Release: Oct 26 2008 (US), Nov 7 2008 (UK)
Developer: Neversoft
Publisher: Activision
Genre: Rhythm Games

Alright readers, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Does Guitar Hero: World Tour rock out loud or should it stick to the garage? Here’s the final part of our immense review.

If you missed the previous sections you can find them here:

PART ONE | PART TWO

Career Mode

Rock Band 2 recently changed the typical ‘Career Mode’ from the old-fashioned tier system to the ‘Tour’;  granting a sense of freedom to the player, but it was all a bit unorganized. So which route does World Tour take? Surprisingly, neither. First off, there are four different careers for each instrument, as well as a complete band career. The way it works is that you are given a whole bunch of venues with a few (roughly between three and six) songs to perform in each. Completing each of these ’gigs’ unlocks more and more venues as you go. You don’t have to complete every single gig, giving you the tiniest amount of choice in in performing the tracks you want to play.

We took a liking to this career mode style, and even though its nowhere near as involving or lengthy as Rock Band 2’s, it gave us everything we could possibly ask; how many stars you get per track, gaps between setlist songs, freedom of choice after completion.

Band Quickplay

There was a lot of commotion about how Guitar Hero would function with four instruments, so here is the skinny: It’s a decent band game that makes a lot of poor design choices. The star power system, for example, is a group project.  When any player in a band successfully completes a ’star power’ phrase, it goes into a star power pool shared by the entire band. This is really confusing, and takes away from the teamwork aspect you’d expect when playing with four people.

Also, the ‘Rock Meter’ shows both the band’s, and each individual’s performance. It takes a bit of getting used to, and players won’t ‘fail out’ when playing poorly, they will just bring everybody else down until someone stops stealing star power from the pool and starts thinking strategically. But, even though it falls short in those respects, it adds a few nice touches, like band wide streaks earning more points; a very welcome - essential - feature.

Online Perfection?

If you were worried about a lack of online game types, you need worry no longer. A plethora of modes include pro face-off and face-off modes (for every instrument), band quickplay, guitar and bass co-op, two vs. two guitar matches, and more. One of the most interesting modes is band vs. band, in which eight players get together and battle for the high score on a single song. Yes, everyone plays at the same time. Now that’s a Battle of the Bands.

You are free to party up with friends thanks to a matchmaking system very much akin to Halo 3. The upside to this, as opposed to the GH3 method, is that connection dropping is virtually non-existent.  Bad news though, and not unlike Gears of War 2, it takes quite a bit of time to get into a match; if you are planning to get into a Band vs. Band game, you best start partying up fast. Online matches are very entertaining, and thankfully a skill system is in place to make sure you don’t end up playing Battle Mode with an opponent that isn’t at your level.

Music Studio

One of the biggest causes for excitement prior to World Tour’s release was the ‘Music Studio’, which allows you to create your own songs and/or download the creations of others for free through ‘GHTunes’. It’s as revolutionary a feature for the genre as LAN was in the early days of the FPS’. Never before have we been so enthralled by a game mode like we have with the Music Studio. The tools available for creating your own rock masterpiece can be extremely deep and complex (like GHMix), or you can make them as simple as simple mashing frets in the Recording Studio.

Basically, the motto goes, “If you can imagine it, you can make it”. You are able to assign whatever notes you like to each fret,  apply any Line6 effect you want, and even alter the sound of the Drum Set. Make no mistake, this is a truly powerful creation tool. The top songs on GHTunes are so good you’d think they came straight from a ’real’ band’s recording.

The entire Music Studio package is great because it mkes up for any possible quarrel you may have with the game. Not enough songs on the retail disc for you? You’ve got infinite possibilities my friend. Don’t like the charts? Make one yourself, you know what you like! The game is given an extraordinary lifespan through GHTunes, as you’ll keep logging on every day to check which new song made it to the top. Unfortunately everything has its downside, and Music Studio’s are the lack of vocal recording and the three minute time limit per song. However, if you have even a passing interest in music, (which we assume you do since you are reading this) you’ll definitely find a huge amount to enjoy in the Music Studio.

It may not be the most polished fish in the pond, but Guitar Hero: World Tour is worth the purchase for anyone who has enjoyed the previous titlies in the series. Great music, great charts and a near-godlike music creation tool make this game a great holiday season choice.