Hello there! In Part 1, we carefully looked over the setlist and visuals. Now it’s time to put the instruments through their paces… Welcome to part 2.
The Instruments
Guitar:
Well, the game is called Guitar Hero: World Tour, and we are pleased to announce that it definitely earns that title. Sure, you could say that the songs are over-charted, and that the guitar parts are just too difficult, but what they are above all is fun. And that is what truly matters.
The difficulty level is somewhere between that of GH2 and 3, a timing system is similar to the ‘Aerosmith’ expansion. Neversoft has gone to great lengths to improve the game, timing system included. What we have now is the accuracy of ‘Aerosmith’ without the frustration during solos, culminating in a more forgiving and intuitive experience that receives our stamp of approval.
We highly suggest completing the ‘New Features‘ tutorial, because there are a few to get your head around. First off are the ‘Extended Sustains’. These allow you to strum and hit higher notes on the neck while holding down lower ones. For example, you’ll be able to hold the Green button down and play hammer-on Yellow and Blue notes. This takes quite a while to get used to, and will most likely lead to accidental breaks in your streak. You’ll either love ‘em or hate ‘em, but we are pretty sure you will hate ‘em.
Next are the ‘slider sections‘ in which notes are connected with a purple rope. These notes do not have to be strum, allowing you to just hammer on/off instead. However, they are often hard to spot and seem quite pointless. In fact, it was as if Neversoft couldn’t decide where to chart strums in these sections, and are just taking the easy way out. They are not so poorly implemented that they take the fun out of tracks like ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Crazy Train’, and your fingers will still be happy you picked this game up.
Bass:
Okay, we underestimated the Bass fan-err…. base. So, you’ll all be glad to hear that the bass is actually distinguishable from the regular guitar this time around. It has an added note, the Purple line, which is played as open. We know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a great new mechanic that adds a whole other dimension to the gameplay. It will take a while to get used to playing them, (yes, there are hammer-on opens) but once you do you will feel even more like the in-the-pocket funk demon you are.
Vocals:
World Tour steps into this new territory pretty well. Unlike the Rock Band vocals, you have a ‘comet’ indicator that shows your current and past pitches. It’s nice to see, and sure to help those who are challenged in the singing department. Another thing you couldn’t do in Rock Band was activate ‘Overdrive’ whenever you wanted, which you can here with either a tap on the mic or a press of a button. And, as predicted, there are sections where you are free to show your inner rock star (saying “woooo!” and other ‘rocker’ slogans) to milk the song for extra points – a nice addition.
Overall, the game recognizes pitch rather well, and actually judges you based on the actual vocals used in the song, meaning that imitating the singers will get you ahead. Unfortunately there are a few grievances. There is no indication of how well you are doing during a phase, so all you can do when your about to fail is hold the note as best you can and pray, which is odd as the accumulation of star power is directly linked to how well you’re singing. Another issue came up with a few songs that don’t really consider vocals as an integral part of the performance, so you’ll need to find another way of keeping yourself busy while the rest of the band rocks out
Drums:
Yes, the game has its own drum set but do not fear, those who play with the Rock Band set will see the charts adjust to four pads; a great, money saving feature. All the songs in the game are actually charted pretty decently for drums, which is quite an achievement given that this is Neversoft’s first shot at it. Some of the songs are overly long and monotonous, but none are outright terrible.
The highway layout is cause for concern, as the notes aren’t presented as clearly as they should be. Songs like ‘Shiver‘ and ‘Hot for Teacher’, with quickly alternating pad hits, are much harder than they should be, because it is so difficult to see exactly how many notes are in a roll. We also had a few complaints about the bass pedal notes as the purple lines simply aren’t as thin and crisp as they should be, but although you’ll find yourself unjustly missing the odd note the forgiving timing usually makes up for it; although it might mess up your inner timing clock if you are an actual drummer. These complaints aren’t exactly gamebreaking but they are a little disappointing considering Rock Band managed crystal clear rectangles.
That’s it for now. stay tuned for Part 3 for our final score and verdict!
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