Guitar Hero II Review

Fulfilling the fantasies of wannabe rockers everywhere when it hit North America at the end of 2005, Red Octane and Harmonix's Guitar Hero was a massive success. For what ever reason however, it's success wasn't replicated when it finally made it to this side of the Atlantic earlier this year - perhaps the size of guitar packed boxes weren't quite as suitable to balance on shop shelves as they are in the US... A lot has now changed since then, with both developer and publisher subject to takeovers in recent months: Harmonix is now part of the MTV Network, whilst Activision purchased Red Octane. With significantly sized corporations now flexing their financial muscle for the Guitar Hero follow up, Guitar Hero II, perhaps UK gamers will be better prepared to rock their socks off the second time around.

The objective of the game of course remains the same: form a band with the help of caricaturised stereotypical guitarists from the punk-like Johnny Napalm, to the power-chord rocker Axel Steel, and play your heart out to a variety of famous guitar tracks with the help of an axe-shaped peripheral that looks like a Fisher-Price toy. Familiar ground for veterans of the first title then. There are however one or two subtle ideas further added to the Guitar Hero II gig, such as the introduction of an 'Encore' song, which unlocks the likes of "Sweet Child of Mine" from Guns 'N Roses and Jane Addiction's "Stop!", and a complete breakdown of stats for every part of a song. These are very much small additions to the experience though, and are far removed from any real evolution of the series.

The biggest development for this encore of a sequel rests with the Multiplayer, which now sees one player take control of Lead Guitar, and a second on Bass. Allowing for both Co-Operative and confrontational Face-Off modes, it expands the experience for those lucky enough to own two of the Gibson SB replicas (last year's glossy black is now replaced with a more matt cherry red axe), especially when players have their own separate Difficulty setting - something that did hinder last year's initial efforts. It is a case of one step forward and two steps back, thanks to the omission of a two-player Career Mode. There's very little excuse for it to be missing after all, and it actually compounds any real sense in development over the first Guitar Hero - Multiplayer remains feeling like a tacked on experience to how it should do. That said, the two Multiplayer modes do work extremely well (all the more once the solo Career has been fully unlocked) despite an apparently easier ride for Bass players who don't have quite the finger-numbing guitar solos endured by Lead guitarists on some of the songs.

Despite expanding beyond the largely rock-centric line-up of the original to include the likes of Dick Dale's "Miserlou" (that plucking crazy guitar track featured in the beginning of Pulp Fiction), The Police's "Message In A Bottle", and "Jessica" from the Allman Brothers Band, the most startling feature about the set lists is the distinct lack of really well known tracks. Sure, it's great to see the likes of Nirvana, The Butthole Surfers, and Foo Fighters mix it in with metal giants like Megadeth and Guns 'n' Roses, but the game could have really benefited from adding more 'classics' like Black Sabbath's "Crazy Train" rather than newcomers The Sword and their track, "Freya". Guitar Hero does continue to promote new bands however, this time including twenty-four tracks from the likes of The Last Vegas and Anarchy Club, all of which can be unlocked via the game's 'shop' - a charitable effort, but how many gamers would rather to unlock more classic tracks instead? A significant proportion of the tracks in the game also seem to last for a longer duration than many of the songs in the original game, perhaps as a result of this new found pseudo-emphasis on multiplayer, which on occasion does leave you wishing for the end a lot sooner.

But perhaps we're being a tad harsh on the game - it remains one of the most addictive games to play this past year (and has been the reason for many a lost hour here at TVG Towers), as well as satisfying the need for more Guitar Hero. Pulling off a complicated run of notes and retaining that all-important "x4 Multiplier" remains hugely satisfying, especially in some of the more challenging difficulties of 'Hard" and "Extreme" mode, and furthering that sense of "just one more song".

It's a real shame that despite pushing the developed Multiplayer feature a tad, Guitar Hero II is little more than a 'by the numbers' sequel. Besides the addition of new characters and new songs, it does seem that for the most part, very little has changed between this and the first instalment. Activision confirmed that Guitar Hero II was heading to Xbox 360 in 2007 back at X06, and whilst we're not holding not for changes in the song list, let's hope that it'll be backed up with more tracks via Xbox Live...and the addition of Xbox Live-based Multiplayer.

Red Octane has already confirmed that a third Guitar Hero is in development for PlayStation2, no doubt to be quickly followed by versions on PlayStation3 and Xbox 360; let's just hope that Harmonix implements enough features (such as an online song shop and Multiplayer Career) to avoid the Guitar Hero brand becoming little more than a tribute band to the original.