Guitar Hero World Tour: Mediocrity at its Best

Author's Rating:

Pros: Some good songs, instruments are a lot of fun to play, downloadable content

Cons: Playlist is horrible, new format lacks cohesion, expensive 

The Bottom Line: 

Though the instruments for Guitar Hero World Tour are well designed, I recommend checking out the playlist before making a purchase.

Author's Review
Since getting hooked on Guitar Hero III, my husband and I have been buying every Guitar Hero title we can find! We’ve picked up used copies of the older games in Game Stop. We’ve grabbed newer titles on both our consoles and our handheld gaming systems. We hesitated to expand to Rock Band due to concerns of the full band being difficult to store. The guitars from our Wii version of Guitar Hero III were quite large for our tiny apartment making it difficult to conceive how we could effectively store four instruments.

We purchased Guitar Hero: World Tour over the holidays, mostly because we felt the band kit would give us an excuse to switch to the Xbox 360 from our Wii version. We had been to Best Buy a few times to shop for gifts and had been eyeing the large stacks of bundles of this game in the front of the store. When a gamer friend came over, we decided to make a spontaneous trip to pick up this game in hopes of curing our boredom. The trip to buy it was more fun than the game.

Game Play

Like most music-based games, the object of Guitar Hero: World Tour is to play your way to success. The Career and Band Career modes are the "story modes" of this game. Bands work their way up from humble beginnings to superstardom, playing more challenging songs in larger venues along the way. Players can play through a solo career using any instrument (each instrument is a separate career). The order of the gigs and set lists vary depending on the difficulty of the songs on that particular instrument. In Band Career mode allows players to play up to four instruments in any combination they prefer. Two guitars can be used in this game, just like previous Guitar Hero titles, but a microphone and drums have been added. This multiplayer mode allows you to play with other players in person or online. Unlike solo career, songs in band career are not always presented in order of increasing difficulty since the difficulty varies by instrument.

In addition to adding instruments, Guitar Hero also changed playlist formats. The playlist is divided into gigs which consist of set lists of three to six songs. As you play gigs at various venues, more become available. Some gigs must be purchased using money your band earns from other gigs, which irked me since I’d rather spend our band’s money on new outfits and guitars. The five star rating scale is back, helping to determine the amount of money you’ll earn for each gig you play. Players can choose the order in which they perform gigs that have been unlocked. It’s a big departure from the linear playlist of the past installments of the game.

Battle tracks are back, which is a treat for me. Though there are only two, I enjoy the little strategy component these add to the game.

I felt that the Career modes in this game lacked the epic feel that it did in previous titles. I didn’t feel immersed in the story at all. The new format felt disjointed to me, breaking up the flow of the game. Though it seemed more realistic than following a linear playlist, it didn’t feel like it was part of one game contributing to one storyline. It was like a sitcom in which episodes were independent, stand-alone stories rather than developing one season-long storyline; the equivalent of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" versus "24." The story just wasn’t developed enough to connect the gigs together and each one felt like its own mini-game. Nothing about it motivated me to want to move on to the next gig. Even my favorite tracks seemed boring to play because of this.

The playlist contributed to the lack of player immersion. For the first time, a Guitar Hero game featured all master recordings. It was also the longest playlist, consisting of eighty-six songs, yet I found it to be the least enjoyable. The game repeats a lot of other music-game favorites like Blondie’s "One Way or Another." Some of my favorite tracks were included as live recordings, which completely ruined them for me. "Sweet Home Alabama" is a classic, but Lynyrd Skynyrd’s attempt at engaging the crowd during the live recording is annoying to hear and makes almost anyone feel silly repeating it.

The playlist lacked diversity, and included tracks that, for me, didn’t capture that classic rock vibe. I just don’t feel like a rock star while strumming along to Michael Jackson’s "Beat It." Some tracks were plain boring and I found myself loathing others. A track by Interpol called "Obstacle 1" has the poor person holding the microphone singing "She can read" sixteen times (eight times in the same chorus) and "She packs it away" seven times consecutively. Really? This song seemed like a great track for gamers to play repeatedly? The lyrics to another track, Trust’s "Antisocial," are in French. For the first time, Guitar Hero decides to incorporate a microphone and also decides it would be appropriate to include songs in foreign languages on a game released in America. French words are not spelled phonetically. I’d have to play this song close to one hundred times to get the melody and lyrics half-way correct. It’s not even entertaining.

