This game will not only rock your face off, but your friends faces too!
Gameplay - 10
The gameplay is straight-forward, especially if you really play Guitar. Coloured icons to drop from the top of the screen, you hold the cooresponding coloured fret button, then strum a toggle switch when the icons reach the bottom of the screen. The higher the difficulty, the more icons (therefore more strumming, and more rocking). This is really well done, as you don't need to know how music is composed to get a feel for playing guitar.
Playing single player is one thing, but playing with a friend is even better. In multiplayer you can do a classic "rock off" where you compete to be the best lead guitar player, or you can play coop. In Coop, one of you plays the lead guiltar, while the other plays rythms or bass. You might think rhythms or bass might be boring, but as most of you know... Primus bass lines are never boring. Most of the time, rythms are harder than the lead guitar parts.
What makes the game is the controller. At first glance, it looks like it's made by Fischer-Price. You feel a little silly the first time you pick it up. A few notes into your first song, any embarassment you felt is immediately gone.
Graphics - 8
Graphics are good, and get the job done well. As you play along with the music, your onscreen persona reacts accordingly. Hit a bunch of notes in a row, and your character pulls off moves while playing. Miss a bunch, and your character tanks his/her special moves. There's a widescreen and progressive scan mode for HDTVs, which helps a ton. The thing is you never really watch what your character is doing, because you're concentrating on what you're playing. They may as well not even be there.
Sound - 9
Here's why we play Guitar Hero II -- the songs! There are 55 licensed tracks from bit time bands. Songs like "Killing in the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine, "Last Child" by Aerosmith, and "Cherry Pie" by Warrant are among my favorites. All of them, AFAIK, are done by a cover band. However other than the lead vocalist, you'd never know that wasn't really Aerosmith you were playing with, or Motely Crue.
Another cool thing... when you miss notes, you actually hear your character missing notes. This adds to the immersion of the guitar-playing experience.
Value - 10
You can have a good time playing it alone, but playing it with friends is even better! If you have a lot of friends who are around the same skill level as you, the "rock off" mode is right up your alley. If there's a bunch of you at varying skill levels, then I recommend Coop. In coop, you can have one person playing an Expert difficulty part, with someone playing Easy. There are not may games that handle this as well.
The unfortunate thing is you need 2 guitars to play with a friend. This means you either have to buy a guitar separately, buy the original GH with a guiltar, or hope your friend buys one too. At $90 CDN per guitar-packed in game, this gets a ilttle pricey.
Conclusion
This game is wicked fun. I don't think I've played many games that are this much fun multiplayer either. Every time I show it to someone new, they always approach it with scepticism. A few notes into the first song, scepticism turns to pure joy. Every time I'm at a game store, someone is ALWAYS buying either GH1 or GH2.
If you want a fun game you can play alone, or especially with friends, I can't recommend another more. I already own GH1 and 2 for my PS2, and I plan on buying GH2 for Xbox360. By releasing GH2 in Dolby Digital with High Def Graphics is the only way Red Octane could make this game better!