In the mid 2000's, Guitar Hero was a surprise success for the PlayStation 2. It was one of those games that almost everyone in the world plays, and to this day it is interesting to look back and see why the lightning struck twice. A lot of people enjoy rock and roll, sure, but it may be the combination of the party-like arcade-style gameplay with the guitar peripheral that really cemented the appeal.
Even the biggest fans of other musical genres can enjoy an occasional rock song once in a while, so a sequel to Guitar Hero was always in the cards. With Guitar Hero 2, it basically was the textbook example of 'more of the same but better,' which in a vacuum is never a bad thing. Though if we want to be a bit dramatic, it is also the first sign of the direction the Guitar Hero series will be going down.
Right off the bat, Guitar Hero 2 has a stronger presence than the smash success of the first game. One major push was having a more robust song selection, something Red Octane was proud of as they had issues getting bands to sign off on songs for the first game. While the original Guitar Hero had a solid set-list, collecting several bands noticeably absent from the first Guitar Hero, including The Police, Kiss, Van Halen, Megadeth, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Much of this is when bands noticed the success of Guitar Hero, with developer Jon Tam stating "They understand that we're not going to embarrass their music, we're going to actually pay homage to their music and get it to the point where people are going to fall in love with their music and understand their music in a totally different way than they've ever experienced it before." This allowed for the more diverse cast of songs, along with a new surprise for the game: master recordings.
The inclusion of master recordings was originally for just bonus songs and content, but several bands actually went to Red Octane and Harmonix and requested that they be master recordings. Primus' "John the Fisherman" and Jane's Addiction's "Stop" would be part of the first wave of master tracks that would eventually replace the session covers. Within two years, covers would become less viable as a choice for any rhythm game.
Looking back, the setlist of Guitar Hero 2 is simply better than the first Guitar Hero. While several key hits kept the original game afloat, it can be argued that several bands were definitely second-choice acts that were selected not because of their name recognition, but because it was who Red Octane could secure the rights to. There are clearly a lot more resources behind Guitar Hero 2, and it shows in a lot of its production values. This is in part thanks to the third player in the franchise now, publisher Activision.
Activision, seeing the success of Guitar Hero, moved fast to acquire Red Octane, outright purchasing the publisher in 2006, six months after the release of Guitar Hero in November 2005. This made Red Octane flush with cash and pushed hard for a multi-platform release. By 2006, the PlayStation 2 was six years into its console life, and Activision saw potential to expand Guitar Hero beyond an aging console by bringing it to the new kid on the console block, the Xbox 360.
The 360 was a solid choice for Activision, it was a new console, it was incredibly popular in the early to mid-stage of its console life, and without a successor for the PlayStation (yet, as the PS3 would be released in late 2006), Guitar Hero 2 also got a an extra year of development time to port the game, and with that extra six months, meant extra songs for this special port.
Activision's strategy was to use the 360 version of Guitar Hero 2 as a springboard for multi-platform releases that had the same content, maximizing exposure for the game. Because it was an extra six months of development time, Activision was able to secure 10 new songs, eight for the main story mode and two bonus songs, that really enhanced the game with strong additions. My personal favorite was Iron Maiden's "The Trooper", but you had the likes of My Chemical Romance, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, and Rick Derringer added to the mix.
Objectively speaking, the 360 version of Guitar Hero 2 is the superior version. You have four more master tracks added, key rock and roll bands represented by solid song choices, and the slight graphical upgrade didn't hurt it either. The last piece of the puzzle was Xbox Live providing downloadable content, which would include the first instances of 'track packs' for purchase. Red Octane and Harmonix released four Guitar Hero track packs, bringing twelve songs from the first game into Guitar Hero 2, with additional indie track packs and a My Chemical Romance Pack, all of which were master recordings.
While you can no longer purchase any downloadable songs, the use of downloadable content is the major shift into the power of what Guitar Hero 2 can do. This was the early days of DLC, and it was a lucrative way for Guitar Hero 2 to really sink its teeth into a wider market. Good or bad, this was the move that made the Guitar Hero franchise move beyond being a cult hit to a mainstream monstrosity.
Otherwise, Guitar Hero 2 is Guitar Hero, with extra songs and some new content. This is sort of the problem in reviewing Guitar Hero, and ostensibly most rhythm games like this - they don't fully deviate much from the main iteration of play. A few tweaks exist; you now have three-note chords, which were non-existent for the first Guitar Hero, as well as tweaks to the hammer-on and pull-off functionality. You have a bit more product placement as well, with Gibson, Vans, Ernie Ball, and other music-focused brands showing face at times.
Multiplayer probably got the biggest improvement. The face-off mode is the same, but we now have a pro-face-off mode and a cooperative mode available. Pro-face-off is basically playing the full lead guitar track competitively in its entirety, something noticeably absent in the first game. For cooperative mode, you have a rhythm and bass guitar track, which is all about the players working together to get the highest score possible.
Otherwise, not much else has changed. You have new characters in the roster, though the only real standout is Lars Ümlaüt as a Kiss-demon-coded death metal guitarist. A ton of unlockables are also available, from new guitars to alternate costumes and characters, that add to the game's content. It's not the most robust lineup of unlockables, but it again gets the job done.
Guitar Hero 2 is a sequel that works because it is a sequel that doesn't change its formula at all while adding to it in a way that is all solid. The change in ownership with Activision worked in the game's benefit, though in the long run it would be a problem with the franchise that it may never fully recover from. In the end, Guitar Hero 2 is what you want in a sequel, one that takes that captured lightning in a bottle and improves it even further.