Guitar Hero II
HELLO CLEVELAND!!!
Tags: Guitar Hero II Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 21st, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Guitar Hero II (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Music/Rhythm | No | ||
Guitar Hero came like a breath of fresh air to the music/rhythm game genre with its blend of gameplay and music selections. A favorite game of many that is still played quite extensively, the sequel naturally had a high level of expectation to surpass. Now players take a band on the road in a search for fame and glory. Along they way player find a little piece of rock heaven.
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Yeah, ok, enough with the “journalistic” analysis. Guitar Hero II builds on the original by bringing in a lot more songs – and a larger variety. More “alt” and “pop” rock numbers show up, so Guitar Hero II is a little less singularly focused. This comes off as a double edged sword, in that there’s no clear focus on style, but it does ensure that players will find some songs they love. Personally, I’ll never get 100% in the game because I refuse to play Alice in Chains, even though it’s one of the bigger local acts to come out of here (Seattle). Personal reasons. Not going to go into it here.
Moving on…
The track listing is more diverse, with less of a clear take on what direction this band is headed. Bands usually have a fairly clear musical direction with a few deviations. Here the band presented is a bit more all over the map with regards to genre. There are not a lot of bands out there that would cover Matthew Sweet as swell as Warrant and Suicidal Tendencies. It is, however, still a very solid (and lengthy) set of tunes to play through.
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While the set list is a bit more diverse, it is also quite a bit longer. I stopped counting at 6, but there’s a lot more to the game than last year’s offering in terms of single player. Something like over 60 tunes to rock through. That’s a significant upgrade over last year’s game. There are even a couple of “real” songs included here. By “real” I mean the actual song by the band that wrote, recorded and performed them during their careers. It’s good to see bands are getting hip to the Guitar Hero bandwagon. It’s a good one to jump on.
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With increased set lists come increased difficulty. Those that found Guitar Hero to be a challenge may balk at just how much harder this one is. It’s a significantly noticeable upgrade. Many thought that the original was too easy, even on the hardest level, and for those players the game has become a challenge. For the rest of the folks that thought the game was good and difficult enough will absolutely have to take part in the new practice mode. Players can now partake of a song and break it down by section in order to get their fingers placed on the correct fret button at the right time in the newly revamped practice mode.
Instead of having to go through the entire song in order to nail that one section that’s troublesome (such as the solo) players now can dissect the song just like a real band does during practice. This is much better than the original game, and really comes in handy when having to work on smaller sections of songs that are far too lengthy for their own good.
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Want to know what else is better? Multiplayer.
Now players can play in a band together with one person playing lead, the other rhythm guitar – or even bass! Actually, the inclusion of bass parts may seem rather lame in their simplicity, but not only are there some tracks that require bass players to actually have some skill, but this is a way to get those that wouldn’t otherwise play the game to strap on a guitar. Or at least a guitar controller. Adding to the enjoyment of the new multiplayer is the scaled difficulty modes. One player can go full on hardcore while the other person takes it easy.
One (minor) problem is that both guitars have to activate Star Power at the same time. This would be fine for a Judas Priest song, but for most of the tracks, I think only one person needs to be able to activate and benefit from Star Power.
It would have been nice to include the co-op mode in the Career portion of the game. Hopefully this can be remedied by the time the Xbox 360 version is released next year.
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There are some new graphics for Guitar Hero II – most notably the animations. Overall a bit “cleaner” or “crisper” from the first title, what really stands out are the way the characters prance around while on Star Power as if it were the new Speedball. There are a couple of new players to choose from, but just like the first game, nobody has any sort of advantage while playing certain types of songs.
Unlockables – plenty of them. From characters to outfits to songs and more, Guitar Hero II has plenty to keep players rockin’ until the midnight hour (and beyond) to earn big bucks playing gigs to get all there is to offer. There are also a few different axes to grind away on but they only become available after getting through the game on each of the difficulty levels. Sadly, they don’t make the trip worth it because they don’t help in any performance way. They do look cool though.
Look, if you enjoyed Guitar Hero and want more, just pick this up already. If you’re not sure, head over to a friend’s house. If that person is a real friend they already picked up the game and have two guitar controllers so you can try it out. It’s more of the same, but when it’s this good, isn’t that what we want?
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Encores + Great and vaired set list + Real bands are starting to show up too + New practice mode + Multiplayer now co-op + Bass and Rhythm guitar in multiplayer |
10 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- That great and varied set list is a double-edged sword - No co-op or bass in career - A bit too difficult for the "casual" gamer |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This game personifies all that is good about rock and roll - along with its excesses. Guitar Hero II does exactly what it says it will do, which is to rock your ass off (but instead of ass, it's your fingers). | |
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Tags: Guitar Hero II
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 21st, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
