- Publisher: Activision
- Developer: Neversoft
- Also On: PS3, Wii
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Music/Rhythm
- Pros: New features; using avatars; gameplay solid as ever
- Cons: Song list is kind of weak; famous rock stars don’t add much
As far as new “stuff” goes, Guitar Hero 5 is impressive. There has been a definite shift in attitude towards casual players and parties, and it is a move in the right direction. When the game first starts (after the dev/pub logos) it goes right into a song that you can play or skip past to get to the menu. Very cool. From the menu, you can select all of the normal GH modes for career, quickplay, music creator, online play, etc., but you can also choose Party Play by pressing the Y button. Party Play lets you and up to three other people jump in and jump out of songs at will, swap instruments and difficulty levels on the fly, and doesn’t bother with points or the possibility of failing or any of that other stuff that scares people away. It is purely for 100% fun, and that is a good thing. Another good thing is that GH5 allows any combination of instruments you want. Four guitars, four bass, two drummers a singer and a bass – anything you want.
Something I have found I like a lot better than I thought I would is being able to use your Xbox 360 Avatar in the game. The Avatars kinda look better than the normal GH characters anyway, but seeing yourself onstage rocking out is pretty neat. They need more animations, though, because oftentimes your Avatar will be rocking out even though they shouldn’t be playing anything.
Career Mode
One aspect of career I don’t care for, and didn’t care about in previous games, either, is the real rock stars that come out and play with you. They plain and simply don’t add anything. I’d rather play with my band of Avatars or created rockers than celebrities. And in particular, dead celebrities. Jimi Hendrix was weird in World Tour, but seeing Kurt Cobain or Johnny Cash playing with goofy looking Avatars in the background is pretty much blasphemy. No thanks.
Song List
The real selling point of any music/rhythm game is the song list, and this is one area where GH5 kind of stumbles. Depending on musical tastes and all that, you will like more or less of the songs of course, but there are some real stinkers here and some really questionable calls. Check out the full list here. I can’t help but wonder on some of the songs. Why the live version of Nirvana’s “Lithium”? Why the Bob Dylan version of “All Along the Watchtower” instead of Hendrix? Why keep putting Beastie Boys songs in these games? They aren’t fun! There are 85 songs here, but only, maybe, 25 I’ll keep going back to. Not too good.Another issue is with the song import feature. You can import songs from GH: World Tour and Smash Hits to play in GH5. It’ll cost you, but Rock Band already set that precedent so you can’t really complain. What you can complain about is the actual songs that you can port over. As of this writing, only 35 World Tour songs work and no Tool, no Hendrix, no MJ, no Eagles – see the list here. It flat out isn’t worth the money or the huge download at this point to import songs. Bad form. Smash Hits songs might be okay, but if they use the same awful note charts (which they will) it won’t be worth it.
Gameplay
Gameplay in GH5 is the same as it has ever been. It is solid across all instruments and a heck of a lot of fun. Neversoft knows how to make fun charts now, so no worries there. The timing is a bit different here, though, in that the window for hitting normal notes seems humongous and the window for PO/HO seems tiny. Still fun, though.
Graphically, Guitar Hero 5 looks pretty good. Seeing your Avatar onstage is pretty neat and the venues you play in all look really good. The HUD has changed a bit, but it is easy enough to figure out.
Sound
The sound is fine. Unlike Smash Hits which sounded off, Guitar Hero 5 sounds good all around.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that Guitar Hero 5 is a solid rhythm game that has been made accessible for pretty much everybody and is pretty easily the best mainline (GH: Metallica is still their best overall) Guitar Hero game Neversoft has produced so far. It poses kind of a unique problem, though, in that is has a great feature set that makes you want to love it, but the song selection leaves quite a bit to be desired so you might not find much you actually want to play. That is just my personal musical preferences, though, so you should take a look at the song list and the DLC and see if you come up with enough songs you’ll want to play. It also has to be said, though, that if you like to play with friends and family, Guitar Hero 5 is easily the most accessible and feature-rich rhythm game yet that is absolutely perfect for players of all skill levels. Everyone can play what they want and at the difficulty they want and they don’t have to feel bad about it. For that reason alone, Guitar Hero 5 is worth picking up. It is a better multiplayer game than solo game, so weigh that into it when you are considering the features and song list, but for most people Guitar Hero 5 is worth buying.
