Beyond the MMORPG: Guitar Hero 2
This week in Beyond the MMORPG, Jon Wood takes a look at Guitar Hero 2, a simple game that offers great challenges.
After kicking off our Beyond the MMORPG column last week, I have been wracking my brain to come up with the next game to highlight. Some of the obvious choices sprung to mind… I could have talked about Neverwinter Nights 2. That’s a game that resembles an MMO. I could have talked about Halo 3, after all, it launched at midnight last night.
This week though, I wanted to take a look at a game that has had, for me, the same addictive quality that you get from a good MMO. It’s a game that I’ve spent entire days playing and even more impressively, it’s a game that I’ve spent numerous hours on my feet playing. Any game that can get me standing up for hours on end deserves a little bit of attention.
The game I’m talking about is Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360. Yup, that’s right, we’re talking about a console game here at MMORPG.com (although we should probably all get used to that, as it’s the wave of the future).
Guitar Hero was developed by the aptly named company, Harmonix and published by Red Octane and Activision. The original game was available only for the Playstation 2, but the franchise has expanded to the point that when Guitar Hero 3 launches, it will launch on not only the PS2 and 3, but also on the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Long story short is that if you’re a console person, no matter your poison, you will be able to get your hands on this game.
Ok, let’s not waste any more time with a History lesson. Instead, let’s talk about the game itself:
I think what impressed me the most about Guitar Hero II, when I finally got my hands on it, was the fact that it was really such a simple idea. People like music. People like games. Lots of people like the idea of being able to play an instrument, but never learned how. I know! Let’s make a video game where we let Joe Anybody play lead guitar on some of the most famous and popular songs of all time!
For those of you who have been living under rocks for the last few years, the premise of the game has you (the player) playing lead guitar for a band trying to make it to the big time. You start off playing relatively simple songs in tiny halls, and you move across the United States to progressively larger venues and even travel to the mythical Stonehenge to perform.
No memorizing chords and practicing until calluses form on our hands for us (although I’ve heard legends of this happening). No sir. Instead, our musical ability comes in the form of colored tabs coming toward you on the screen to represent notes and chords while you deftly (but more often then not frantically) try to press the button that corresponds to the color. You then have to strum the note at the appropriate time. It’s a hand – eye coordination kind of thing. Throw in a little sense of rhythm and you’re golden.
As you play through the single player Career Mode, songs get progressively more difficult as you advance. Part of the genius and simplicity of this game’s design is that simply progressing through the game serves as a tutorial for the game. What this means is that the more you play, the better you get and the more prepared you are for the stage ahead of you. Honestly, I think that’s really at the core of good design. If you take World of Warcraft as an example, one of the successful aspects of that game is the fact that it doesn’t use a direct tutorial. Instead, players learn how to play by completing early quests that are designed to teach you what you need to know.
Getting back to the topic at hand, players accumulate points for each note or combination of notes that they hit. Every time that the player manages to hit ten notes in a row, they gain a multiplier to their score which is lost when a note is missed, but increase if another ten notes are hit. After 10 notes, players get a X2 multiplier at 20 a X3 and at 30 a X4. These scores are doubled if players have “star power”, a special ability that is unlocked when a player hits a specifically designated string of notes. Careful though, the other side of the coin has players
As players advance through the story and play “gigs”, they are paid based on their performance. This money can be used to unlock guitars, characters, clothes, songs and the like.
In a nutshell, that’s how the game works. However, I’m going to say something now that I don’t think I could ever really say about an MMORPG: In Guitar Hero II, the gameplay is second only in importance to the music.
Guitar Hero II sports an impressive array of highly recognizable songs and while a good number of them are covers of famous songs by famous people, there are a few originals, and those that are covers are done well more often than not.
Just so that you can get a sense of what I’m talking about when I say recognizable songs, I’m going to use the end of this article to print a list of tracks (not counting songs purchased in-game or downloaded through Xbox Live).
If you’re going to buy this game, you really need to invest in at least one of the custom controllers that have been created for this game. Normally, I don’t go in for the whole game-specific peripherals kind of thing. I’ve never liked the idea of paying for the game and then paying for something that lets you play the game. That being said, these custom controllers are essentially guitars. The color-coded keys are on the guitar’s neck (filling the place of chords and such) and there’s a bar in the center for strumming. Honestly, I can imagine the fun in playing this game without one. First of all, the game was clearly designed to use them. You can’t really get away from that. Second, it really helps to make you feel like you’re a part of the game.
