Someone snuck drums into my Guitar Hero!
First things first, just gotta say it - did GUITAR Hero really need the full band format? Or did they just do it because of the great success that Rock Band saw? Or maybe they really were planning it all along. Hmmm. Couldn't they have just made an awesome guitar game, potentially even allowing multiple guitars for Lead, Rhythm, Bass, or something more original? Whatever, they wanted all the different instruments, fine. Let's talk about how it actually plays.
Wait, one more thing. If YOU were going to make a rhythm game based on the player using peripherals like drums and such, you would probably spend a lot of time making sure that those peripherals worked well, right? Because the drums I used definitely lasted a few days before the cymbals stopped working. I went and exchanged it, and then something even more crazy happened - upon opening the box I found a PS3 set of drums in the box that was clearly labeled "Xbox 360". Nice. Oh, wait, right, let's talk about how the game plays.
So, Guitar Hero: World Tour has the biggest set list yet, and it definitely has a few gems in there. While some of the songs are just no fun to play (or entire sets - screw you, Tool) there are some as you get higher up in career mode that really get you pumped up. But then this really weird thing happens where the last 2 sets in career mode are just boring, easy songs. That's really just a mistake in how the songs were arranged, but it still works to make the career pretty unsatisfying.
Well then, the hardware is bad, the career mode is iffy, what's good then? Basically, that falls to the quickplay mode, where you just gather up to 4 friends, make your own setlist of songs and rock out. Since that is what the game is intended for, and it is set up fairly well, it does a lot to help GHWT out. There are some other nifty little doodads like the character, instrument, and even song creators that are all find if that's what you're into. Yes, Guitar Hero now features the song creator that everyone always wanted, at least, sort of. It's a pretty powerful system that you can do a lot with, if you have the patience. It takes a long time to get comfortable with, and even then is a slow process, but it has a lot of options (except the option of making your own vocals). Despite it's flaws, it can work for those who want it to bad enough, and hopefully will be the start of really awesome music creation tools in future rhythm games.
Overall, the latest Guitar Hero is a solid game, but not a great game. The headaches its problems cause really drag down the whole experience, but if you can push through them then you're sure to have a good time pretending that you are musically talented, and the different instruments of course bring the variety of play that can get almost anyone to join in.
