Game review: Guitar Hero: World Tour

In the last couple years music games have become very popular. A while ago I reviewed the two Rock Band games. Now it is time for the latest entry this time from Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero: World Tour tries to capitalize on the use of multiple instruments. Previously in Guitar Hero you could play either guitar or bass. But now they have added drums and vocals.

The game can be bought by itself or in a bundle containing a guitar, drum set and microphone. But if you don't want to spend the money it will work with all the guitar controllers out there and will also work with the Rock Band drum set. But keep in mind if you use the Rock Band set the game does change a bit. The set for Guitar Hero has a total of five pads. Three lower ones and two that are raised above the others like cymbals. But the Rock Band set only has four pads. So the game changes the notes to only use the four pads plus the kick which means you won't get as high of a score as you would otherwise.

There are some other changes to drumming. If you use the Guitar Hero set the pads are pressure sensitive. Which means the harder you hit the pad the louder the note. There are also certain notes highlighted with silver that give you extra points for hitting them harder. The game does have freeform fill sections like Rock Band but these are just used to bump up your score and aren't used to unleash Star Power. In Guitar Hero all you have to do is hit two of the pads at the same and it will turn it on. I personally didn't like in Rock Band how some songs have either no fill sections or ones that are very far apart. Which means if you start to fail at the wrong point in a song you're screwed.

The guitar in the game has changed a bit too. The controller has been upgraded with another set of buttons halfway down the neck. These are touch sensitive and are used for several different things. First you can use it to tap out the notes without strumming or you can use it in the slide sections. You will see darker colored notes connected by lines. This means you can slide your fingers across the pad to connect the notes together. This is a nice concept but you never know when these sections are coming so the first time you play a song odds are you'll miss it. The pad can also be used to create the same effect as the whammy bar on held notes.

Bass has changed a little too. The only big addition is sometimes you will see purple lines across the note bar. This means that you strum without having any buttons pressed.

The microphone is pretty similar to that in Rock Band. You don't have to get the words to the song right, all you have to do is match the pitch. Which means a lot of the time you'll have to sing like a robot or really monotone to match everything up.

Another thing they added for this game was the ability to create a character. The system is a bit more robust than the one in Rock Band. You can tweak your character's face and body quite a bit to customize them just the way you want. You also have the ability to create your own custom instruments. With the guitars and bass you can choose everything from the neck to the pickups to the volume knobs. This is really a nice touch and helps your character feel more unique. You can also make your own drum set and even put a custom logo on the front of the bass drum.

Now the most important thing about this kind of game is the songs. The game has a pretty good song list. You've got some classic stuff like American Woman, Hotel California, The Joker and Crazy Train. There is also some newer stuff from bands like Silversun Pickups, The Mars Volta and Rise Against. But as usual with these games it seems like more attention was put into newer songs than the classic ones. But they are all still a lot of fun to play.

What Guitar Hero is known for is the difficulty. Rock Band toned it down a bit to appeal to a broader audience. But Guitar Hero hasn't let up that much. There are some songs like Van Halen's Hot for Teacher that will really give you a run for your money. But I think if you are a purest that only plays on expert you might find this game easier than pervious entries in the series.

In Guitar Hero 3 they introduced the idea of guest artists appearing in the game. In that game you battled against them and then were able to unlock them later to use. This game has ramped it up a bit and has guest appearances from Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Travis Barker (Blink 182), Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society), Haley Williams (Paramore), Sting and Ted Nugent. These are a nice addition but they feel a bit tacked on.

In the previous games a lot of people have commented about how stiff the characters are. this hasn't changed much in this game. Even those based on real people still move a bit like robots. And for some reason Ozzy opens his mouth way too wide when he sings and his lips don't move which makes him look like a ventriloquist's dummy. I kind of wish that they'd spent more time making the characters a bit more lifelike then trying to put in guest artists.

There have been some upgrades to the game's multiplayer. There are the standard head to head and battle modes. But along with that there is band quick play and band versus band. In band versus band two bands of up to 4 players compete to see who can get the best score. This is a nice addition but it felt like it needed to be fleshed out a little more and felt kind of bare bones.

The other big new addition to the game is the music studio. In here you can create your own tracks for others to play in the game. You can put in the guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and several other things besides vocals. You can either put the notes in by hand or you can play them out on the instrument. The touchpad on the guitar even gives you some options in the music studio. The problem with it is that it takes a lot of patience to create a song. The interface is kind of confusing at first and if you aren't familiar with making or mixing music odds are you're going to get lost. Then add to that the fact that the sound quality of these tracks isn't that good. They all sound like old midi files. There are a few fun ones to play but know that if you want to make your own you'll have to devote quite a bit of time to get it just right.

The game does have downloadable songs like Rock Band and the other Guitar Hero games. It doesn't quite have the library that Rock Band does but it is trying to catch up. But since this game is such an upgrade from Guitar Hero 3 the songs you have from that game will not work in this one.

If you are into the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games I say check this one out. But if you already have the instruments from another game don't spend the money unless you really feel you want to. It doesn't take any huge leaps forward and seems like it wants to catch up with Rock Band but that doesn't make the game any less fun.

My score: 8.0/10