Decent Soundtrack, Below Average Game
Starting with the non skippable intro, you have to recruit 5 "warriors" who somehow have the magical ability to defeat some demon of rock and roll. Yeah, it makes as little sense in the 30 second intro movie than it does once you start playing. It's really, really bad – and not in a fun cheesy way, more like in a desperate "lets throw whatever graphics and models we had left from previous Guitar Hero games into this one" way.
You play songs, earn stars, pass stages, move forward to more songs. I was reasonably impressed with some decent additions to the setlist, although being spoiled by RB3, I was annoyed that several keyboard tracks were simply mapped to the main guitar. This game isn't as fun to play for newbies, nor as technical for experts as Rock Band 3 – you feel like you're playing a puzzle game, not a party game. Given the choice I would never bring this game out instead of RB3 if I had friends over.
Several of the first 30 songs that you need to finish before unlocking more songs are pretty hard on Medium, and sadly, not very fun to play. There are some classic rock songs in there but mostly hard rock and alternative, many of which I never heard of, and wasn't thrilled to be forced to play, because out of a 8 song list, you have to play at least 5 of them.
The game rewards you more progress the harder difficulty you play, so if you're looking to unlock the whole setlist and progress the ahem.. "story", you're better off getting 85% on Medium that you are getting 100% on Easy. Combined with the circa 2008 graphics and goofy menu choices, it all just reeks of really bad game design.
Shame that several bands threw their hats into the GH franchise instead of RB, because the 2112 event is really well done, and several songs are fun to play but you keep wishing they were available on RB instead of this game.
As of Summer of 2011, nobody is playing online, so don't bother with leaderboards or multiplayer.
Activision had a great opportunity to do something special here and make a good swan song to the aging Guitar Hero franchise, even if it was just an expansion to the World Tour game. Instead they blew it, added a decent setlist to a ridiculously lame story, frustrating game mechanics, and outdated graphics. This game feels like a slightly more sophisticated Guitar Hero 3, and is a definite de-evolution from World Tour.