Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) Thoughts
So, if you've actually looked at my blog before you would know that I got a copy of Guitar Hero II for all of $1.87, but that's neither here nor there. I figured since I didn't really have to write up this review for DreamStation.cc that I'd share my thoughts of the game.
My first impression was that this is really a cool game. It's fun and the selection of music is pretty big. There are something like 70 songs here, although more than half of them are songs from independent bands that you may or may not have heard of before. The latter being the case more often than not. I could really see this as a great party game especially if you have a second guitar. But if you're anything like me you don't have a second guitar and even if you did you might not have people willing to give the game a chance. Now, don't get me wrong I like it, but I can see it getting old after a couple of weeks only to make its way out when company makes their way over to my house or when a new set of downloads is available for me to look at and decide that the songs are overpriced and I don't recognize more than one per pack anyway.
Part of the problem that sets it back lies in the fact that you won't recognize all the songs, I'm not the biggest rock fan, so the stuff from earlier than the 80's is beyond my scope of knowledge. The stuff from the indies is nice, but I would've preferred more "hits" than what was included, because the way the game is it's about a 60/40 split. The other thing that brings it down a little is the lack of the actual music, what you get is a glorified karaoke version of each song. I believe they're fixing this with Guitar Hero III, though. For the record, I'll be getting my first glimpse of GHIII at E3 in July when I go down to Santa Monica to check out how far E3 has fallen or whether it's actually taken a step up.
All in all, if you're big into rhythm games and don't mind paying the $90 price tag attached to Guitar Hero II this is a fun game and worth it just to see the newbies try and tackle the game. The game itself isn't all that hard if you've got a little bit of musical background, I can manage 95% of the notes hit on the medium setting when I play a song for a second time. I'm not a guitarist, but I did play some instruments back in the day, so I'm sure that helps if only with the rhythm part of the game. Anyway, like I said, give it a go at a friends house or at one of those demo kiosks if you can. You'll have a rockin' good time.
(I can't believe I said that)
