Guitar Hero Live

To start, the game’s main show is the titular GH:Live, or Live Mode. Scrapping the customization from the last few entries, you play from a first-person view to ten different bands, filmed using actors and green screen, with each focusing on a particular genre. The sound quality and design is given its chance to shine here, as while I worried that manipulating the song stems based on the position of your character might not sound good, it actually works out very nicely and sounds like a real festival sometimes. They even went so far as to get the crowd singing along to a lot of the songs, too.

However, the visual aspect is where you quickly feel embarrassed to be playing. There are two versions of each performance; one for doing well and another when you slip up or perform badly. Both are extremely cheesy and over-acted, with the other band members acting like they’ve never seen a guitarist do so well or slip up before. The crowd is awkward too, with one song featuring one side of the crowd holding up a massive sign that would be blocking the view of at least a hundred people if it was real. Overall, the live performances come off as an unwelcome distraction at times, and to me it feels like trading in the customization and familiar premade bandmates for pre-recorded FMVs has resulted in a loss of character for the series.

And if you came into this game expecting a stronger setlist than the one featured in Rock Band 4, then prepare to be disappointed. Other than the finale setlist (which is only three songs strong), all of the 39 other songs were released after the year 2000, and while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing per se, the setlist also confusingly contains a selection of pop singles from the likes of Skrillex, Katy Perry, Rihanna and more. Sorry to be slightly elitist, but the game is called Guitar Hero. Since when were any of these noted for their guitar content? Hell, in Skrillex’s song you just play to the dubstep sounds! Long-time fans will note that this is the smallest setlist ever in a main GH game. And to top off all that frustration, this game once again forces you to play through the pre-made sets to unlock a lot of the content, something that was dropped a long time ago for a damn good reason; no-onw wants content to be gated like that anymore.

So that’s Live Mode: Overall, a disappointment and a side of the game that will see very little replay value.
But that’s not all. There is also GHTV, which acts as the mode through which future content will be released. The idea is a fresh one for rhythm games, as rather than buying each song for a price, the whole library is ready to use. And with somewhere in the region of 200 songs to start with, it’s not short of content to get you going. Now if it ended there, then GHTV would be the jewel in this game’s crown. But to my horror, this system seems to be at fault in so many ways that it becomes downright galling when you put all the pieces together.

For starters, you cannot just play any song at any time, like in any other rhythm game. Instead, you use a currency called ‘Plays’, which can be earned by playing the pre-made setlists (getting you coins to buy Plays with) or by getting your wallet out and buying them. There is no option to permanently own anything, and while the game lavishes you with free Plays early on as you rise up the ranks toward level 20, once you hit that limit, the game cuts you off from these freebies. And with the coins coming in at a slow pace, you’ll only be able to get a pack of 3 Plays every 10 or so songs, putting you into a heavy grind that is sorely at odds with the very logic of playing these games. It’s meant to be fun, not a chore. This is something that will fast become a serious problem for anyone who cares about hitting those high scores, as GHTV permits no restarts, and has no practice mode, meaning that songs like Ghost Walking cannot be slowed down and learned properly. But Plays aren’t the only thing that takes coins as a currency; you have a shop filled with cosmetic options to buy. Then there’s the Guitar Upgrades, which increase the speed at which you can gain score through various means. Balance is practically non-existent with this change, further making it difficult for high-score chasers, as they’ll have to spend a lot of coins on the upgrades. But hey, at least only the Plays can be bought with real money, right?

The issues I have with this system only increase when you take the following into consideration: While Live Mode uses the stems of each song, allowing the guitar to be separated and silenced when you mess up (a staple of the genre) GHTV does not use these. Instead, you are playing over the music video, with the whole song getting quieter when you miss. The problem I have with this game is that it already exists; it’s called Phase Shift. But Phase Shift does not cost me £90, nor does it push up micro-transactions afterward; it’s a free game, and unlike GH:Live, works with all the old equipment from the get-go. The developers have said that by negating the use of stems and using music videos in this mode, it would allow them greater and easier access to more of the greatest artists that had yet to be in a music game, either from not wanting their songs played by a fake band, or due to lack of stems. But, other than the songs that these games have already had in the past, this game doesn’t feature anyone that could be held up to that lofty title. I mean, I don’t see any debuts on the level of U2 in this game. Hell, some big acts that Activision once held exclusivity with (Metallica) are completely absent.

In short, GHTV is an ugly way of offering up such a new system, and one that I am utterly frustrated with. Turning the right to play what you want into a privilege is not acceptable, especially in a £90 game.

And when you start to get into the finer details of this game, it only gets worse. I have a collection of plastic instruments, and they’ve lasted years. I’ve had this new guitar for less than a week and already it’s dying. The fret buttons stick and squeal unnaturally, the strum bar sounds like it’s grinding against plastic and the guitar is dropping notes constantly in a problem with the connection that has never happened with other instruments. It feels shoddy and badly made, and from a company like Activison, it’s unacceptable.
The game by design also makes the faster stuff next to impossible to read or hit. The new guitar uses a 3x2 button layout, with 3 black buttons and 3 white buttons to better simulate changing strings. However, if a note can be tapped rather than strummed, it will be tinted blue. At fast speeds, especially during solos, this can make parts impossible to read, as you can’t tell from a glance what string you’re meant to hit. This problem might be alleviated had hyperspeed mode been in the game, but that series staple was taken out, leaving players to suffer. Even worse is the overabundance of 3-note chords in this game on Expert, particularly on songs that don’t need it. I get that, having six buttons, they might want us to start using more complex shapes and all, but songs like Got the Time are completely ruined by this. And of course, the bugs. Besides the guitar, the game’s calibration is terrible, and it’s never worked for me. While the mid-game calibration option did eventually get it somewhat right, it still took several tries. The game also has a problem with hitching up mid-song, causing you to break combo and potentially miss a chunk of notes as it quickly catches up to where it should be.

It is possible to comb through every part of this game and find issues, and this is without comparison to the competition. But if I have to compare them, then here it is: both games leaned more towards the casual market, but Guitar Hero sprinted towards them, ignoring its core fans, and has tripped and face planted the concrete on its way there. What should have been a killer app in GHTV has become the typical push for microtransactions that is far too common in today’s gaming market. Say what you will about how it’s normal now, but it doesn’t make it right. And when your competition isn’t doing it at all, it’s inexcusable. With all the problems this game has in its very core, no-one should put £90 on this game. Don’t reward something that will further punish your wallet.