Guitar Hero World Tour Review

"I wish that I could play guitar," little Timmy thought to himself one day. "Oh but you can," the God of Rock replied, and came forth from his perch atop Mount Olympus to give Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock to the world.

And for a time, all was well as Timmy learnt to wield the shapely plastic axe and strum the notes as they appeared on the screen. But soon, he had masterfully shredded his way through Dragonforce on Expert and his life once again felt incomplete.

All his friends were playing Rock Band, and Timmy knew that he would never be able to unleash his inner rockstar alone. So he called upon the God of Rock and wished to be in a band. And once more, the God of Rock obliged with the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour. And once more, all was well.

Since Harmonix jumped off the Activision gravy train to create Rock Band for the publisher's main rival, EA, it has been interesting to see the music game genre's biggest player go toe-to-toe with a new challenger - especially as that new contender brought his friends (Drum and Mic) along to the fight.

Last year, Activision's new GH developer, Neversoft, chose to take the tried-and-tested path, refining the formula established so well by the first two Guitar Hero games with Legends of Rock, while Harmonix had the opportunity to open it up with their new instruments.

But Activision has never been one to rest on its laurels. Eager to bustle its way back to the centre of the peripheral party, it was quick to follow suit this year with the release Guitar Hero: World Tour for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and PS2.



A cynic might think that the publisher, which is quickly picking up a reputation for milking its best franchises, would be happy to ape Rock Band 2 so long as the money keeps rolling in. But taking such a view would be a great disservice to World Tour, which is every bit as addictive as any GH game should be, and for a long time to come it will be the first game disc into the console when friends come over.

The first thing that you'll notice about GH: WT (other than the immense heftiness of the box) are the additional peripherals. Now, just like Rock Band, the game is equipped with drum and microphone controllers, allowing you to take up to three friends with you on your quest for musical greatness. But these aren't just tired rehashes of old designs - each peripheral brings something new to the table.

The six-piece drum kit features velocity-sensitive pads that respond to the strength of your hits and the two raised cymbals really add to the fun of playing, while the main guitar (no longer a branded Les Paul) feels much more solid this time around. It boasts a swanky touchpad on the fret just below the buttons that allows players to 'slide' their way through solos and finger-tap the notes in true Kirk Hammett style.



There have been well-documented hardware issues on launch, but these teething problems are no different to those that beset Rock Band last year and the downloadable drum configuration program seems to make a difference.

These innovations aren't confined to the hardware alone, and there are new additions to playing each instrument. Vocalists will be given the chance to "riff" with the crowd in certain free-form sections, while drummers will be able to launch their own frantic solos when cued to score extra points. The new open-fret strum note for bass is also surprisingly fun to play.

World Tour features all the modes you've come to expect from GH (Career Mode, Quickplay, and the Xbox Live Battles introduced in Legends). The all-new Music Creator, is in theory a great addition that lets gamers compose their own tracks, but is ultimately a let down because anything you create will inevitably sound like it is being played underwater through a pair of broken midi speakers. Even Neversoft weren't able to pull off anything close-to-decent sounding, which is a real shame because the Creator had the potential to lift World Tour into the upper echelons of excellence.



Another disappointment is the Career - which has been split into solo and band modes this time around. Musical legends such as Ted Nugent and Billy Corgan (decked out in a tinfoil skirt!) make an appearance. It is a truly spine tingling moment when Jimmy Hendrix rises from the dead and walks on stage to play The Wind Cries Mary and Purple Haze (Live). But a bizarre final stage which sees the oddest mismatch of rockers teaming up to launch an alternative career as a covers band is a poor ending to the ride. This is definitely not the epic, flame-licked shredding battle against Lou the Devil that concluded Legends.

The set list itself veers from the truly sublime to the really-quite-dull. Heatbreaker by Pat Benetar, Michael Jackson's Beat It and the aforementioned Hendrix songs all had me jumping up and down and peeving off the neighbours, but the developers seem to have picked up a penchant for over-long emo songs that become a bit of a slog between the good bits. It is a nice touch that all 86 songs are master recordings though.

Although Career mode's presentation is a little dull, the gig setup provides for some great-looking stages and the series' trade-mark sense of humour makes a welcome return, with something hilarious usually happening (conveniently just before the encore).



Guitar Hero: World Tour definitely isn't as hard as its predecessors, but the slightly easier note tracking still feels improved and helps the game to flow in Band Mode, particularly when you're playing with a drummer that has all the rhythm of a drunken shoe. And don't worry; expert is still most definitely a challenge unless you have about three extra fingers on your fret hand and most of us will probably never graduate beyond Hard.

But when the songs are this much fun to play, it doesn't really matter.

8/10

Arash Hekmat