*bamf*

by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief

The first big name in the rhythm/music genre, Guitar Hero‘s latest release,  Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, successfully takes the game in a new direction with its new quest mode.

As of its previous release, Guitar Hero 5, the franchise had shed all the unnecessary trappings of extraneous nonsense and started right in party mode. While Warriors of Rock is 180 degrees from this by having the most involved story so far, it’s simultaneously not that far from it. I’m sure plenty of people will look with disdain upon the idea of what seems to be billed as an extended heavy metal rock opera narrated by Gene Simmons from Kiss, but don’t be too quick to judge until you’ve played it. It’s got a fun theme for anyone, at least teens and above. Let’s face it, middle America isn’t ready for its kids to read the actual lyrics to songs, nor for them to see their already scantily-clad rockers being turned into monsters in preparation to fight “The Beast” on behalf of The Demigod of Rock. But seriously, this is good fun. And keep in mind, this is no Brütal-esque crossover game, this is Guitar Hero with a narrative.

Quest mode begins with a cutscene illustrating the defeat of the Demigod of Rock by what may as well be called the Demigod of Dubstep. The well-cast narrator informs us that we must free the true selves of each of the classic default characters seen in Guitar Hero games. We begin with Johnny Napalm and his setlist of punk themed songs, and we’re asked to gain a great number of stars when playing these songs so Johnny can unleash his true self, which we eventually discover looks and acts a lot like X-Men‘s Nightcrawler, teleporting around and sporting blue skin. Once transformed, we’re asked to perform an encore that also fits the genre of that character.

In the middle of our eight character sets we must play to transform our hero characters, we must use the first four to recover the weapon of the Demigod of Rock: his axe, which also happens to be the guitar that is sung about in Rush’s 1975 rock-opera album, 2112. Narrated by the band members from Rush, this section is a great addition to the overall story with three beautiful new venues to play over the seven tracks from 2112.

Songs

The rest of the heroes are likewise transformed into various mythological creatures after players generate the requisite number of stars by playing the songs in their set well enough to hit that number. In quest mode, you can choose in what order you play the songs for any one character, but you cannot move on until you successfully transform that character into their true self. Below is the set list.
 

Gameplay

The gameplay in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is very simple. As one of the two perfecters of the genre, Neversoft continues to make it easy for us to rock out with our controllers out as we pretend to play electric guitar or bass by holding the correct color fret button and strumming the strum lever in time with the colored “notes” or “jewels” as they slide down the appropriate onscreen fret board. Drummers do likewise, striking the correctly colored drumpad in time with the beats shown on screen. Vocalists sing along trying to mimic the original singer’s pitch. Singing the actual provided lyrics is strictly optional.

Guitar Hero has come a long way since its first release, and the software is smoother and more forgiving on the easier settings, and tighter and more true on the harder settings.

Ever since the competition debuted the ability to play as a full four-piece band, the best Guitar Hero experience has been to get as many players as you can to join you in front of your TV and rock the house down together. That still holds true, but what if you don’t have friends over? You can still join up with friends or strangers online. It’s all pretty painless, but I still find rocking with friends in person far easier than playing with unseen rockers.

At release, all the DLC you’ve purchased for previous Guitar Hero games is available to you with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and you can download any existing DLC songs, sets or albums for use with this game as well. Specific to this release, you have DLC tracks from Soundgarden’s Telephantasm album available for purchase.

Graphics/Video

When Guitar Hero first debuted on the Playstation 2, I was pretty disappointed in the graphics. The characters were rocking out to be sure, but they seemed rough and not always in sync. One supposes at that point it didn’t matter much, as most people looking at the screen were looking at the gems streaming down the fret board, not at the background glitz. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock brings their current style of high def 1080p graphics and very exact mapping and execution of each character, whether they’re playing any of the three instruments or singing, and of course every transformation cutscene extends the cinematic glory to take advantage of this and push it just that much further.

Audio/Sound Effects

This is a music game, this is one of the music games, so of course all the sound is as perfect as can be expected on the equipment you’re playing it through. If there are any errors or noise, it’s your equipment (or maybe the original recording artist?). Expect to love every minute of it, from the Music, to the narration by Gene Simmons, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson, to every over the top sound effect used to enhance the cutscenes. If you’re not blown away, try replacing your sound system.

Hardware

The new wireless guitar controller is a big improvement from the earliest Guitar Hero models we’ve been used to, and aside from the iconic cartoonish look of the Guitar Hero guitar controller buttons, it’s the sharpest instrument in the genre to date. All of the electronics have been moved into the fret board section, so enterprising hobbyists and OEM manufacturers can replace the head and body of the guitar with their own designs for a radical makeover, as those parts are very simple to remove. In theory, one could now play without the body or head of the guitar at all, as they’re just decorative plastic. One cool thing I learned about the decorative plastic that comes with the new Warriors of Rock guitar is that the flame shapes that are cut into the body are a convenient place to wedge your fingers so when you’re really rocking your pants off, you don’t lose track of the strum button.

I was also particularly impressed by the battery life. There’s no way to know how much is left, but even after finishing the game and then playing all night on at least two separate nights since, the controller still works every bit as well as when I first paired it with my Xbox 360, even though I’m still using the batteries that were included in the box! I imagine that much of the reason is that the guitar will simply go to sleep after a short amount of time. Considering that a bandmate can join practically anytime, it’s really no big deal anymore, since you don’t have to quit back out to the title screen to add or remove bandmates. This is a huge relief. At our testing party we also tried this with one of the competition’s recent band games, and recalled the frustration of backing out to the top menus when making any changes to our lineup.

Extras

We’re used to an Extras or Special Features section on ComicsOnline because we review so many Blu-ray titles, but in a game? Yep. Some early shipments (the first million copies) of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock came with Soundgarden’s new CD, Telephantasm, inserted right into the game box. Telephantasm includes their first “new” song since their breakup, “Black Rain” which was recorded during the band’s Badmotorfinger sessions. Telephantasm also includes “Hunted Down”, “Hands All Over”, “Outshined”, “Rusty Cage”, “Birth Ritual”, “My Wave”, “Spoonman”, “Black Hole Sun”, “Fell On Black Days”, “Burden in My Hand”, “Blow Up The Outside World”, and concludes with the new track. If you didn’t already have these tracks in your library, here’s yet another reason to own this game.

Overall

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock sets out to bring epic rock opera back to our homes and while some would reasonably argue that some song selections seem out of place, such quibbles are easily overlooked by remembering that Neversoft’s last outing as Guitar Hero scribes (Vicarious Visions will take over the helm after this) is trying to give a little bit to all rock fans, as they allow each of us, figuratively at least, the encore we want most.

ComicsOnline gives Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock 4 out of 5 monstrous transformations.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is available now at Amazon in the following packages:
Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Guitar bundle, Xbox 360 Super bundle
PS3, PS3 Guitar bundle, PS3 Super bundle
Wii, Wii Guitar bundle, Wii Super bundle

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