tommy_lop's Full Review: Activision Guitar Hero World Tour Guitar Bundle - ...
I got Guitar Hero World Tour when I found a double pack online for around 70 dollars, it came with 2 guitar controllers (a crappy Les Paul and the newer one which has some nice features but more on that later) and the game Guitar Hero World Tour. Now things have changed since GH3, activsion may have made over a billion dollars on GH3 but that was before rock band came and challenge GH throne to the music game. Rock Band allowed you not only to rock on plastic fake guitars but on drums so you can pretend to be drumming, and it also allowed you to sing into a head set so you could actually destory your favorite songs without having to go to a bad Karaoke bar. While I don’t own Rock Band 2 I have play it and it offer improvements to what the original rock band had online band, the ability to download old songs from the original into the new one, and all DLC is compatible between the 2 games. GH world tour still shows that activision is still struggling up with the rock band franchise but is starting to evolve the GH series to keep up with rock band.
Story Well story isn’t the big thing in GH but each of the 4 carriers (guitar, bassist, singer, and drummer) has an intro and ending to it play in some well animated but short 30 second clips. The progression through the game is the same for everyone, you take on a gig with 3 to 6 songs in it play through them and when there done collect your money and move on to the next one.
Graphics. One of the things I do have to say in Guitar Hero favor they have flashier more animated characters for the back ground. Staying away from the simple 3 men plus your guitar player set up like they have in the past, GH world tour features different characters for your band on single player keeping it a bit fresh. The stage designs seem to be a step down from what they were before but still a step ahead of rock band.
I should also note that while GH3 had 3 stars there are a lot more to unlock on this one. They appear to do there songs in special gigs you can unlock them only when you play there part in the band.
Sound. 1 billion in sales for GH 3, what does this translate to. Activsion put money down to make sure that all 70+ songs on this were sung by original artist that made them popular. Long way since GH2 nothing but cover tracks. The music varies to from classic rock, southern rock (aka country), heavy metal, and a few liberal war protest songs from both the 70’s and today. Basically everyone will find a song in this collection they like, and one or two that they don’t. The variety over all is nice and it keeps the game full of surprises.
Gameplay. Before I go over a few of the minor changes in the gameplay I’ll get to the main presentation. It’s in this area were rock band delivers and GH just doesn’t. While Rock Band gives you more of a menu driven quest giving you all sorts of new challenges has you open new venues. GH WT is pretty much boiled down to a hand puts up new gigs on a wall and you have to beat them. With the over all goal getting to the new york city one (which opens up once you have completed 50% of the songs in the game). Each gig features 3 to 7 songs you have to play in a row in order to beat it and get new gigs to open up. There isn’t much variety in the order you complete it compare to rock band but compare to past GH it is a lot more non linear in the order of the songs you complete. I should also note all though achievements will be unlocked for completing all the basic songs on different difficulty, each instrument is consider it’s own carrier. In other words you complete one gig on hard and another on easy and you will still advance just has fast on either difficulty. All though you get paid more on hard for completing each song. You can also change difficulty on a song in the pause menu or after you get booed off stage.
Another new feature is beginner mode. While in the guitar and drum parts I found this to be a diluted down so much that a 2 year old could play it without being a challenge. All you have to do is strum on the guitar. For the people trying to do vocalist or stuck doing the vocals in there band beginner mode may be a great way they can keep from screwing the band up. In vocals has long has the microphone is picking up sounds during singing parts it counts it has perfect.
A few other add ons is that GH world tour allows you to create your own character has well has customize the looks of your own instrument. It also allows you to create songs and then upload them to there servers so other players can download them. User generated songs are free to download but ironically all the 360 top downloaded songs are tunes copies from Nintendo games.
So what does each carrier play has and any changes. Quite a few tweaks have gone on in GH WT. Here they are.
Guitar. Lead Guitar plays almost the same but two new enhancements if your using the GH World Tour guitar you can use the slider bar on certain parts and not have to strum. Handy on large solos once you get the slider bar down. Another change is don’t expect hold notes to give you a breather on harder difficulty now individual notes may come down at you while your holding a note. Over all note a big change in the way the game is played however hard mode is a lot easier then it was in GH 3 and beating hard wasn’t that big of a challenge.
Bassist. No longer confined to number 2 bassist has it’s own carrier mode. Has a bassist you won’t be faced with the large guitar solos but you will find yourself having to strum fast to get all the notes in long sequences right, has well has notes in the song that don’t allow you to hold a fret button.
Drummer. Drumming is new to GH and from the looks of it the GH drum kit looks a bit different then the rock band one but there both compatible but it will affect the way the star power is used. Like playing the guitar hitting the right notes come to timing. Hit the right color has it passes with your drum and hit’s the drum pedal at the right time. Star power can be activated by hitting both the yellow and blue pads at the same time. On a rock band controller this can be a bit hard and while I like the activation at any time this will screw up streaks and bonuses for having bad timing.
Singing. Pretty much the same has rock band just with a comet rather then an arrow try to sing the song with the right pitch. Star power can be activated playing on xbox head set by pressing a face button. I should note that beginner mode will be a life savior for those who can’t sing has all you have to do is say the words or at least make the microphone vibrate (like having it up to a fan or loud speaker) will count.
Band. The band play is a lot weaker then in rock band unfortunately. While the lay out is fine allowing for you to achieve combos. Activation of multiple star powers will allow in bigger multipliers, and getting band streaks will also earn you extra points has well has extra cash at the end of it. The problem with it is the life bar. In rock band you had one life bar but a symbol represented how well you were playing individually, if your drummer was doing a little poorly and dragging it down he would be a lot lower. Not in this your all got the same rock meter so it’s hard who needs help and when to give them the boost. Also unlike Rock band when one person fails the song you can revive them quickly with the use of over drive, there is no star power option to revive a failed song, if one person fails the song you all fail.
The achievements and online. The achievements for this are a little easier then in a lot of past GH. Gone now are achievements for streaks and high scores. While some difficulty achievements are there and there is also a 5 star the game is not picky get all 5 stars on all the songs on one difficulty regardless of the instrument, and beat a diffcutly using what ever difficulty you want to unlock them. There are also some pretty easy to get achievements involving the unlock able characters you get. Also a good chunk of them your going to need a 4 player band. Online you have your games that can play in the past including battle mode with a few new power ups and your pro face off. New though is the band play off (which I haven’t done because getting enough people online seems to be impossible) and the 2 vs. 2 guitar face off were you and a partner take on 2 other people to get the high score. There is also online band play which also counts twords your band carrier so can’t find buddy’s with a drum set and singing abilities try your luck online.
The guitar If your buy the game with a guitar pack in I should tell you about the guitar. It is greatly improved over GH 3 les paul controller. For starters it’s lighter despite a long neck and the neck clamps on better meaning the buttons not responding has been greatly reduce. There is also a touch sensitive slider to use during giant guitar solos but that takes a lot of skill to master. There is also a star power button on the guitar that allows you to activate star power without having to tilt the controller, it works on all GH and rock band music games. By only compliant about the guitar is that strum bar is a bit squeaky and stiffer then other guitar controllers. But I’ll take it over the bulky les paul with it’s malfunctioning buttons and over sensitive to tilt that it activates star power when I didn’t need it to go off.
Final recommendation. GH World Tour is a fun music game and the songs are more varied then ever. However I have played Rock Band 2 and that just seem to be a bit more polish. However if your into a music game that is going to be hitting the bargain bin soon since GH5 has been released you could do worse then GH WT.
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