Putting the Dave Chappelle references aside, I was shocked when I picked up Guitar Hero Live (GHL) a couple of days ago, and could not play the game with any skill for the life of me.
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There are five difficulties to take on – Basic, Casual, Regular, Advanced and Expert. As you ramp up the difficulty it will use combinations of each row. It would be nice, though, if there was a few sort of system that allowed you to play a song as much as you want if you earn a ideal score on a certain difficulty or hit certain milestones.
Oh, and a quick note about platforms: this one runs on all manner of consoles as well as mobile. The notes can be black, white or both. You’ll both be playing the exact same track, which makes competition more fun, but co-op play a bit less satisfying. You also get open notes that simply require you to strum. These aren’t bad, but it’s still hard to clean up from the fact that you’re playing “Waking Up in Vegas” by Katy Perry in a Guitar Hero game. Guitar Hero Live divides its gaming experience into two modes – Live and TV – and each mode seems destined to lure a different brand of gamer. The Live mode is essentially the new story mode and it’s a fresh experience.
Shot live with musicians performing in front of real crowds, GH Live delivers the raw excitement and stage fright that comes with owning the stage in front of thousands of cheering – or jeering – fans. This gives you a first person view as though you are there on stage. Different sets will have you on stage with different bands, and I’d nearly rather have played GH Live with just one group. This is certainly the more complex to praise of the two modes, since it does feature micro-transactions, but there really is “something” to it. The idea is simple enough. These tokens are the only way you can select the songs that you actually want to play instead of simply relying on the stream of music videos selected by the game. If you’re missing too many notes, the crowd will boo you. However if you start to miss notes or mess up then they will become negative, stop singing, start booing, call for you to get off the stage and even cry. At the same time your band mates will also become annoyed with you and start gesturing at you to up your game.
GHTV is always online, and you’re always playing with or against other people. With practice though it does get easier. I hate to say it, but if this was all the music available then Rock Band 4 might actually have the advantage. An hour of pop music can be followed by an hour of hard rock. There’s something for everyone and artists include Queen, The Rolling Stones, Fall Out Boy, Arctic Monkeys, Paramore, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Kasabian and even Eminem and Skrillex.
It is unlike any Guitar Hero you’ve ever played before. Both players always play lead guitar in multiplayer but there is also the option of hooking a mic up as well if you wish.
But while I found this new streaming service a fun way to wield a plastic ax, for others it could be more of a double-edged sword. It’s now divided up into two channels with one that steers most towards Rock and the other is more mainstream-oriented.
While GH Live is more of a traditional Guitar Hero experience, I think that GHTV is what makes Guitar Hero Live special. The developers are promising a third channel will be available shortly after launch. Weekly content drops are expected to expand the library by over 70 new tracks before the end of the year. For example, there might be an indie pop program that lasts for half an hour on channel 2, while an hour long metal program might be playing on channel 1. There’s definite charm to GH TV as a modern incarnation of the old MTV that played music videos galore, a chance to get involved in that directly. On the left side of the screen, you’ll see a leaderboard where ten players will be ranked on their performance.
GHTV is a 24-hour playable music video network that lets fans play along to a continually-updated collection of official videos, from the newest releases to old hits. You can bring in an extra player for GHTV as well as GH Live, which is cool. It doesn’t hurt that GHTV doles out hit after hit after hit – there’s two hundred songs here, you’re going to find something that suits you sooner or later and just like classic MTV you’re going to find new favorites by catching them randomly. That means you can’t spend all the points you buy in one go.
You’re unfortunately out of luck, unless you don’t mind playing a bunch of songs you don’t really want to in order to earn enough Plays to work on your song. The real-money-to-fake-currency ratio is not only high, the amount of points you buy and the amount you spend are different. You can also purchase a Party Pass for £4.79 giving you 24 hours unlimited access.
Now, this is already unacceptable – many people will pay around £100 for Guitar Hero Live, so they should be entitled to all of the songs in this catalogue. You can switch between channels at any time (in case on channel is playing a song you don’t want to play), but you have no control over what songs are playing or what programs will be live at any given time. If you’re struggling you can also use Hero Cash to bypass the challenges.
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“Guitar Hero is one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all time, and now, after years of research and development, it’s back, totally reinvented, and better than ever with Guitar Hero Live”, said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. Never has it felt more fulfilling to master a Guitar Hero song, if only because it can feel as if you’re playing real music on that plastic guitar.
