Guitar Hero II pretty much contains anything a great rhythm game needs to have - And some more!
Starting out with the guitar - The design is excellent. It looks more like a Metal guitar, compared to the one from the Playstation 2 version. When playing, you've got a great grip on the guitar, whether you are sitting down, standing up, or even lying down. (Last one being the most difficult, of course.)
When you first get the game, the guitar is completely plain and white, with a black grip. This can quickly change, as you do get two sheets of cool stickers to decorate your guitar with. The quality of the guitar is great. Most of the guitar is made of plastic, however, it's a lot more durable then you first expect it to be. A part not made of plastic is the whammy bar, as it's made of steel/aluminum or whatever.
The game pretty much focuses on the career mode of the game. This part of the game allows you to create your own band, and set out in the world to become rock legends. You get to play various songs at different places as you evolve much more into the career. The bad part is, that there is no actual story involved. It's more like playing the songs and that's about it, and this does leave a feeling that some more could've been done, to make the career mode stand out from the rest of the game, and make it a lot more enjoyable.
The part where the career mode stands out, is when you start playing at Medium difficulty or higher. After medium, you'll pretty much start earning money. The more stars you earn (Stars are based on how well you play the song), the more cash. So you need to play well to get a lot of money.
Money is not required to finish the game, so you can complete the career without actually spending any of your hard earned cash, however, you'll probably be tempted to access the Store, in order to check out some of the cool things, get some achievements and so on.
You can purchase multiple things in the store: Guitars, characters, songs, outfits, guitar finishes and movies. Now you're probably surprised since I mentioned all of that, but those are all possible to get, and the price depends on what item you want.
Characters, as I mentioned before, is changeable. You can choose between seven widely different characters at first, and purchase an additional three, if you've got enough cash - The characters cost 7.000 each!
Guitars, finishes and outfits are a lot cheaper. There's a bunch of different guitars for you to purchase, and even some more to unlock (Once they're unlocked you'll have to purchase them too... Greedy store..), and with the finishes, you can add an entirely new design, color or look to your guitars!
If you're not satisfied with a new look for your guitar, then you can get one of the new outfits for your character. There's one to unlock for each of them, but this'll easily get expensive as well, as they're 2.000 each.
As for the graphics, then you won't notice a whole lot, but when you do, then you'll be quite satisfied. The characters, stages, crowds and so on all look great, and the game plays at a steady framerate and without any graphical glitches as well! The sound though, well.. Not much can be said other than that it's amazing. Tons of great songs, over 70 in fact, fun noises when you choose the different options in the menus are great.
When you first start out, you may think that you can simply jump right into the game at medium difficulty and start playing.. Some might be able to do it, but most won't. Medium is extremely difficult for the first period of time, however, if you keep playing on Easy and finish up all of the songs on easy, then you might be ready for medium. (I finished all of the songs on Easy with five stars before moving on to Medium.)
The first songs you get to play are, of course, easier than the last ones you unlock. Some of the Metal songs are extremely challenging though, as you have to hit notes insanely quickly, and they keep coming right after each other. But, with do practice, then you should be able to get five stars in no time!
If you're having trouble beating a song, then you can simply take it into the practice mode. Here you can practice a song at either normal, slow, slower or slowest speed. This can be very useful if you're having issues with a part of the song. Of course, you don't need to play the entire song. You can choose the parts you want to practice instead, and you can see what parts you did worst, and best at, in the stats right after you finish a song.
Sadly, the only online support this game has, is the Leaderboards. Here you can compare how good you are at the different songs, against tons of other people. If you can live without the online multiplayer, then that's a good thing, as it probably won't be introduced before Guitar Hero III. The game does contain traditional multiplayer though, and you can battle it out head-to-head, or please the crowd by playing Co-op and gaining massive points! Both seem equal fun-wise, in their very own way. The thing that sucks about multiplayer though, is that you need to pay a lot of money for an extra guitar. If you're not willing to do that, or haven't got to it yet, then you can play with the Xbox 360 controller as well, but it's a bit more difficult, when you're used to using the guitar instead.
Overall, Guitar Hero II is a great game that shouldn't be missed, if you can do without the few things that the game doesn't offer. Sadly, the game and controllers are quite expensive, but if you're willing to lash out that much for this game, then you're up for one heck of a solid game experience, and a game that will keep you entertained for a very long time, and will most likely be the thing that boosts up the mood, when you're having friends over.