DJ Hero 2
Now you too can play with two turntables and a microphone.
Posted October 22, 2010
DJ Hero was a huge surprise to me. Activision, infamous for running Guitar Hero into the ground (the latest entry in the long-in-the-tooth series made me want to chuck the disc out the window), actually managed to release a fun, innovative, and truly excellent music game. And now they up the ante with DJ Hero 2. Tossing in a second turntable and a vocal mode to replace the tacked-on guitar mode of the last game, DJ Hero 2 tops the original in every way.
The most important change is the evolution of the freestyle. In DJ Hero, "freestyle" meant randomly mashing a button on the middle track while pre-selected samples played endlessly on repeat. It wasn't fun and it didn't add to the experience. DJ Hero 2 tosses this out the window. The middle track does still involve button mashing, but it's now for song-specific samples that change not just every track, but multiple times within the track, allowing you to focus on how it fits in the rhythm.
Even better are the new freestyle sections. There's crossfade freestyle, which lets you slide the fader between tracks at will. You could let the track play as is, or you could focus on the vocals, the instruments, or wildly slam the fader back and forth. There's also scratching freestyle, which allows you to customize the kind of scratching based on how long and how fast your scratching movements are. These freestyle modes really open up the gameplay, making you feel like you have an active hand in creating the mix instead of just pressing buttons while the tracks spin.
I mentioned that the guitar mode is gone, replaced by a vocal mode. This is true, but like the guitar sections of DJ Hero, the vocals in DJ Hero 2 feel like a throwaway. It's nowhere near the level of Rock Band or Guitar Hero (or even karaoke-specific titles like Lips), coming off as a gimmick rather than an integral part of the game. And even if you were inclined to sing, it would only be fun if you had someone accompanying you on the turntable.
The turntables themselves haven't changed since the last outing, making me wonder why they're offering a pack with two of them instead of one. Yes, there are multiplayer modes, but the first DJ Hero has seen such massive price drops in the previous months (and many retailers in fact offered incentives toward the new game if they purchased the old one) that anyone interested in the second must certainly have a copy by now. As it stands, I've now got three turntables a microphone, which I think would be enough to scare Beck off entirely.
Of course, they could have rectified this by upgrading the hardware. Not that the current turntables are bad. In fact, compared to the early Guitar Hero guitars, they're excellent. Still, I can't help noticing that even after calibration, the game misses a few notes here and there (often during scratches), which I can only chalk up to controller communication issues. It's a minor problem, but one worth mentioning.
Don't get me wrong, though. These are minor issues in an otherwise top notch game. And of course, the other major element are the mixes themselves. While I don't love every song used (Sean Paul will never be played in my house again, that's for sure), the general quality of the mixes are as good as they were in the last game. And, in fact, some of the mixes, such as a mash-up of Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" and Edwin Starr's "War," exceed the quality of the last game.
The series penchant for getting real DJ's involved continues here, as a new career mode (dubbed "Empire Mode") has you globe-trotting and playing against said real-life vinyl scratchers, including Deadmau5 and the RZA. Empire Mode itself is quite standard for a career mode, basically an excuse to put your character in different clubs with different gear and clothes, but it's got enough sense of forward momentum to keep it enjoyable.
Whether you're an avid player of the last DJ Hero or you're new to the series, DJ Hero 2 offers up enough gameplay improvement, and enough fun mixes, that even with the impending release of Rock Band 3, a purchase of this one is a no-brainer. Highly Recommended
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The most important change is the evolution of the freestyle. In DJ Hero, "freestyle" meant randomly mashing a button on the middle track while pre-selected samples played endlessly on repeat. It wasn't fun and it didn't add to the experience. DJ Hero 2 tosses this out the window. The middle track does still involve button mashing, but it's now for song-specific samples that change not just every track, but multiple times within the track, allowing you to focus on how it fits in the rhythm.
Even better are the new freestyle sections. There's crossfade freestyle, which lets you slide the fader between tracks at will. You could let the track play as is, or you could focus on the vocals, the instruments, or wildly slam the fader back and forth. There's also scratching freestyle, which allows you to customize the kind of scratching based on how long and how fast your scratching movements are. These freestyle modes really open up the gameplay, making you feel like you have an active hand in creating the mix instead of just pressing buttons while the tracks spin.
I mentioned that the guitar mode is gone, replaced by a vocal mode. This is true, but like the guitar sections of DJ Hero, the vocals in DJ Hero 2 feel like a throwaway. It's nowhere near the level of Rock Band or Guitar Hero (or even karaoke-specific titles like Lips), coming off as a gimmick rather than an integral part of the game. And even if you were inclined to sing, it would only be fun if you had someone accompanying you on the turntable.
The turntables themselves haven't changed since the last outing, making me wonder why they're offering a pack with two of them instead of one. Yes, there are multiplayer modes, but the first DJ Hero has seen such massive price drops in the previous months (and many retailers in fact offered incentives toward the new game if they purchased the old one) that anyone interested in the second must certainly have a copy by now. As it stands, I've now got three turntables a microphone, which I think would be enough to scare Beck off entirely.
Of course, they could have rectified this by upgrading the hardware. Not that the current turntables are bad. In fact, compared to the early Guitar Hero guitars, they're excellent. Still, I can't help noticing that even after calibration, the game misses a few notes here and there (often during scratches), which I can only chalk up to controller communication issues. It's a minor problem, but one worth mentioning.
Don't get me wrong, though. These are minor issues in an otherwise top notch game. And of course, the other major element are the mixes themselves. While I don't love every song used (Sean Paul will never be played in my house again, that's for sure), the general quality of the mixes are as good as they were in the last game. And, in fact, some of the mixes, such as a mash-up of Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" and Edwin Starr's "War," exceed the quality of the last game.
The series penchant for getting real DJ's involved continues here, as a new career mode (dubbed "Empire Mode") has you globe-trotting and playing against said real-life vinyl scratchers, including Deadmau5 and the RZA. Empire Mode itself is quite standard for a career mode, basically an excuse to put your character in different clubs with different gear and clothes, but it's got enough sense of forward momentum to keep it enjoyable.
Whether you're an avid player of the last DJ Hero or you're new to the series, DJ Hero 2 offers up enough gameplay improvement, and enough fun mixes, that even with the impending release of Rock Band 3, a purchase of this one is a no-brainer. Highly Recommended
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum