A Poorly Priced Guitar Hero That's Worth the Rental
Guitar Hero Aerosmith relies on your opinion of Aerosmith. If you are a fan, chances are good that you will enjoy this game. If you don't enjoy their music, you can definitely skip this GH outing without feeling like you missed much.
Unfortunately for GH:A, the value is far from exceptional. With only 41 total songs, you start to question what Activision was thinking when they decided on a $60 USD price. Also, if you are a fairly exceptional Guitar Hero or Rock Band guitar player, you won't have a problem beating this game in mere hours. I was able to beat all the songs on Expert with only failing once on the boss battle. One problem with the gameplay is that you don't really feel a progression in difficulty. It just starts out easy then peaks in difficulty and stays there. On a positive note, I really appreciated the better thought-out note charts. GH3's note charts didn't even come close to matching up with their real-life counterparts and felt like they were made just to be difficult and cheap. For instance, a riff in GH:A will stay the same if it shows up later in the song as that same combination of notes. To say the least, if Neversoft's new vision with their note charts is to be more consistent instead of all over the place difficult, I would be very happy.
The graphics definitely got a visual bump from Guitar Hero 3. Venues look brighter and more colorful. Unfortunately, I'm still not satisfied with the character models yet. They just look way too robotic and motion-captured it's frustrating! Bottomline, their animations look stiff and fakey, period.
So, with a game focused around one band, how does it integrate Aerosmith? I'd say it succeeds. As you play the career mode, you'll unlock new venues. Every venue has a video for each with the band talking about why 'x venue' is important to the band and how it shaped them. I thought it was neat and added some personality to the venues and Aerosmith. They connect with the player well and overall feels coherent.
In the end, Guitar Hero Aerosmith is worth a rent, sort of like how Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s was. It is just too bad Activision didn't choose a lower, budget price point or as a downloadable content pack for Guitar Hero 3.
