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Uh oh, it looks like we might have been wrong on this one. Preliminary reviews of Guitar Hero: World Tour suggest that things might not be as rosey in the Guitar Hero camp as originally thought with their first foray into the “full band” experience.
Unlocking Songs
In previous Guitar Hero titles songs were always presented to you in pre-determined collections of songs. You had to play through and beat them in order to unlock the next pre-determined collection of songs. If you ever got to a point that you could no longer complete 1 of the songs in the collection, your progression in Guitar Hero simply stopped. You would physically unable to unlock anymore songs. Out of our set of friends that have the previous Guitar Hero titles, almost every one of them have complained about this.
It looks like in Guitar Hero: World Tour the layout is a bit more non-linear feeling, but essential still the same functional approach. You play in “gigs”, or sets of songs, and as you complete the entire gig, you unlock more gigs. It looks like completing a gig also unlocks followup encores for you, so if at any time you become unable to pass portions of your gigs you will not unlock the encores and I believe at later levels will not be able to unlock subsequent gigs… so there still seems the sick reality that your career can come to a standstill if you actually suck at playing plastic instruments. Doesn’t seem to fun to me.
In addition to that, it looks like there is no way to revive downed band members during a gig, you simply fail the song and have to try again.
Instruments
It looks like character and instrument creation are solid and instrument play is generally looking good with some interesting enhancements like the new 6th note on the bass guitar (you just strum without holding a fret). Unfortunately it looks like the new touch-sensitive bar on the guitar is too hard to actually be awesome. Chris Roper from IGN said this in his review:
Unfortunately though, using the touchpad during the solo sections is really difficult. While it works, it’s very easy to lose your hand position and play the wrong note. I’m sure that some folks will master it and be able to nail some sections with it after memorizing the hand placement, but it’ll take some work. There are small crevices between each piece of the pad, but there isn’t a solid placement marker like the tab on the yellow fret button to help keep your hand in place. Also, the colors on the pad are inset in the guitar, so you can’t really see them when looking down on it.
Chris also goes onto mention how the touch-sensitive bar also incorrectly regsitered notes played on it during times that he wasn’t even touching it, failing him out of a song immediately on startup. He did mention that one of the guitars was more faulty than the other one, but both did it; and you also have to consider the odds there… 50% chance of a pretty-buggy guitar over a sorta-buggy guitar? Great…
Unfortunately for the drummers out there it looks like they might not be the best touch-sensitive implementation with a possible problem originating with the Red pads specifically. Ben Smith picked up Guitar Hero last night and had this to say about the drums:
So far it seems good, but I’m not in love with the drums. They feel less responsive, like they have less rebound, and the symbols (although cool) too small.
DLC, Track List & Music Creator
Not too much to say here. There is a store built into the game, it doesn’t have anything (much?) in it yet and you cannot transfer any music (except for 1 Metallica song) from any previous Guitar Hero game. So you are essentially stuck with what ships on the disk out of the box while the Rock Band folks get the track list from Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2 plus god-knows-how-much-DLC all to play with out of the box.
However… the music creator in Guitar Hero: World Tour provides an integrated iTunes-esque experience with browsing user-created music in the form of “GH Tunes”. You browse by genre, rating, etc. and preview/download the songs you like that people have put together.
Unfortunately it sounds like this potential deal-maker is really hard to use and the music you are actually able to create sounds a lot like “MIDI” according to Roper; as you only have sound samples to pull from and compile into a song. Also, forget trying to add lyrics to your music (sung or written), cause you can’t.
I have a feeling that except for the hardcore fans the music-creator is DOA from the sheer fact that people buy these games to feel like a rock star, not learn how to lay down tracks of shitty sounding music that still aren’t as fun to play as the licensed tracks are.
Conclusion
While plenty of other reviewers liked the Guitar Hero: World Tour release, I’ve read enough things to take pause and consider the following tidbits:
- The Music Creator is not what people ultimately wanted
- DLC and tracks to play is more than 2x as big on Rock Band 2 right now
- Possible instrument problems with GH drums and guitar make me want to stay miles away
- Harder “cannot progress until you pass” approach of the GH series turns me off immediately
One tone I did get out of other reviews is that existing Guitar Hero fans will be happy, which folks on the fence, casual players and Rock Band fans are likely not going to get pulled over. You just have to figure out where you lay.
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October 27th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I talked with a few of my friends who have both RB2 and GH:WT and they all prefer RB2. Most thought GHWT was pretty good, but just not up to the level of RB2. Plus, a few of them have drums that don’t work properly. I’m still thinking I’ll pick up just the game in a few months when I can find is used and play with my RB instruments.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Jigsaw,
Is there problem with the Red pad as well, or just poor pressure sensing for the pads in general?
God, you’d think after the Rock Band fiasco these companies would be QA’ing this equipment until someone died… with mass reports right out of the gate, seems like that wasn’t the case?
October 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Yeah, all these instrument problems really surprise me after RB1’s issues. RB2 has had a few faulty instruments but nothing like the first time around. I just got the RB2 Wireless Guitar and it has been working great for me so far.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
You guy’s are all idiots. If your a true expert and have played guitar hero 2 before any of that rock band crap, you would understand that Rock Band simply doesn’t have the right feel of playing the instruments. Guitar hero World tours instruments feel and work right. When you hit those notes, it feels like your playing the guitar, unlike rock bands notes, who tend to demand so much computer skilled precision which really isn’t music. Not to mention, the instruments for rock band 2 suck. The guitar is terrible (always has been) and the drums is 4 pads. What the hell is 4 pads? At least rock band provides the raised cymbals which allow you to cross your arms, giving it the real feel. Oh and problems with the instruments on world tour? The guitar is flawless, and the mic sounds much better then rock band. As for the drums, yes some of the first few people had problems, I didn’t…And I still get a free midi cable, letting me adjust the sensitivity any way I like. Beat that. Not to mention the music studio, which gives unlimited playability. In the end its all about how the game plays, and feels. Rock band never gave me that…all it has is the glitz and glam of looking good on stage.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Justin,
Really glad to hear that you are enjoying GH:WT… out of curiosity, does it have the same *feel* that GH2 and 3 had or did they mess with the timings/strumming mechanic at all?
