Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
A game for that special masochist in your life.
Posted September 28, 2010
Nothing in the gaming world has made me so mad as the decline of the Guitar Hero franchise. Once a gaming stellar smash, adopted developer Neversoft (original developer Harmonix now makes the constantly improving Rock Band series) has beaten this franchise like the red-headed stepchild it should never have been.
Despite inundating the market with increasingly pathetic titles, Neversoft managed to find their footing with Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero 5. In fact, Guitar Hero 5 felt like a revelation. Sure, Neversoft was still aping Harmonix and Rock Band, but they had managed to tighten up the gameplay and make the title feel like a true Guitar Hero release instead of some sick joke. So it's with a heavy heart that I have to report that not only is Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock a gargantuan step back from Guitar Hero 5, but it is in fact a total leap off a cliff.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock hinges around an absurd fantasy story that would be more at home in a Lord of the Rings game than any music title. Each playable character is a warrior, fighting against some unspeakable evil. By beating songs and wracking up stars, they can transform into some other incarnation that makes them more powerful. In order to help you out, each character has their own special abilities, whether it be increasing star power, or getting a 5x multiplier instead of 4x, and so on. This also means that instead of advancing when you have enough stars, as was the case with the last few titles, you now have to get through almost all the songs in order to move on. It's a jump back to the old gig system and it's a real drag.
Why's that, you ask? Well, that would be because the track list of songs in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is one of the worst I've ever seen. Sure, there are some great tracks, but for every "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Children of the Grave" there's a song by Avenged Sevenfold or Nickelback. That's right: Nickelback. The very idea that Nickelback should be in a Guitar Hero game...it's enough to make me puke. That's right, this video game actively makes me sick.
Several of the better songs are already available on Rock Band, or will soon be available in Rock Band 3, and that game will feature piano and pro mode support, neither of which Guitar Hero offers. The few good tracks that aren't duplicates or re-recordings ("Cherry Bomb" is conspicuously listed as a 2010 song) are marred by the same poor timing windows and terrible note recognition that plagued older Guitar Hero titles. It's like Neversoft could only find the code for Guitar Hero III and used that as the basis for this game. Some of the songs are downright unplayable, no matter how good you think they might be.
The character models also look shoddy, with weak animations and poor detail. Was anyone even trying? That being said, they do allow for audio mixing and vocal EQ, and offer many of the same multiplayer and party modes as Guitar Hero 5. Additionally, there is a new guitar (again), this time made without perennial plastic instrument manufacturer Red Octane, that does not offer the touch-pad strip found in Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero 5 (despite the fact that the passages that use the touch strip are still present in the game). It does however offer removable body portions that you can switch out, to no real effect. I guess this is the latter-day version of the faceplates that the Les Gibson controllers had, but with Rock Band offering real guitars that can also work in the game, removable bodies seems like a pretty paltry offering.
Let's face it, Neversoft has never made a truly great Guitar Hero game. But at least with Guitar Hero 5 they had made a title that was more fun than not. But with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, they undone all their good work and then some. I don't say this lightly, but Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is the worst music game I have ever played. Do yourself a favor, save up your money and spend it on Rock Band 3. With all the new peripherals, you're going to need the extra dough. Skip It.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum
Despite inundating the market with increasingly pathetic titles, Neversoft managed to find their footing with Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero 5. In fact, Guitar Hero 5 felt like a revelation. Sure, Neversoft was still aping Harmonix and Rock Band, but they had managed to tighten up the gameplay and make the title feel like a true Guitar Hero release instead of some sick joke. So it's with a heavy heart that I have to report that not only is Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock a gargantuan step back from Guitar Hero 5, but it is in fact a total leap off a cliff.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock hinges around an absurd fantasy story that would be more at home in a Lord of the Rings game than any music title. Each playable character is a warrior, fighting against some unspeakable evil. By beating songs and wracking up stars, they can transform into some other incarnation that makes them more powerful. In order to help you out, each character has their own special abilities, whether it be increasing star power, or getting a 5x multiplier instead of 4x, and so on. This also means that instead of advancing when you have enough stars, as was the case with the last few titles, you now have to get through almost all the songs in order to move on. It's a jump back to the old gig system and it's a real drag.
Why's that, you ask? Well, that would be because the track list of songs in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is one of the worst I've ever seen. Sure, there are some great tracks, but for every "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Children of the Grave" there's a song by Avenged Sevenfold or Nickelback. That's right: Nickelback. The very idea that Nickelback should be in a Guitar Hero game...it's enough to make me puke. That's right, this video game actively makes me sick.
Several of the better songs are already available on Rock Band, or will soon be available in Rock Band 3, and that game will feature piano and pro mode support, neither of which Guitar Hero offers. The few good tracks that aren't duplicates or re-recordings ("Cherry Bomb" is conspicuously listed as a 2010 song) are marred by the same poor timing windows and terrible note recognition that plagued older Guitar Hero titles. It's like Neversoft could only find the code for Guitar Hero III and used that as the basis for this game. Some of the songs are downright unplayable, no matter how good you think they might be.
The character models also look shoddy, with weak animations and poor detail. Was anyone even trying? That being said, they do allow for audio mixing and vocal EQ, and offer many of the same multiplayer and party modes as Guitar Hero 5. Additionally, there is a new guitar (again), this time made without perennial plastic instrument manufacturer Red Octane, that does not offer the touch-pad strip found in Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero 5 (despite the fact that the passages that use the touch strip are still present in the game). It does however offer removable body portions that you can switch out, to no real effect. I guess this is the latter-day version of the faceplates that the Les Gibson controllers had, but with Rock Band offering real guitars that can also work in the game, removable bodies seems like a pretty paltry offering.
Let's face it, Neversoft has never made a truly great Guitar Hero game. But at least with Guitar Hero 5 they had made a title that was more fun than not. But with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, they undone all their good work and then some. I don't say this lightly, but Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is the worst music game I have ever played. Do yourself a favor, save up your money and spend it on Rock Band 3. With all the new peripherals, you're going to need the extra dough. Skip It.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum