As my body trembles backstage the nerves are starting to hit me. I'mtossing my pick from one hand to the other and silently staring at myfellow band members as the crowd above us roars our names. A youngwoman walks up to us, we're due onstage 5 minutes ago. Guess it'stime to go.
We walk down the tight corridor squeezing between crew members andother bands that are in the same position we are. It's not easy beingthe opening act, you need to start loud and hard or you loose theaudience and tonight it's not just us on the line.
I'm handed my guitar, and a make-up girl makes her finishing touchesto my face. I look at my band, none of us say a word but we all knowexactly what each other is saying. The backing track kicks in and myheart pounds even faster.
We stand on the elevator and it slowly begins to rise, the stagelights seep through the hole above us and we are blinded by theirpower. The roar is deafening but it gives me the kick of adrenaline Ineeded, it's the opening night of the festival and there are tens ofthousands of people here. Time to show them what we are made of.
If there is one thing that Guitar Hero Live does better than anyother music game I have played before it's giving you that feeling ofactually being there, actually being that guitarist on stage playingto thousands of screaming fans. It's been five years since the musicrhythm genre died out after it's bloated death last generation andGuitar Hero Live goes a very very long way to showing us that muchlike a band that goes underground for a few years after putting out astring of bad albums, all it takes is a bit of time and a few newtricks and you're ready to make a comeback that will be a milliontimes better than anything you did before.
To the disappointment of many upon announcement, Guitar Hero Livecomes bundled with a new guitar that is required to play the game. Nobackwards compatibility with old instruments and restricted to justthe guitar on this outing, so all that money you spent on your fullband set last generation goes down the toilet.
Though at first this seemed like suicide, the whole reason the genredied was because the instruments cost too much to make, GH Liveprovides us with perhaps the best plastic instrument ever made. A 6button controller that only requires 3 fingers to play.
Doubling up the buttons and placing them all up the top of the neckwas a risky move but it ultimately pays off. Giving you a moreauthentic guitar playing experience as well as providing a controllerthat is easier to pick up and play with compared to the old guitar(good news for newcomers to this style of game) but also much moredifficult to master which is also great news for people who are sickof being too good at the old games.
In fact the only annoyance of this new controller is not being ableto remove the neck of the guitar without using a flatheadscrewdriver. Gone is that handy latch from the previous games and inis a new lock that states that the neck cannot be removed once it'sslotted into place. This is of course nonsense as it can be removed,but it's just a pain in the arse to do so.
Onto the actual game though. GH Live presents two ways to play. Thereis GH Live where you can play the games campaign made of twofestivals (A set of 42 songs in total) or you can enter quickplaymode to play all these songs without having to play the other songsthat accompany the ones you want to play in campaign.
Otherwise you can switch to GHTV mode where you are provided with a24 hour music video service that is constantly updating with newsongs for you to play along to. This also includes a competitiveelement allowing you to see how well you're playing compared to otherpeople in the same lobby as you.
The gameplay is as you would expect from a music rhythm game. Notesfly down the screen and you have to hit them in time and sustain acombo to play the song. Miss too many notes and you'll be kicked offthe stage by an angry mob, but play like a god and you'll have thecrowd going crazy for you.
In GH Live there are 4 different types of notes. Black and Whitenotes correspond to the upper or lower fret buttons on the neck ofthe guitar. Leaning how to quickly switch between the upper and lowerfrets on the neck of the guitar is vital for success in GH Live. Nextyou have a mixed note, a mixed note is half black and half whiterequiring you to hold both the upper and lower frets on the neck atthe same time. Finally you have a note that may look familiar tothose who played the drums on previous GH/RB games, this noterequires you to simply strum the guitar without holding any of thefret buttons on the neck.
Things get pretty hectic pretty fast in GH Live so you'll need tolearn fast to keep up with the steep difficulty curve.
Guitar Hero Live utilises a method of visuals in games not seenproperly since the 90's, Full Motion Video. FMV is a recording ofreal people and placed inside a game. Filmed on a green screen witharound 200 extras and session musicians as your band mates GH Livereally gives you the feeling of being there on stage. Thoughappearing as though it was filmed on a mountable camera such as aGoPro, it was in fact filmed on a robotic arm called a Bolt,following a programmed path, with the band members havingchoreographed routines to interact with the camera. The crowd willalso react to how well you are playing, play well and you'll havescreaming fans reaching out to you and stagedivers. Play badly andyou'll get things thrown at you, booed off and even angry audiencemembers storm the stage to throw you off. It adds a layer ofunparalleled realism to the game and I can't help but imagine whatthe game would feel like if played in virtual reality.
The UI for GH Live is very minimal in comparison to many music games.For the campaign mode there is no visible score or multiplierindicators, there is only the scrolling track and your 'Hero Power'meter. This provides a much more immersive experience than if theywere displayed like in quickplay where the multiplier and scoreindicator return.
For GHTV, the music video that accompanies the song will play in thebackground with all the score indicators and a lobby leaderboarddisplayed in the foreground.
Guitar Hero Live is a defibrillator to the music game genre. Wokenfrom it's coma it has a new look, new gameplay and has a setlistcontaining very few songs from over a decade ago. Whilst for somethis may disappoint, for everyone else this is GH for a newgeneration. It's revived the genre and is bringing it forward intothis decade.
Though it's campaign may be short, the ever growing GHTV librarymakes it a game you'll always be coming back to. Rock Band 4 may havethe backwards compatibility and the largest songlist as of release,but give it just a few months and GH Live will have a songlist doublethe size of Rock Band 4 (and all import songs) with the innovationthe genre desperately needed already in place.
GuitarHero Live – 9/10
+FamiliarYet New
+Songlistof Modern Classics
+ReactiveFMV Backgrounds
+TheNew Guitar
+EverExpanding GHTV Mode
-ShortCampaign Mode
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Game Reviews Volume 2
SonstigesWhen Wattpad tells me there are too many parts to my Game Reviews I laughed in their faces! ...well no I didn't actually, I just made this 2nd volume. You can also find my reviews and other gaming related articles at www.squigglygamers.com! Can't fi...
