Guitar Hero 2 (Game Only)

I loved Guitar Hero. I thought it was fantastic. Guitar Hero II is even better! Great songs, great gameplay, quite addictive. A must buy :)

So first, how this game works. You have a special controller that looks like a guitar. If you have one from Guitar Hero (I), it will work so you won't have to buy another one. You get 5 buttons on the fret (the thin part on the left) and then a "push" toggle in the center of the guitar. So you're hammering down strings on the fretboard by pressing colored buttons, and you're "strumming" by pushing down on the toggle in the guitar's center. It's actually quite fun, although "real" guitar players have a fit because the notes are of course not in the right place and when they try to really play the song, it doesn't work properly.

But back to our fun air guitar playing :) They have a fantastic blend of songs on this. The intriguing part of any music game is finding songs that every single person likes. I imagine it's impossible. There are songs on here that I dislike that I'm sure other people love. Then again they have "Surrender" and "Message in a Bottle" which I find amazingly fun to play, which I'm sure some people hate with a passion. Hopefully there's a middle ground here!

The game moves you from club to club, and you have to pass 3 out of 4 songs at each club to move along. You go through some classic locations like the Rat Celler in Boston. You get to choose your character from a number of pre-sets (both male and female, hurrah!!) and even choose your guitar. The songs get trickier as you progress.

When you unlock songs in career mode you can then play them whenever you want in the casual playing mode both for one or two players. It's great fun to rock out with a friend with the music blasting!

Then there's always going back to get perfect scores - and increasing the difficulty to get to special songs that the Easy People can't see.

The graphics are pretty good - but really, when your fingers are flying and you're trying to push the buttons in super-fast-time (that's a musical term), how can you possibly even see what those on screen characters are doing in the background? That's more to entertain whoever is watching you. Still, I like that the audience waves lighters during the quiet parts of songs :)

If I have a complaint, it's the same complaint I had with the first one - that sometimes their prompts show up OVER THE FRET BOARD so you can't see what the upcoming notes are! Surely some of the testers must have realized this - or were the testers all so glazed at that point that they knew the songs by heart and weren't having to look at the screen?

Still, it's a minor issue. Definitely a game to get, that is great fun for anybody who loves rock music!

Here are the songs you begin with, to whet your appetite!

Shout at the Devil / Mother / Surrender / Woman / Strutter / Heart-Shaped Box / Message in a Bottle / You Really Got Me / Monkey Wrench / Them Bones / Search and Destroy / Tattooed Love Boys / Cherry Pie / Who Was In My Room Last Night? / Girlfriend / Can't You Hear Me Knockin'

Guitar Hero was something of a sleeper hit last year. Developer RedOctane delivered an excellent rhythm game that played quite unlike any other console game with its guitar controller and deep list of playable songs. Despite its pricey package, Guitar Hero sold and became a quick hit, garnering almost as much gaming media attention as 2005 classics like God Of War and Resident Evil 4. RedOctane's readied up Guitar Hero 2, and does the series continue to deliver a deep experience or is it a one-hit wonder?

Without a question, Guitar Hero 2 is better than its predecessor in most ways, though the gameplay mechanics haven't changed much at all. The guitar controller, bundled with either Guitar Hero or Guitar Hero 2, works as well as always. The notes in each song are played by holding one of five colored frets on the guitar while strumming the controller's strum bar. There's even a whammy bar for those distorted, drawn-out notes. If you've played Guitar Hero, you'll feel right at home with the controller. It's no surprise, this guitar wasn't broken and RedOctane didn't need to fix a darn thing.

There are a few new things added to the mix. Three-string notes will pop up on the Hard and Extreme difficulties and can really throw you off. Also, hammer-ons, which weren't very effective in Guitar Hero, are done much better here. The result is a perfectly improved experience, with little to no frustrations coming from the controller itself. Guitar Hero's a lot like golf; the only person you can blame for not doing well is yourself. Also like golf, the only way to get better at the game is to practice. Fortunately, Guitar Hero 2 has an extensive practice mode that actually lets you pinpoint individual sections in songs, slow them down, and practice them until you can't miss a beat. I'll quote my roommate Alan, "Practice mode actually makes you better."

