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After four years and many spinoff titles, the Guitar Hero games are something like aging rock stars; they always deliver, but in a comfortably predictable way. Then along comes Guitar Hero 5 and like an unexpected come-back tour, revives the Guitar Hero franchise and reminds us why it's become one of the greats.
True to form, Guitar Hero 5's single player Career Mode contains new songs and unlocks more songs and more venues as you play. It's not necessary to play every song but you will need to earn enough stars to reach the final song: Rush's "The Spirit of Radio". This time, instead of purchasing costumes and instruments, each song asks you to perform challenges; things like getting 100% star power while playing guitar, drummer streak, or having the band get a high score.
The game takes the band concept introduced to the series in Guitar Hero World Tour (unofficially Guitar Hero 4) and tweaks it a bit. Guitar, vocals and drums remain unchanged and bass continues with its open note scheme (strum with no buttons) but gone is the shared star power meter when playing in band mode. Now everyone's in charge of their own multiplier meter which will be good news to players sick of having greedy players steal their star power.
That leads into multiplayer, where the game has undergone its most significant revisions. You can still form the classic guitar, bass, drum, vocal lineup but now you're allowed to mix and match them any way you want. Three guitars, one singer. All guitars. All vocals for a karaoke night. Or the insanity of an all-drums party. This will be a huge relief to videogame rockers who've struggled to find a drummer or couldn't convince a shy girl to sing. Don't have enough players for a four-player band? This game really wants you to play with others so it makes it easy. With a couple of taps of the buttons you can recruit or join online players effortlessly.
Unlocks and modes have also been streamlined. The single player and band Career modes have been merged into one, so the songs and bonuses you unlock anywhere count in your save game file and the Quick play mode has all the songs unlocked right from the beginning. You can also create a set list of however many songs you want and there's even an achievement for creating one that lasts over an hour. Ouch! Rockfest is the new name for competitive multiplayer in Guitar Hero 5 and like the rest of the game, it's flexible in regard to local and online play as well as objectives. The newest mode, Party Play, is just for fun and will be a huge hit at, well, parties. Songs are set up in a random no-fail playlist so no matter how poorly newbies do, they won't stop the music. Players can jump in and out without messing anything up and can switch difficulty on the fly. In fact, everyone can drop out and the game will continue playing music for your get-togethers.
Get ready though because Guitar Hero 5's eclectic music mix might catch some of your party guests by surprise. The game's 85 songs include classic rock, pop, metal, country—even jazz; something in there for everybody to love and/or hate. The song selection screen is more detailed now and gives you the difficulty for each instrument as well as facts about the song like artist, album, year, specific genre (for those of you who are particular about your brand of metal), and what game it's from. That's right. In addition to songs from Guitar Hero 5 and downloadable tracks, the game allows you to import songs from Guitar Hero World Tour for a small fee. Licensing rights prevent importing everything but a decent amount is included and Activision promises that we will be able to import songs from this year's Guitar Hero Smash Hits and possibly other titles as well. Downloadable tracks from Guitar Hero World Tour can be re-downloaded for free. If those songs aren't enough for you, the GH Tunes from Guitar Hero World Tour return allowing players to create and share their own MIDI based music which then can be rated by the community. The creation tools have been updated but only hardcore music nerds will enjoy them, since writing music on a computer with only a game controller for most of us isn't much fun.
What is fun is creating your own rock star using the flexible custom tools. Guest rock stars are available if you unlock them, which works fine when they're playing instruments but is kind of odd when they're doing vocals. Johnny Cash singing Rammstein's "Du Hast" is just so, so wrong. Nothing against Cash, Kurt Cobain, Shirley Manson, and Matt Bellamy but this year's guest star appearances lack the "oomph" of Slash in Guitar Hero III. You can also use your Xbox Live avatar (or Mii if you're playing on the Nintendo Wii) and crack up watching you and your friends' avatars rocking out on stage. Customization extends even to this part of the game letting you select which rockers play in the unoccupied lineup spots.
The switch to full band for Guitar Hero last year may have had a few issues and endless spinoff titles may have wearied the audience but with Guitar Hero 5, developer Neversoft has saved the franchise. By eliminating flaws in the game mechanics and improving multiplayer, the game may even be better than–gasp—Rock Band 2 (except in the online marketplace, where Rock Band's selection still dwarfs it in size and quality.) Guitar Hero 5's song list is huge, almost double of what The Beatles: Rock Band will have when it comes out and with unmatched customization, ease of multiplay, and all around fun, we end on this note: Guitar Hero 5 is the best Guitar Hero yet.
Fun factor: This game bends over backwards to make sure everyone playing it has fun. No frowny faces for getting stuck playing bass anymore.
Game length: 85 songs plus all the free DLC Activision offers. The career mode can be wrapped up in a few days but multiplayer makes sure you'll rock n' roll all night and Guitar Hero party, not every day, but a lot.
Difficulty: Customization is the motto of this game. Casual gamers can finish the game easy enough but completing all the game's song challenges on the diamond level will be impossible for all except Rock Gods.
On the negative side: The online DLC choices aren't as large as Rock Band's. The Guitar Hero World Tour import feature should've included more songs. Does anybody care about the GH Tunes? The rock guest stars don't blow anybody away and are kind of creepy when not singing their own songs.
Bang for your buck: This game on its own is worth your $60 but if you buy it in its release month of September, you get the upcoming Guitar Hero Van Halen for free in the mail. That's what concert promoters call a double-headliner.
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