Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 2005
It was never just a game. As much as it feels like we’re falling in line with an Activision press release to say it, during the years of Guitar Hero’s glory it was a genuine phenomenon. Your parents knew about it. TV shows parodied it. Ham-fisted renditions of I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll became as synonymous with your pre-night out routine as your mate Dodgy Luke’s hip flask of Ribena and Aftershock.
And it’ll never be that again. Guitar Hero flew too close to the sun, saturating the market (with help from EA’s competitor, Rock Band) and stuffing us all to the gills with its note streaks. Even with that in mind, we’re… actually pretty excited about Guitar Hero live.
Three important things have changed in the GH formula since the series entered a hiatus in 2010: one, it’s being produced by uK studio Freestyle Games, that lot what brought the excellent DJ Hero to your living room; two, the schlocky old presentation style is no more, replaced now with first-person, live-action footage of some impressive stage performances; and three – we’re really interested in three – the button layout has changed a lot.
Quick refresher: previously the peripherals had one row of five buttons, each assigned a cheerful colour. you’d play single notes by holding one down, or chords by holding two at a time. Guitar Hero live’s peripheral has two rows of three buttons, making it in effect a two-string, three fret guitar.
This is a win-win for the following reasons: if you always faltered on higher difficulties in GH titles of old because your pinkie finger wouldn’t do what you told it – well, now you don’t have to get it involved at all. If you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum and can still clickety-clack your way around Through The Fire And Flames (on expert, obvs) – well, now you have a whole new challenge ahead of you. And actually, it’s a tactile experience that feels a lot more like playing guitar.
Let’s take those aforementioned chords as an example. Previously, you’d hold two notes on the same row, and on a real guitar that’d obviously still just play a single note. But using the new peripheral, Guitar Hero live might ask you to play, say, first fret on the second row and second fret on the first row, which feels a bit like playing an E chord. And by making it that bit easier to suspend the disbelief that you’re not actually playing the genuine instrument, Freestyle’s game sucks you in anew. Not to a level likely to launch a phenomenon all over, but certainly enough to shake the dust off your dormant interest in windmilling (steady now) and duck-walking in front of your flatscreen.
People power
The new presentation helps that enthusiasm take root. After selecting a song, you’re transported behind the eyes of a guitarist, hanging backstage among bandmates and crew, guided up through the wings and out onto the stage to thunderous applause. It’s very effective. Positive and negative feedback operates in live-action form, too – you’ll see the looks of disgust on musicians’ and fans’ faces alike after fluffing a note, and the usual fist-bumping buffoonery when you’re on a roll.
Misanthropes can cower away from that horrid sea of people by plumping for Guitar Hero TV instead, a service offering new songs on a regular basis in the form of music videos with that familiar note highway snaking through them. There’s a live multiplayer element here, too, as a score bar to the side shows you how you’re faring against everyone else playing currently, or just your friends.
So that’s the good – and it is good. Before laying eyes/fingers on Guitar Hero live, it’d be difficult to imagine how a new title could inspire excitement again and offer genuine innovation, so Freestyle Games has done a stand-up job on that front. If we remain slightly sceptical, it’s because we can’t know yet whether those changes are enough to keep the old fatigue at bay in the long-term, or just for a few plays. Particularly at a time in which EDM is kicking guitar-driven music’s ass to the kerb in the mainstream, at least. Freestyle promises a broad range of genres represented in the track list, from rock classics yet to be plundered by previous games, to folk, pop, and beyond. The danger of taking that direction is that it increases your chances of playing a guitar part you’ve probably never paid attention to before in a song, and thus are unlikely to feel much of a hero for nailing it here.
Do we even want to be Guitar Heroes all that much in 2015, or would another DJ Hero have made more sense? your fingers will make the decision when live arrives this autumn. Phil Iwaniuk
Format PS4, XO
Publisher Activision
Developer Freestyle Games
Out Autumn