The tracks I found enjoyable in this game are few and far between. They include:
"About a Girl" by Nirvana
"Everlong" by Foo Fighters
"Heartbreaker" by Pat Benetar
"Hotel California" by The Eagles
"La Bamba" by Los Lobos (This is another track that is difficult to sing due to language barriers, but easier than French!)
"Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi (This is another song that shows up on too many music games – we own it on three!)
"Misery Business" by Paramore
"The One I Love" by R.E.M.
"Ramblin’ Man" by The Allman Brothers Band
"Spiderwebs" by No Doubt
"What I’ve Done" by Linkin Park

Unfortunately, my disappointment in the playlist played a role in ruining the game for me. Quickplay mode is back for queuing songs up quickly, allowing players to record and try to beat their high scores. This mode functions as well as it did in previous games but I lacked the motivation to revisit this playlist enough to work on my scores. Multiplayer online play is also available for online competitions. This is one of my favorite components of Guitar Hero since I enjoy anonymous competition, especially battle competitions. I like competing online, but I’m very limited when choosing the songs I like.
The downloadable tracks are the best feature of this game. Custom tracks from other players are available, and many are quite good. Some composed classic video game music which I found to be a lot of fun to play. The official track offerings are very good, including Metallica’s latest album and classic tracks from Queen. The cost of these tracks adds up quickly at 160 Microsoft points per song or 440 points per track pack. I could spend $50 on extra songs and it won’t make up for the lackluster playlist of the game. Even if it did, I shouldn’t have to pay more to improve a $60 game.

The new studio feature allows players to record their own music (or record their favorites that aren’t included with the game). The mode is great in concept, but it’s difficult to navigate. As previously mentioned, there are some great custom tracks available for download but I imagine it took those players hours to record them!

The Instruments

The "Band in a Box" kit for this game includes a guitar, drum set, and microphone. The guitar has been redesigned for this game, increasing in overall size to accommodate a touch-sensitive pad on the guitar neck for added functionality. The whammy bar was elongated and the star power button was moved under it for easy access. The tilt sensor still activates star power as well. The main functionality of the guitar is in tact; players press color-coded buttons and strum along with the notes on the screen. The touch pad also corresponds to the five colored fret buttons and may be used in lieu of the buttons. Strumming is eliminated by tapping this pad. Slider gems, marked by a transparent purple line connecting the notes, allow players to play the notes by sliding their hands along the touch pad to hit them. The buttons may also be used, but the player does not have to strum for these notes.

I don’t like the new design at all. My husband uses this one, because it is too heavy for me to hold comfortably and the larger whammy bar is difficult for my small hands to work with. Even he complains about it being too big. For our second guitar, we purchased the smaller Les Paul model for me. The new touch pad is virtually useless. It seemed unresponsive and my hands were clumsy trying to operate it. I don’t even bother with it anymore since it messes me up just to reposition my hand for the approaching slider gem notes.

The drums are a lot of fun. Complete with cymbals and a foot pedal, they feel very realistic. I found this instrument to be the most challenging for several reasons. I have the least experience using this instrument with Guitar Hero. I also find it very easy to experience cramping in my hand from holding the drumsticks and cramping in my lower ankle from tapping the pedal. The drums weren’t sensitive enough when we bought them, which is a known issue. Logging on to the game’s website allows you to request a special cable to calibrate the drums. This is sent free of charge. The process was a little time consuming, but our drums work fine now.

The kit includes a drum stand. This is easy to assemble and makes playing the drums more comfortable, but I wish they were collapsible for easy storage. We just don't have the space in our apartment. A friend who purchased the game received a defective stand – it didn’t lock all the way and therefore was easier to put away. Our friend didn’t like that it caused the stand to be less sturdy. We traded, giving us a stand that could be disassembled easier. It benefitted both of us, but other players probably won’t have this option.

