World Tour delivers hours upon hours of fun alone or with friends
Positive:
+ new controllers are very nice
+ new guitar gameplay elements work well for the most part
+ great setlist with diverse songs both in style and difficulty
+ career is less linear than before
+ sharp, lively graphics
+ awesome online play modes
+ band play is a blast
Negative:
- drum sound hardly comes through the TV
Rock Band and Guitar Hero will probably continue to be the two main rhythm franchises in gaming, and predictably each will probably put out a new game every year. This means there will always be competition between the two. Guitar Hero seems to win with sales and Rock Band with critics, but which is really better? While I can't answer that question as I've barely played Rock Band, I CAN tell you just how great a game Guitar Hero: World Tour is. So here's a review that (shocker alert) isn't comparing World Tour to Rock Band 2.
The main gameplay mode for World Tour is the Career. In previous Guitar Hero games, you had to beat all the songs in a set to move on, but now you have several sets to choose from all the time. This makes the game feel much less linear and allows for you to get to the end of the game without actually clearing all the gigs if you want. The game's set list is huge too, so the career is really long. You can also make your own set of songs, which is cool. The other major mode is Quick Play, which you will likely go to most after finishing the Career. This has been improved from before too. You can now select up to six songs to make up a set rather than going back and choosing another between every song, which is really convenient.
Both of these modes feature both single player and band play. The multiplayer is really one of the best parts of World Tour, playing with friends and family is a blast. Four players can play the guitar, bass, and drums, and another person can sing. You can play with the band in either Career or Quick Play or take your group online to play Band vs Band mode, or if you have two or three people you can find others to bring in for some cooperative play as well. The band play is really what's at the very core of World Tour, and it's brought to every frontier very nicely.
The game's guitar gameplay still has its core rooted in the foundations of the previous games, but there are some good new additions. The main new gameplay features involve the slider on the neck of the guitar: a touch-sensitive strip with the five colors on different sections that you simply have to be touching at the right time to hit a note (you don't have to strum). These sections of the songs have purple-ringed notes, and usually they go really fast. The only bad thing about the slider sections is how inconvenient it is to reach down the neck and suddenly have to get your hand back on the main fret buttons when the section ends (you WILL miss at least two notes, guaranteed). The slider has other uses too, such as making a wah effect instead of using the whammy bar or slapping it instead of strumming (while still fingering the notes on the fret buttons). The slider is a neat addition to the controller that's fun, if sometimes hard, to use.
The drums have been added to Guitar Hero with much success, but also one or two issues. The drum kit is really nice, with the two elevated symbols and bouncy pads, and they make a lot of noise but it's not like beating the crud out of a hard wood floor (ok, fine, I compare to Rock Band once in this entire review). The gameplay works just fine except for Star Power, which is activated by hitting both symbols simultaneously and is pretty inconvenient. Adding the extra symbol to one you're supposed to hit only works about 50% of the time, and throwing in an offbeat hit is just hard. Activating Star Power may be a challenge in itself, but the drums are still a lot of fun to play.
Singing is pretty well done. It picks up your voice pitch pretty well when you're singing loud enough (which really isn't TOO loud). Star Power is a bit of an issue here, too: you have to either hit the top of the mike or press A on the remote. It's awfully inconvenient to try and hit the mike while singing, and I doubt the remote will actually be in your hand while you sing. Overall singing works well and goes with the game nicely.
There is also a Music Studio, where you record and edit your own music. It's great for people who know a lot about music and don't mind spending hours perfecting their work, but the rest of us will probably not really feel inspired to use it. Thankfully, you can take advantage of other peoples' work for free through GH Tunes, where you download songs people have made with the game.
With all these great game modes and solid instrument gameplay, you still wouldn't have a complete game without a great list of songs. Thankfully, World Tour delivers in great and sometimes surprising ways. The song selection is absolutely huge and is very diverse both in the areas of difficulty and song style. The setlist contains easy songs like 'What I've Done,' very difficult and challenging songs like 'Hot for Teacher' and 'Mr. Crowley,' and just about everywhere in between on the difficulty meter. The types of songs chosen are quite varied as well, with songs like 'Everlong' and 'Re-education Through Labor' and very different songs like 'On the Road Again' or 'La Bamba.' There is also a good mix of classic hits and newer works, which makes the song selection great for the adults too. There are also a few songs within the list that aren't very fun to play or are too long (I'm looking at the three Tool songs in particular) but overall the setlist does a good job of catering to all potential players' tastes and skills and delivering lots of fun songs to play.
Graphically, World Tour looks very sharp on the 360. The characters are very well-animated and their movement is pretty smooth. The instrument playing has been much improved from GHIII and it looks much more realistic. Even the gems (notes) look really sharp, shiny, and polished. The band performances are very cool to watch too, and the gig locations are also very well done. Overall World Tour succeeds in creating a great visual experience on the 360, even if it is the least important part of the game.
The sound quality of World Tour is great, but there is at least one issue with it. Songs sound very good and the quality is pretty much perfect. But the main problem lies in the sound mixing. I don't know about you, but I like to actually hear the drums through the TV when I'm playing them. Unfortunately, even with the drum volume all the way up, I can barely hear them at all when playing the instrument. Overall, though, the sound department is good because of the quality of the songs.
When a game is as good as Guitar Hero: World Tour, it's hard to complain too much even if it's not as good as Rock Band (which I still do not know myself). Within its own franchise it's a real winner, not only because of the massive in-game setlist and added instruments, but also because of the touches to the Career and Quick Play modes that make them so much better than before. I highly recommend World Tour to anyone who has enjoyed past Guitar Hero titles; you shouldn't be disappointed.