November 5th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Well I have played all GH and RB and while it was fun to play the first 2 Guitar Hero’s Once rockband came out I havent picked up the guitar over the drum sticks. I own both Rock band 2 (and had RB 1 ) and GHWT as the drumming goes Rock Band is the best. I find myself falling asleep at the wheel on GHWT, its soooo boring. The song selection and game play is bad as well. My daughter perfers to sing or play the guitar and she likes the game play on the Guitar on GHWT better, but she hasnt played it after playing through the campaign with me. Its sad to say I have only played it one time since. I guess Im going to trade my copy of GHWT for Gears of War 2. ROCK ON
November 7th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
@Justin
Okay, so you’re telling me that when I play guitar, I can strum almost a second early and no one will notice? In order to call yourself a “true” expert at the games, then you’d have to be able to hit the notes WHEN they’re to be played, not extremely early or late. The timing window of GH:WT is respectably better than GH:3, yes, but it’s still large compared to GH:2, which is the SAME as Rock Band’s. So, if you’re good on GH:2, why not RB?
No one said you had to use the instruments from whatever game you’re playing; not to mention the guitar for WT is NOT in any way perfect. Most strum bars squeak, whammy bars squeak, possible accidental pausing trying to activate star power, touch pad inresponsive or incorrectly responsive; the only thing that they did better was the connecting to the guitar base. The drums have had plenty of problems, ranging from the cymbals not responding, breaking soon after use, velocity sensitive pads not working, etc. I personally use a USB mic that I got for $5, and it works great, so why bother with the one that comes with the game?
Oh, and about the “realistic” drum set and drum play. “Everlong” by Foo Fighters is a great example of how wrong that is. The song is played from cymbal to snare, at a constant 16th note pattern. Now, if you’re a righty, you would start on the snare with your right, then continue playing, and hit the snare when needed with your right hand. With their charting, you have to hit the snare with your LEFT hand, and for a righty, that’s very hard to do. RB2’s chart has it charted on the red pad to yellow for the snare; it’s different, yes, but it’s a lot more accurate, which is what we’re going for. Feeling like you’re playing the song, correct?
RB2’s charts are simply more accurate. The fingering you’d use on guitar is there, the area you’d hit on drums is there, and the pitch is just about always right, give or take some.
A friend of mine came over recently, and knew I had both WT and RB2. WT was in there, it started up, we played two songs, got bored, and went to RB2. I almost regret buying it, but there’s songs on there that I like to play, so it’s just more songs.
Personally, I like RB better, especially with their picking heavier songs, which is my music preference; that doesn’t mean that WT is a bad game in any case, it’s just not as good.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:15 am
@ Tyler …
I can’t comment on which is better, WT or RB2, but all i can say is…
dude … I don’t know if you play drums for real or not but I do and most of the drummers I know (including myself) play the snare with their LEFT hand. So in terms of getting a feel for the real thing I think that is actually accurate.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:27 am
@Funny..?
Do you know how to play Everlong? Or Run to the Hills? Both are the same principle. If your right hand is fast enough to hit the cymbal like that, then yes, you would just play normally, hitting the snare with the left hand. But my, and I’m sure most people’s, arm is not that fast nor strong to endure the entire song on one arm, so it’s split inbetween the two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfQxr1MKNBw That’s a great example of what I mean. You’re playing on your left most of the time, not your right, as WT is charted.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:46 am
… I can’t even explain how impossible that drum track looks to me. In most of those fast parts I can’t even see his hands changing between the different drums.
I’m not a drummer, and I just figured out why
December 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Nice update Riyad. There truly does seem to be three separate camps, the hardcore Guitar Hero fans, the Rock Band fans and the ever present Go buy a real guitar/drums fan.
From everything I learned the Guitar Hero fans tend to be more of the hard core gamers and like you pointed out they have to be hardcore to continue unlocking songs. The Rock Band folks are a bit more into the group aspect and in my case just want to play games as a family. You can figure out the Go buy a guitar/drums group from some of the comments earlier.
I put together some info to help people decide which one may suit them better as well, if you are stuck on the fence and need more information to help you decide visit http://www.squidoo.com/RockBand2orGuitarHeroWorldTourWhichWaytogo
Regards,
Bill
December 27th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
GHWT in my opinion is more entertaining the Rock Band2, simply put, it’s easier to use the “instruments”. According to the author, if you do not pass a certain gig, you won’t unlock certain songs…well here’s a tip for you, play at an easier difficulty, that’s why those options are there.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:02 am
I just bought the both of them and in my opinion , I like Guitar Hero World Tour better. Rockband appears to be too easy to me. On GHWT , I can only pass it on medium. On Rockband I can pass it on hard and don’t do too bad on expert. They both have a mixture of good songs and crappy songs. In Rockband it felt like I had to go through alot of songs I didn’t care for before getting to some of the ones I actually liked. I felt almost as I could play Rockband with my eyes closed. Some of the first songs are so boring and easy. The solos on GHWT are so much more detailed and alot more realistic. Over all I probably won’t be fully satisfied until I buy Guitar Hero Metallica since I know and like just about every song on there. Although these games are fun , nothing compares to really playing an instrument and if some of you out there put as much time into the real thing as you do on the game , you would be a true guitar hero.