I find the USB microphone to be the most entertaining instrument as some of our tone-deaf friends attempt to be rock stars. The game measure pitch through the microphone, but not tone, so humming in key will produce the same result as singing into it. Occasionally you’ll be required to tap the microphone to mimic a tambourine or cowbell. It’s nice that the vocalist is provided with something to do during singing breaks, but the rough top of the microphone makes the palm of my hand a little irritated. The microphone is the size of a real microphone making it relatively easy to store. We keep it in our small gaming ottoman with our other game controllers.

Each instrument can be played at various difficulties. As you increase the difficulty, more colored notes are added for the guitar and drum lines. This means players use more buttons on the guitar and more drum pads on the drums, while performing more complicated note combinations. I find the guitar to be a fun challenge, though it wasn’t as difficult in this game as others. The drums are quite difficult, requiring the coordination of both hands and a foot. I’ve heard that playing drums on expert is like playing a real drum line. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’d believe it considering how difficult I find these to play, even on medium difficulty! Increasing the difficulty of the microphone makes the game more discerning in the way it measures pitch. I didn’t find the vocals to be particularly difficult until we turned the microphone up to expert.

Graphics

The graphics in this game have the comic book-esque style that I’ve felt all of the Guitar Hero games have had. The animations in this one have been improved. The dancing is more fluid and even the facial expressions look more realistic. I also found them to be a bit more distracting at times, drawing my attention away from my guitar neck or drum notes. The character creation has also improved. Rather than the limited choices in previous games, players can customize their character’s tattoos, makeup, and poise, in addition to choosing their outfits.

I was pleased with the way the game handles the division of the screen for multiplayer modes. The lyrics and notes for the vocals show up on the top of the screen. The notes for the two guitars and drums are displayed in the center of the screen. I feel like ample space is provided for each player’s notes.

Audio

The audio in this game is impressive. A lot of attention was paid to the little details – you can hear the crowd cheering and singing along in the surround sound features. The music is mixed well and gives you the feeling you’re playing a real concert, especially when star power is activated.

Guitar Hero Vs. Rock Band

Since both music games now feature a band format, many consumers find themselves deciding between Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We originally purchased Guitar Hero: World Tour because we had several titles in the series and felt loyal toward it. We had been happy with our older Guitar Hero games and expected the same from this one. We ended up not liking this game much at all but we were happy that we purchased it for the instruments. The band kit is compatible with Rock Band as well, so we expanded into that series with the purchases of Rock Band and Rock Band 2. There are several similarities and differences between the games.

The Guitar Hero drums are more elaborate than the Rock Band drums, containing more pads which represent cymbals. They’re a little larger, but I think the more inconvenient storage is worth it for the added functionality. The instruments for both games are cross-compatible.
The game play in Rock Band is set up similar to the new Guitar Hero format. The playlist is broken up into gigs over various venues. As you play through venues, you unlock larger venues with more difficult set lists. Rock Band has more of a role-playing feel with events to earn tour vans, private planes and other rock star necessities. The game is also broken up with special events like music video shoots and charity concerts. The result is a cohesive career mode, regardless of the playlist being separated into gigs. For me, this makes Rock Band a lot more fun. I also feel that both versions of Rock Band have a much better playlist than this version of Guitar Hero.

Another small detail I disliked about this game is that I found it to be buggy when dealing with multiple Xbox profiles. In Rock Band, my husband and I can log in our individual profiles and earn achievements simultaneously. Whenever we attempt to do this with Guitar Hero, it logs the other person out and attempts to change the band. It’s very annoying!

Price

Guitar Hero: World Tour is priced at $59.99 for the Xbox 360. We purchased the band kit for $189.99 at Best Buy. We don’t regret the purchase because having we enjoy the band kit, but we don’t feel the game is worth $60 at to all. We are happy to have the Guitar Hero drums to play other music games with and the microphone has come in handy as another microphone for playing Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore 2. If we had another option to acquire all of the instruments, we would have waited to purchase the game used rather than paying full price. Potential buyers should first decide if the playlist of this game appeals to them and whether it’s more important to have the Guitar Hero or Rock Band instruments.

Overall, I'd say this is the most mediocre music game I've played.