donut_man23's Full Review: Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360
Guitar Hero II is the first Guitar Hero game I bought and I was surprised to find out that it was made by the same developer as Frequency and Amplitude, which I loved on the PS2. Once you get past knowing that Guitar Hero is nothing like playing an actual guitar and ignoring people who bother you about it, you start realizing why Guitar Hero is fun. It makes you feel like you have a part in playing and creating your favorite tunes.
If you don't know how the gameplay works in Guitar Hero its fairly simple but somewhat complicated to explain. You hold the controller like a Guitar (lefty or right) and hold down the fret buttons (Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Orange) as the notes appear on screen while strumming the guitar. Some times you need to hit notes while other times you hold long notes. Occasionally there are the hammer ons and pull offs where you just need to tap or let go of the fret buttons instead of strumming them. You'll also go over star notes that can boost your star power which is activated by tilting the guitar up. This multiplies your multiplier by 2. Without it your multiplier is nothing, 2X, 3X, or 4X and can go up to 8X with star power. The star power allows you to escape inevitable death if your about to fail a song. Theres also the matter of the whammy bar which can be used when holding notes to get more star power out of them. It may sound complicated but essentially all you need to know is that it is a "match-the-buttons" game.
There are four difficulties including Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Each mode gets faster with Easy using 3 buttons, Medium using 4, and Hard and Expert using all 5 fret buttons. There are multiple modes including quickplay to just play any song on any difficulty. Theres a career mode which is basically there just to unlock more songs that can be played through on whichever difficulty you chose without any real story behind it other than getting your band to the top. In Training mode you can practice a song without failing, even on slower speeds if you need to. Or you can play on lead guitar and bass if you need to. You can co-op or battle on a song with a friend in multiplayer mode. It is fun but not as good as the co-op career that comes in Guitar Hero III. Although Guitar Hero II is slower and easier than Guitar Hero III.
There are some games where the visuals can serve importance and then theres games like Guitar Hero where it just doesn't matter. What your band, crowd, or stage look like just don't matter since you won't be looking at them at all. Even buying guitars, outfits, or characters from the store (with money earned from the career) seems pointless. The only things really worth warranting a purchase are the songs and videos at the store.
Now the music on the other hand is the most important aspect of Guitar Hero. If your going to be jamming it has to be to songs you like. The soundtrack is excellent in Guitar Hero II and, in my opinion, it is better in some ways than Guitar Hero III's soundtrack. This is partly because it has such a variety of songs but also because I love nearly all the songs on Guitar Hero II although everyone is different. It is disappointing that most of the music is done with cover bands but they still do a nice job and its hard to complain unless you have a real attachment to the song. To give you an idea of the song list, theres "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana, Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son", "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and "Message in a Bottle" by the Police. Some songs you never heard of are bound to be there but that doesn't mean their not fun to play. Jordan, a song made for Guitar Hero II, is certainly fun to play and is probably the most difficult song in the game.
Guitar Hero II is one of those games that is hard not to enjoy. Even if you find it hard you can turn it down to easy mode and enjoy the song. The feeling of "playing" your favorite rock song is worth the 70 bucks or so that this game costs. You can impress friends and even relatives while playing and Guitar Hero is one of those few games that is fun to watch others play whether they are good or bad. Few games can actually be fun without you even playing it. And when it comes down do it, as long as your having fun then its worth the purchase.
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