer forced. You can have 4 guitars, 4 bass, 4 drummers, or 4 singers, or a different mix between them so getting a full 4 player band is now easier then ever.

Also when you play in the band there are a few changes that will help ease new comers into it. First off you now each have your own life meter. If one person ends up failing the song the others can bring them back by doing well on there part. Another change that when playing has a band if you fill up your star meter gage any additional star power will go to other band members meaning you can always have some spare star power to bail out friends. Also there is a band multiplayer that can go up to times 11 with things like having all band being at a X4, using star power at the same time, has well has hitting special notes that are on fire.

Adding to the multiplayer is the new competitive mode which still features the pro face off and the band vs. band face off. But now features a new rock fest mode in which the rules change for every song. It’s a fun party game that is worth checking out.

The game quickplay feature now has a setlist option in which you can create a set list of any size if you want to play constantly for several hours.

The law suit.
I have to poke fun of the law suit over Kurt Kobain in the game (sing the title of the review to the tune of your so vain) and tell people what it’s about. The game allows you to pick any character you created or unlock for any part of the band and they will also act out like the singer of said song does during the video that plays in the background. So basically I can have Johnny Cash singing ex-girlfriend for a big laugh. I can understand why uber fans of the singers might be a little peeved to see avatars of them singing songs that they may never have approved of. That said I think it’s still another junk law suit in a culture that seems to have a thing for junk law suits.

Achievements and online.
All ready said the online is pretty streamlined into the game. The achievements are pretty fair for the most part. Again you can get people to help you unlock them has anytime you play online in carrier you get the best person score when it comes to the challenges. There are some nice ones for clearing all the songs, and creating setlist and playing over 100 songs in quickplay mode.

Final recommendation.
While I didn’t enjoy the songs has much, and I don’t like the fact that there is no real reward or achievements tolled out for beating the game on hard and expert I still enjoyed GH5. The new changes to the band modes made it more enjoyable, and the rock fest modes are definitely a treat. I also got a free copy of van halen (sorry offers expired awhile ago) and I will try to review that soon (note it isn’t worth 50-60 bucks but it isn’t entirely the song selection fault)