As mentioned in The Beatles: Rock Band, Activision has published yet another installment in the Guitar Hero series. After World Tour, the fourth installment and the first of the bunch to include more than just guitar and bass, the company decided to stick with a very simple name for its fifth game: Guitar Hero 5.
Guitar Hero 5 includes music for drums, guitar and vocals, just like World Tour, but this time it is even more accessible. The Party Mode makes it incredibly easy to allow band members to take a break, join the band, or switch levels, without spending extra time flipping through the menu screens. In addition to that, the setlist of 85 songs is automatically available when players start the game. Provided that there are enough controllers, any combination of instruments can be combined, so there’s no more fighting about who’s playing what. There even can be four drummers (but I’m one to hope I will never have to hear that)!
Other improvements include the visuals and the music studio. Just like the last game, the producers have used motion technology of real people to allow the characters in the background to act just like the legends that they mimic, such as Kurt Cobain or Johnny Cash. The improved music studio interface makes creating your own original piece easier than ever before. If you don’t seem to have the talent to start from scratch, there are multiple background loops that you can choose from to use as your foundation.
Despite its major improvements, many Guitar Hero fans seem a bit disappointed by Guitar Hero 5. The song list is eclectic, perhaps too eclectic, straying from the real “guitar heroes.” (The 85 songs come from a whopping 83 different artists.) The consensus seems to be that, before buying the game, one should take a good look at the set list and make sure there are a decent number of songs with which one will actually be able to appreciate the new improvements. Other than that, Guitar Hero 5 is as superb as any other installment in the series. Rock on!
