Guitar Hero II succeeds in it's expectations and brings a set of new features that were missing in it's predecessor.
You’ll start off with your former band from the original Guitar Hero that you may be familiar with. However this time instead of starting in a basement, you will be starting in a Highschool. It has a nice fit to it, as well as all the venues. You’ll find yourself being drawn into the bright, colorful graphics and new additions to detail on characters, venues, special effects and animations as they have all been bumped up.
First off, all of the characters you’re used to have been revamped. They’re still the same, but just look different. Certain characters you may or may not like, but they certainly have more to them. There have been new additions to the character list as well. The most noticeable new character is Lars Umlaut. A Norwegian beast of a man who seems to get his makeup tips from the local mime down the street. He also doesn’t seem to have shirt around that fits him. However, you can always buy alternate costumes in the unlock shop.
Even the old characters we all know and love feel fun and new to play around with. Also you have new and interesting venues to go visit. Although not all new, as you’ll see the Red Octane venue once again. They are all unique and stand out in there own ways. One of the venues that really pushes lighting effects to the limit is the Blackout Bar. This venue has different colored lights flying every which way, almost like you are at a disco party.
There are also new character animations that make your character really feel alive and natural. You’ll rarely see your character just standing still on stage playing their tunes. Now nearly all the time they'll be moving around on stage rocking out and doing crazy stuff. Each character has there own set of animations usually set to fit their genre of music they are mostly meant for. Much like the first, but more of a library of animations.
Also, this new rock fest has a bigger tracklist, ringing in at a total of sixty-four songs. They really hit just about every genre and era of music you could think of. Anything from classic, to speed metal and even techno. However even there are more songs, the setlist just won’t grab you as much like the first one did. However, the songs are still great and are really fun to play.
The covers are mostly done pretty well. As far as the instruments go, they are nearly dead on for every song. However the vocal work is half-and-half. Certain songs will be ones you don’t even know, however they sound really good when it comes to the singing. But when it swings around to a few of the more popular songs such as Black Sabbath’s “ War Pigs “, I literally stopped playing the moment the vocalist shouted “ Oh Lord yeah! “. It was almost as if he was trying to kill the song.
However don’t let this drag you down, as for a few songs such Primus’s “ John The Fisherman “ are the actual original tracks. Most of the covers were done really well, and you shouldn’t let ones that aren’t get in your way. As for playing the songs, it’s mostly the same great Guitar Hero based gameplay. Notes are flying at you on screen and you need to hit them at a certain time. However it’s a different case for those who made Guitar Hero their lifestyle, meaning really good at the game.
Hammer on’s and pull off’s were really never used in the previous game, as they never worked when you wanted them to. This feature is now fixed and it’s much easier to perform. Basically you can now strum the first note of a certain area and if the song permits, you can proceed to use the frets accordingly and you will no longer need to strum. On account that you don’t miss a note, you won’t need to strum for the rest of that part of the passage. Which tends to be about five notes or so.
As little of a change as that may sound, it really changes the way you will play certain parts of a song. It also makes those fast parts a little easier to play as well. The difficulty has definitely scaled higher this time around however. The jump to hard from medium almost seems unfair and punishing at times. As for songs in the first bracket on hard will already be throwing fast paced chords and killer solos in your path. And at that point in the game, you’re just not used to that.
Although it’s a big jump, it’s definitely worth the time and effort put into practicing these songs. If you remember trying to get good at certain songs in Guitar Hero I, you’ll probably remember playing the same song thirty times to the point where by time you got good at it you were sick of the song. This problem is now out of the way thanks to the very needed practice mode.
You can now take a song and pick what part of the song you would like to play. Then you can slow it down to what feels comfortable and practice that part as many times as you need without the worry of failing. At the end of your practice session it will tell you that percentage of notes you hit as well as the number, and the number that you could of hit. It’s a very nice addition to the game and fills that gap that was in the original Guitar Hero.
On the side of multiplayer things, there have been two new modes added to the game. As for co-op, you and your buddy are now playing with each other. One will play the lead, and the other will play either bass or rhythm guitar. In this mode the duo can now fail the song, their points modifier is now entwined as well as your starpower meter is as well. Also, the only way you can activate starpower now is if you both tilt your guitars at the same time. This usually leads to one of you shouting, “ Tilt! “ at the other player. But it makes you really feel as if you and your buddy are on a team.
You can also unlock basses by playing and passing songs on co-op mode. However a problem with co-op is that whoever is stuck with bass are usually going to have a somewhat boring time. Although expected, It’s not nearly as exciting as playing the lead. Other then a few songs, you’ll mostly just be holding down one fret and strumming at awkward times throughout long portions of the song. Im addition, the Pro Face-Off is the other mode for multiplayer. It's basically the same as regular face-off, however both players will play the entire song. Meaning everyone gets the same amount of notes, so things are more fair this time around.
Obviously there’s much to talk about when it comes to Guitar Hero II. It’s almost feels like a whole new experience itself with it’s loaded features and packed songlist. You’ll still be finding yourself playing through all the songs just to five star every song to unlock that Guitar in the shop. It definitely lives up to expectations and if the song list had a few more hit titles it could even pass its predecessor. The only thing that’s really missing is any sort of online feature.
If you were a fan of the first Guitar Hero then chances are you already have Guitar Hero II. If you have never touched Guitar Hero in your life and you are interested, pick up the original first. The learning curve will definitely be more forgiving than this time around for anyone new to this wonderful must buy series.
The Pro's
+Same Great Gameplay
+New Venues, Characters & Animations
+Practice Mode
+New Multiplayer Modes
+Huge Amount of Songs with Wide Variety
+Improved & Fixed Hammer On/Pull Off System
+Freebird!
The Con's
-No Online Features
-Steep Learning Curve for those new
-Certain Vocals Need Work
Recommended as: Must get for Guitar Hero fans. If you're new to the series, go check out the original then come back to this.