Excellent Party Game For The Ages
The game is the same as the first one - you have a guitar controller and hit the notes as they come down the screen. You play popular songs made famous by real bands in career mode or quick play by yourself, or you can play with a buddy in co-op (one plays lead guitar, the other plays bass/rhythm), face-off (take turns playing parts of a song, using different difficulties), or pro face-off (each play the full song on the same difficulty).
There are four difficulty modes like the first game - Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert. As you can tell, the difficulty progresses to each level. There is a somewhat steep learning curve, but once you learn it its only a matter of time before you master it. If you are good at easy, medium isn't all that hard. If you are good at hard, expert isn't THAT bad. But if you are good at medium, it still takes time to get up to hard difficulty.
The songlist is better than the first as well, including songs by Van Halen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Guns'N'Roses, Wolfmother, Avenged Sevenfold, and more. This game will keep you very busy for a very long time, playing career mode from easy to expert, playing songs over and over, practicing, and playing with other people. I have played this game so much I wouldn't be surprised if it was around 200 hours.
If you have a PS2 or 360, you owe it to yourself to definitely pick this one up (with the guitar). 99% of anyone I know who has played it at a friends house or a demo station or my house has become addicted to it. And if you own it or are renting it, what are you doing reading my review - get back over to your guitar and ROCK OUT!