Guitar Hero II

January 26,2007 - The surprise hit game of 2005 is back to rock your socks off with Guitar Hero II. Red Octane and Harmonix have taken in all the feedback that fans and reviews have given them and are looking to pull another hit out of their pockets. Will expanded multiplayer and co-op modes, an improved career mode, and dozens of new songs make this encore worthy of a reunion tour?

The single player portion of Guitar Hero II received several tweaks, additions, and improvements that make it a much more cohesive game than before. No longer do you need to sign in as your band when starting up the game, as it now appears in the only place that it affected, career mode. The career mode now features awe-inspiring encores that crowds will clamor for before as you unlock the huge fifth song in each set, which allows you to jump right into that final song quickly. The impossible-to-pull-off hammer-ons and pull-offs from the original have been tweaked to the point of being easy to perform, but difficult to master, which makes the gameplay of GHII more rewarding and accessible at the same time. 

The more accomplished GH veterans will like to know that three button chords have been added to increase difficulty while the hard and expert modes have been nudged higher into the difficulty sphere. New guitarists join the fray, with Eddie Knox, the rockabilly dude, and Lars Ümlaüt, a Norwegian Death Metal guitarist, headlining the new rockers. Many more unlockables have been added to the store, with more new guitars, finishes, and outfits than you can shake a stick at. The guitar itself has been improved upon, with a sturdier whammy bar, more responsive fret buttons, and an overall better build than the original’s black-and-white guitar.

It’s obvious from some of these new features that Red Octane wants every Guitar Hero fan to increase their skill by leaps and bounds. After the newspaper screen comes up after completing a song, you can get a more in-depth look at how well you did with the breakdown screens. This page lets you know how many notes you’ve missed and which parts of the song need improvement, providing some crucial feedback that ties into another new, significant feature for Guitar Hero II: the practice mode. Practice mode allows you to practice whole songs or just a small part of them at any pace you want so that you can get the hang of those tricky sections and master each song more efficiently. Should you miserably fail a song in career mode, you're given the option to practice up and return, showing how much the developers want you to succeed as much as possible.

Multiplayer is another part of the game that’s been dramatically improved from the original. The flawed Face-Off mode from the returns with a few friends, Pro Face-Off mode and Co-op mode. This makes having two guitars not a luxury, but a necessity. Pro Face-Off mode is similar to the Face-Off mode, but instead of only playing parts of the song, both players now play the entire song to really see who the best player is. When competition isn’t what you desire, Co-op mode allows you and your buddy to work together -- playing bass, rhythm, and/or lead guitar -- to double your joy and double your fun with Guitar Hero II.

On the graphical side, Guitar Hero II resembles the original quite a bit, though a few things have been spruced up. The venues have been designed to be livelier than before, with the crowd being more noticeable than before. Several of the characters have gotten makeovers to signify their growth since we last saw them rock. The NPC parts of the band could use some variety, so that the Steven Tyler-clone isn’t trying to sing for Rage Against the Machine or KISS.

Audio is obviously an important part of Guitar Hero II, so much so that the entire game depends upon it. The soundtrack has evolved since the original Guitar Hero to include a better variety in songs along with picking a ton of great songs. Many of these songs may not have been the most obvious choice to fans, but they work incredibly well. Sweet Child O’ Mine, War Pigs, Free Bird, and Carry on My Wayward Son are a few samples of the incredible songs offered in this one package. The bonus songs even contain a few surprises, mainly those from Adult Swim show Metalocalypse and popular website Homestar Runner, proving that the band doesn’t need to be real to get into the game. 

The pacing of the track list in career mode is very similar to the original in terms of the difficulty curve. The songs sound generally great and the developers have done an excellent job recreating these songs. There are a few things that need to happen for Guitar Hero III, starting with more master tracks for the main song list and songs from big bands like AC/DC, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin.

Guitar Hero II wants you to rise to become the rock god you have dreamt about becoming, be it by giving you the means to improve your game or setting the bar even higher than before. Having two guitar controllers is a must for those of you with friends that love to rock. The game has been so well-made that it’s hard to even think of what can be added or improved to Guitar Hero III outside of a new soundtrack. If you loved Guitar Hero and long for more, Guitar Hero II is an essential part of your life and a game you must own. Don’t let anything get in the way of fulfilling that goal.

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