Activision's latest fretfest brings improved graphics and animation over the previous incarnations, with a wider range of song styles and a bigger focus on casual multiplayer.
For those who have played other games in the series, the general gameplay is no different, you choose your song and use your plastic peripheral to play along to a simplified guitar track with the game designed to make sure there is a difficulty for everyone, from simply strumming in time with the track to pain inducing tapping solos for the old pros.
Influenced by MTV's Rock band series, Guitar hero now allows you to play bass, drums, and sing, provided you have the correct kit for the job. Luckily a lot of the gear works across different games, meaning if you already have a drumkit from Rock Band or a mic from Singstar you are ready to rock out. The multiplayer element has really been worked on, allowing multiple players to play the same instrument, and a drop in, drop out feature.
The game allows you to choose any songs from the start to practice, but to unlock new guitars, characters and upgrades for your personalised rocker, applied using the create a character function, you will need to tackle the career mode. This works by making you play through songs at different venues, charting the rise of your virtual band. Challenges such as hitting a certain number of notes in a row, or keeping your score multiplier at a steady rate, keep this mode interesting and ensures you have a good go at every song, rather than just sticking to the ones you know. The unlocking method is simpler than the previous method of gaining money for gigs, which could then be spent to unlock things. The drawback of this is that if you don't have the correct piece of kit to unlock a particular challenge, or you just plain suck at singing, you are unable to unlock the items associated with these challenges.
The graphics in the gigs are great, though cartoony. The game really stands out in it's attention to detail in the choreography and animation during the songs, with impressive lip and hand synching to the tracks and great set pieces, such as the bassist and guitar joining in on the singer's mic for backing vocals.
If you have a recent version of guitar hero you can also import some songs from them for a small fee, and use downloadable tracks from Guitar Hero: World Tour. Currently the game has only been out a few weeks, so there is only a small number of GH5 exclusive downloadable songs, but more are added each week.
Overall, this is another solid entry in the series, and whilst is not a huge leap forward, it is highly enjoyable in both a single and multiplayer setting, with an interesting a varied tracklist and real attention to detail.
Thanks for reading! Andrew
