A game that truly ROCKS
If you don't know anything about this game, I basically consider it the DDR for guitarists. I don't do DDR, I don't want to, but I do play guitar and so I thought Guitar Hero would definitly be cool; indeed it was.
The game has a very distinct look to, although not graphically gorgeous in a God of War type of way, it does what it needs to do just fine. It kind of has that Sly Cooper type look to its environments. There's no right angles anywhere, everything is awkwardly shaped, and there's some pretty crazy colors here and there. The environments are also cool because as you do better at a song things in the environment start to do things to show that your doing better. For example, in the first venue you'll play at there is a washer and dryer (cause your in a basement) and as you do better and better they start shaking and overflowing and whatnot. Little things like this really bring the environments to life.
I would also consider the crowd part of the environment. Everytime you play a show you'll have a moderate amount of people there to watch. As you do better at the song more and more people will come to your show and they will cheer you on as you play. But if you don't do so good they will boo you and many will leave.
You can choose from 8 different guitarists to play as for your band (2 of which requiring unlocking....and are definitly worth doing so). They are each fairly stereotypical. Your old school hippie style rocker, your punk rocker, your female punk rocker, your big brute metal head, etc. There are also a few different singers that will switch on and off throughout your sets depending on what genre of song your currently playing. Also, when playing songs with keyboards you'll find there is a keyboardist who comes on stage to play. However, the bassist and drummer stay the same throughout all your sets (not a bad thing though, they're cool).
Obviously the main focus of this game is the music, and there is plenty of it. I was worried when first picking up this game that I wouldn't enjoy it because I don't actually listen to most of the music featured in teh game. This concerned was quickly dropped though when I saw how much fun I was having playing the guitar parts to them. They did an awesome job picking out songs with fun parts and sweet solo's. I would even say that I would listen to these songs now just because of this game.
The game features a quick play mode along with a career mode (and a versus I beleive, but I don't know anyone else with a guitar nor can you buy guitars by themselves that I know of, so I haven't gotten to try that yet). When I first got it I did some quick play to practice my skills. The game starts you with 10 available songs. Career mode is where the real fun is though. In career mode you'll go through 6 different venues, each with their own set of songs. Everytime you complete a song you'll get a rating (out of 5 stars) and the higher the rating the more money you'll get. With the money you can buy (unlock) more guitars, guitar skins, characters, and songs (a lot of songs). The only thing I wish was that you could earn money from playing the bonus songs instead of just the regular sets.
If your looking for some fantastic fun though, look no further. Go drop the money to get Guitar Hero because you won't regret it. Once you've mastered your skills in normal mode, bump it up to hard to set back your ego a bit; not to mention expert mode. It'll rock your face off.