Gameplay: 9.0
Camera & Control: 9.0
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 8.5
Value: 9.5
FINAL SCORE: 9.2/10
+ new controllers are very nice
+ new guitar gameplay elements work well for the most part
+ great setlist with diverse songs both in style and difficulty
+ career is less linear than before
+ sharp, lively graphics
+ awesome online play modes
+ band play is a blast
Negative:
- drum sound hardly comes through the TV
Rock Band and Guitar Hero will probably continue to be the two main rhythm franchises in gaming, and predictably each will probably put out a new game every year. This means there will always be competition between the two. Guitar Hero seems to win with sales and Rock Band with critics, but which is really better? While I can't answer that question as I've barely played Rock Band, I CAN tell you just how great a game Guitar Hero: World Tour is. So here's a review that (shocker alert) isn't comparing World Tour to Rock Band 2.
The main gameplay mode for World Tour is the Career. In previous Guitar Hero games, you had to beat all the songs in a set to move on, but now you have several sets to choose from all the time. This makes the game feel much less linear and allows for you to get to the end of the game without actually clearing all the gigs if you want. The game's set list is huge too, so the career is really long. You can also make your own set of songs, which is cool. The other major mode is Quick Play, which you will likely go to most after finishing the Career. This has been improved from before too. You can now select up to six songs to make up a set rather than going back and choosing another between every song, which is really convenient.
Both of these modes feature both single player and band play. The multiplayer is really one of the best parts of World Tour, playing with friends and family is a blast. Four players can play the guitar, bass, and drums, and another person can sing. You can play with the band in either Career or Quick Play or take your group online to play Band vs Band mode, or if you have two or three people you can find others to bring in for some cooperative play as well. The band play is really what's at the very core of World Tour, and it's brought to every frontier very nicely.
The game's guitar gameplay still has its core rooted in the foundations of the previous games, but there are some good new additions. The main new gameplay features involve the slider on the neck of the guitar: a touch-sensitive strip with the five colors on different sections that you simply have to be touching at the right time to hit a note (you don't have to strum). These sections of the songs have purple-ringed notes, and usually they go really fast. The only bad thing about the slider sections is how inconvenient it is to reach down the neck and suddenly have to get your hand back on the main fret buttons when the section ends (you WILL miss at least two notes, guaranteed). The slider has other uses too, such as making a wah effect instead of using the whammy bar or slapping it instead of strumming (while still fingering the notes on the fret buttons). The slider is a neat addition to the controller that's fun, if sometimes hard, to use.
The drums have been added to Guitar Hero with much success, but also one or two issues. The drum kit is really nice, with the two elevated symbols and bouncy pads, and they make a lot of noise but it's not like beating the crud out of a hard wood floor (ok, fine, I compare to Rock Band once in this entire review). The gameplay works just fine except for Star Power, which is activated by hitting both symbols simultaneously and is pretty inconvenient. Adding the extra symbol to one you're supposed to hit only works about 50% of the time, and throwing in an offbeat hit is just hard. Activating Star Power may be a challenge in itself, but the drums are still a lot of fun to play.
Singing is pretty well done. It picks up your voice pitch pretty well when you're singing loud enough (which really isn't TOO loud). Star Power is a bit of an issue here, too: you have to either hit the top of the mike or press A on the remote. It's awfully inconvenient to try and hit the mike while singing, and I doubt the remote will actually be in your hand while you sing. Overall singing works well and goes with the game nicely.
There is also a Music Studio, where you record and edit your own music. It's great for people who know a lot about music and don't mind spending hours perfecting their work, but the rest of us will probably not really feel inspired to use it. Thankfully, you can take advantage of other peoples' work for free through GH Tunes, where you download songs people have made with the game.
With all these great game modes and solid instrument gameplay, you still wouldn't have a complete game without a great list of songs. Thankfully, World Tour delivers in great and sometimes surprising ways. The song selection is absolutely huge and is very diverse both in the areas of difficulty and song style. The setlist contains easy songs like 'What I've Done,' very difficult and challenging songs like 'Hot for Teacher' and 'Mr. Crowley,' and just about everywhere in between on the difficulty meter. The types of songs chosen are quite varied as well, with songs like 'Everlong' and 'Re-education Through Labor' and very different songs like 'On the Road Again' or 'La Bamba.' There is also a good mix of classic hits and newer works, which makes the song selection great for the adults too. There are also a few songs within the list that aren't very fun to play or are too long (I'm looking at the three Tool songs in particular) but overall the setlist does a good job of catering to all potential players' tastes and skills and delivering lots of fun songs to play.
Graphically, World Tour looks very sharp on the 360. The characters are very well-animated and their movement is pretty smooth. The instrument playing has been much improved from GHIII and it looks much more realistic. Even the gems (notes) look really sharp, shiny, and polished. The band performances are very cool to watch too, and the gig locations are also very well done. Overall World Tour succeeds in creating a great visual experience on the 360, even if it is the least important part of the game.
The sound quality of World Tour is great, but there is at least one issue with it. Songs sound very good and the quality is pretty much perfect. But the main problem lies in the sound mixing. I don't know about you, but I like to actually hear the drums through the TV when I'm playing them. Unfortunately, even with the drum volume all the way up, I can barely hear them at all when playing the instrument. Overall, though, the sound department is good because of the quality of the songs.
When a game is as good as Guitar Hero: World Tour, it's hard to complain too much even if it's not as good as Rock Band (which I still do not know myself). Within its own franchise it's a real winner, not only because of the massive in-game setlist and added instruments, but also because of the touches to the Career and Quick Play modes that make them so much better than before. I highly recommend World Tour to anyone who has enjoyed past Guitar Hero titles; you shouldn't be disappointed.
Gameplay: 9.0
Camera & Control: 9.0
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 8.5
Value: 9.5
FINAL SCORE: 9.2/10
