Graphics

• The graphic quality of the game isn’t ground breaking.
• However, the graphics serve their purpose.
• The most important part of the graphics is the five colored icons which are easily distinguishable.
• The draw distance that the icons come from is about half the screen so you get a good three to five note warning of what’s coming.
• The rest of the screen is made up of the stage and crowd shots.
• Like a camera crew filming a concert documentary you’ll get many different angles of your character and band playing on stage.
• This is pretty cool, but the characters are a bit simple, blocky and low detailed.
• When you use your “Star Power” your character starts to pull off some energetic stage maneuvers.
• You can also change your character’s guitar if you buy new guitars or guitar skins from the “Unlock Shop”.
• This games focus is not the graphics and they don’t play that big of a role in the gameplay so a lot of the lack of detail can be forgiven.

Sound

• The songs in the game are not performed by the actual artists, but the sound-a-likes that are used sound surprisingly good.
• It’s almost hard to distinguish some of the voices from the actual ones so no loss of score for that.
• Most of the songs are older Rock and Classic Rock songs from groups that anyone over 20 years of age should recognize.
• Some sample songs are:
• I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
• Killer Queen by Queen
• Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple
• Iron Man by Black Sabbath
• Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand (Used recently for the Honda Civic)
• Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top
• Symphony of Destruction by Megadeath

Captivation

• It doesn’t matter if you have ever played a guitar in real life, once you pick up the controller and start giving Guitar Hero a chance you will feel like you are a rock star.
• Using the guitar controller brings a level of immersion that is rarely felt in a game.
• In fact it could only be out done if the device really taught you how to play a guitar.
• The game could be classified as an RPG since there is no RPG that will make you feel like you are in the role of the lead character as much as you fell like you are a true Guitar Hero.
• With four different difficulty levels, guitar hero offers something for everyone.
• Easy Mode
• 25 Songs are unlockable, but there is no store to buy unlockables.
• Only three fret buttons are used and chords are rarely seen.
• Medium Mode
• Five extra songs are available and the “Unlock Shop” is available to spend money in.
• You can earn enough money by playing one song over and over again, so you don’t have to master everything.
• A fourth fret button is added and chords work their way into the music.
• Hard Mode
• The same 30 songs are available, but now the fifth fret button becomes a major factor.
• Expert Mode
• Again just 30 songs but now all fret buttons are used equally, and notes come very fast.
• This game isn’t played for just 10, 50 or even 200 hours.
• Guitar Hero is a game that you’ll play for years.
• You can be guaranteed that more versions with different styles of music are on their way.

Final Thoughts

• Positives
• Quite clearly one of the best games I’ve played in years.
• Nothing immerses you in a game like a well crafted mock guitar that makes you feel like a rock star.
• Excellent mixture of 30 familiar songs and some you never knew you were cool.
• Offers a supreme challenge at harder difficulties, but is fun no matter what difficulty.
• To be good at the game, you’ll have to just “feel” the music and not worry about every key press.
• In other words the game will move faster than you can comprehend single button presses at higher levels.
• This provides ultimate satisfaction when you learn a song that well.
• Almost unlimited replayability.
• Negatives
• 30 songs plus some unlockables are a lot, but you could never have enough.
• Not being able to play it loud if your parents are home.
• Must have fingers to play.

Bottom Line

• This is the MUST BUY of the decade!