The track list is something most Guitar Hero fans have become familiar with, even weeks before the game's release, but those of you in the dark will be happy to know that top rock artists like Foo Fighters ("Monkey Wrench"), Nirvana ("Heart-Shaped Box"), and Black Sabbath ("War Pigs") make an appearance. Some older groups are also there, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, with the 9+ minutes of guitar solo pain in "Free Bird." I was very happy to see some metal bands thrown into the mix, like Avenged Sevenfold, Shadows Fall, and Lamb Of God, but RedOctane earned the most bonus points in my book by including All That Remains' "Six" as an unlockable song. It's a current favorite of mine, after all, and it almost made my hands bleed when I kicked up the difficulty to Hard and tried to play it. The different levels of songs are unlocked in the familiar career mode, and it's as fun as always to earn money, unlock secret songs, outfits, and characters, and go for those difficult five-star reviews.

I have to admit that Guitar Hero 2 is noticeably harder than the original. The reason for this isn't because of the notes themselves, in fact, some of the songs are incredibly easy. Most of the difficulty comes from brutally long songs that require a lot of stamina. As I said, "Free Bird" is over 9 minutes long-that's asking a lot of your left hand for the frets and right hand for the strumming. While I'll admit I play the game on the Normal difficulty setting, I've tried a large amount of the songs on Hard and I've only beaten a few. "Free Bird" on a higher difficulty setting is just obscenely difficult.

Guitar Hero didn't really wow anyone with an explosive visual performance but it did have a wild art style and decently interesting environments to play in. This time around the background camera angles get a little closer to your player, allowing you to see him strum on his virtual guitar while you shred away on your controller. Some of the visual effects light up the screen and add a nice touch, like the fire effects that come from your player's hands as he strums on-screen. The environments deform and change in appearance during Encores, and the final shape-shifting venue was particularly interesting. The re-recordings are hit ("War Pigs", "Free Bird") and miss ("Beast And The Harlot"); but this isn't surprising to me. The same thing happened last year, and I'd be happy to see the actual recordings make it around for Guitar Hero 3. I'm very happy to report that RedOctane input an option that allows you to turn off that annoying scratching noise that occurs whenever you screw up a note-this sound effect was extremely distracting in Guitar Hero and it can be silenced once and for all in the sequel. I usually know when I screwed up a note, I don't need an annoying sound to rub it in

Guitar Hero 2 does nothing to change its predecessor's direction. It's essentially a fine-tuned update to last year's hit, and that's just fine with me. If you as much as watched someone else play the original, you simply can't miss out on the sequel. If last year's "Bark At The Moon" and "Cowboys From Hell" weren't enough for you, "Free Bird" will be. I referenced "Free Bird" five times throughout this review; if nothing else, play this game just for a hands-on experience with this classic. The only improvements I could suggest would be to include the real song recordings. Guitar Hero is one of those games that doesn't ever really need to be reinvented. That's not to say that something couldn't be done to make it even more fun, but even after all of the hand cramps, there's nothing I could think of.

Guitar Hero II is everybit better than the first installment!

Will I still play the first Guitar Hero? Yes, because the songlist is still quite good, but with this sequel, GHII is far more impressive! Especially with its diverse song lineup. With 10 more licensed songs than the first game- that's 40 tracks in all to rock out with(not counting the bonus songs, adding 64 songs all together). This game also has new and more detailed venues, added lighting effects as you rock out, encore specials, new and improved looks on characters-some whom your able to switch outfits with, unlockable new guitars and more. A nice touch to your character's guitar rockin' happens as a series of continuous note smashing occurs and your character's guitar playin' may flame up as he/she is strummin' along and it's way cool!

With better options on an unbelievable multiplayer co-op mode than allows a friend to join in on some shreddin' guitar-rythm, lead, or bass style as you two aim to rock out like a real band and try to shoot for a 5 star review or high score. This alone creates hours of fun play! When you botch a note, the bass sound actually sounds like a thud as the guitar mess-ups continue the same sound effect from the first game. Another option in multiplayer allows players to go head-to-head in original face-off mode or the new pro-face off where now both players can play every note of a song instead of a series of notes as found on the first game's face-off mode.

3 fret buttons Now!!! Those who mastered the first game can now look forward to having a few notes on certain songs contain 3 fret buttons that must be played together, especially on the expert level. Primus and Jane's Addiction added their own master tracks in "John The Fisherman" and "Stop" and most songs are nicely covered. There may be some argument about a few of the song choices or how the vocals sound but you know what this game delivers it still! Hopefully as the GH franchise progresses, more bands' original tracks will also be added into the mix. I have to give mad props to Harmonix and RedOctane for putting together another brilliant game. In the words of AC/DC, "For Those About To Rock We Salute You!" and how bout it if that band makes GHIII? A few more punk songs would also be oh so nice. That'll be somethin'.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 83 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars