Guitar Hero II, is top dog in its genera. It is a fun adictive and a throughly enjoyable game.
The game offers enough to keep the average consumer busy. The learning curve has many stages as the diferent deficulty setting are light years apart. Fifteen minetes after you pick up the guitar you will have the basics but to master the game will take some time. However if you complete the creare mode starting with the lowest defficulty (easy) anb work your way through up to the highest (expert) you shouldnt find it chnallanging but not overely so.
GAMEPLAY - 10/10
The adictive nature of this game will see you play it non-stop for the two week you have it, however the lack of varied game play will see you loose a bit of intrest in it after those intense two weeks of game play. That said I have awarded the game play 10 as those two weeks of play we be some of the most enjoyable. The game offers three modes of play quickplay, career and multiplayer. Quickplay offer the player the opertunity to jump right into the action. Just select the song and difficulity you wish to play and jump right in. The track selection in the mode of play however is limitted to the first eight tracks of the game untill you unlock or buy more songs through the cear mode.
Career mode put the player iin the position of a aspiring rock star who journeys acrocc the greater United States to become a rock god. However this is little if any story to it so dont expect to become imersed in the world. However what this mode does offer is the ability, through completing song to unlock aditional songs, aditional venues to play in such as the Vans Warped Tours and stonehenge , gain some sponsers and earn some cash. Sponsers come in the form of real life compines which will award your proformances with cash and items like amps that you will see on stage at your next gig. So you may be wondering what the cash is for, well my friend there is a meraid of things you can buy; Guitars, songs, characters outfits and finishing moves that the hero proforms on stage. All in all the career mode is nort but a means to unlock new songs and some gear, hardly emersive but it servers its purpose.
Multiplayer mode pits two "heros" againgest eachother exchanging riff for riff. However at a cost of 129 for the guitar and the game and no way to guy the guitar by itself no one man will (at least not myself) will be in the possesion of two guitars so call a friend and tell me to swing around for a night of fun. This mode functions the say as the quickplay mode and allowes the two players to set their diffeculity indivugly. This is a great option and allows a less experienced player to take on a "guitar hero".
As far as the gameplay gos it is satifying and challanging. It does become tiresome after a week or two but is throughly enjoyable in that time.
GRAPHICS - 4/10
This incantation of Guitar Hero hardly put the Playstation 2 to work and as such it has recived a low score in the graphics department. That said it holds little value to the game and its playability. For the most part you will be conenrating so hard on the patten of little coloured buttons that you will hardly notice the poor graphics. As such this are of let donw has no impact on the quility of the game.
SOUND - 10/10
Guitar Hero is all about sound (rock in particular) and this is where red octane have nailed it. Ther are over 55 unique track most of which you will reconigze. cuch greats as killing in the name of, and heart shaped box (if you dont know the name when you hear them you will know them). And best of all you get to play along.
VALUE - 8/10
At 129 AUD its hardly a bargin even for a speciality controller. And will put ythis game out of the reach of most young unemployed youths. At a lower price point or more varied gamepolay however it could have made a world of difference to the value of this title.
TILT - 7/10
As the title sugests its been done before. It is however done well and has some unique aditons to its feature set and as such recives an admaral 7.
Overview - 8.9/10
As a late generation Playstation 2 game its something that gets you excited again about PS2. It fun and adictive gamplay allows the average game to play in short sperts or long marathons, if you fingers can stand the pain that is. It fun and enjoyable feel give the game a well rounded feel and makes it a title to buy this holidays. Well dont Actervision and Red Octane.
Writen By: FluxZero