Solo isn’t the only way to play this game. You can also play head-to-head, comparing scores to find a winner, or co-operatively with one player on lead guitar and the other on either Bass or Rhythm Guitar. It’s a good game to play by yourself, but it’s way more fun to play with a group of people.
For me, this game was a release. It was a departure from every other game that I usually play, and it allowed me to get out that urge to be musical. I would recommend this game to anyone to at least try out (try your local Best Buy, they’ve often got ‘em on display). I found it to be challenging but not too frustrating (not saying I wasn’t tempted to have a rock-star tantrum once or twice), engaging but not complicated. Is it worth the money for the game? Yes. Is it work shelling out the extra bones for the guitar controller? Absolutely. If you do get this game though, I warn you. You will start hearing songs from the list blow more often than you would expect. On the radio, in restaurants, in the mall… Everywhere. It’s creepy.
Anyway, as promised, here's the song list:
"Surrender" – Cheap Trick
"Possum Kingdom" – Toadies
"Heart-Shaped Box" – Nirvana
"Salvation" – Rancid
"Strutter" – Kiss
"Shout at the Devil" – Mötley Crüe
"Mother" – Danzig
"Life Wasted" – Pearl Jam
"Cherry Pie" – Warrant
"Woman" – Wolfmother
"You Really Got Me" – Van Halen
"Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" – Spinal Tap
"Carry on Wayward Son" – Kansas
"Search and Destroy" – Iggy Pop and the Stooges
"Message in a Bottle" – The Police
"Billion Dollar Babies" – Alice Cooper
"Them Bones" – Alice in Chains
"War Pigs" – Black Sabbath
"Monkey Wrench" – Foo Fighters
"Hush" – Deep Purple
"Girlfriend" – Matthew Sweet
"Who Was in My Room Last Night?" – The Butthole Surfers
"Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" – The Rolling Stones
"Sweet Child o' Mine" – Guns N' Roses
"Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" – Rick Derringer
"Tattooed Love Boys" – The Pretenders
"John the Fisherman" – Primus
"Jessica" – The Allman Brothers Band
"Bad Reputation" – Thin Lizzy
"Last Child" – Aerosmith
"Crazy on You" – Heart
"Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" – Stone Temple Pilots
"Dead!" – My Chemical Romance
"Killing in the Name" – Rage Against the Machine
"Freya" – The Sword
"Stop" – Jane's Addiction
"Madhouse" – Anthrax
"The Trooper" – Iron Maiden
"Rock This Town" – Stray Cats
"Laid to Rest" – Lamb of God
"Psychobilly Freakout" – Reverend Horton Heat
"YYZ" – Rush
"Beast and the Harlot" – Avenged Sevenfold
"Carry Me Home" – The Living End
"Institutionalized" – Suicidal Tendencies
"Misirlou" – Dick Dale
"Hangar 18" – Megadeth
"Free Bird" – Lynyrd Skynyrd
I figured this website was all about mmo games, now its starting to become like a second gamespy or [insert generic game website here]
It's just one column every week to highlight something outside of the norm. Have no fear, this site' #1 priority is and will continute ot be MMOs.
This industry is constantly changing, although I don't think we will see consoles in the MMO arena for awhile yet. We will probably have to wait for the next generation consoles to come down the pike for that to happen.
Nothing wrong with looking at popular titles outside the MMO arena either.
Console gaming is the wave of the future? There have been console games in existence since the 70's. Ever heard of the Magnavox Odyssey? That was released in the fall of 1972... 35 years ago. There have been a whole slew of console gaming systems since then... the Atari VCS (renamed the "Atari 2600" in 1982) was my first gaming system. My mother bought one for me in 1981... 26 years ago. Colecovision, Sega, Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, and a whole slew of others I am forgetting right now. Then, of course, there are all of the newer systems... X-Box 360, PS3, Wii...
Console gaming is not the wave of the future, nor is it on-topic for a site with the title "MMORPG.com". Granted, some consoles now allow for multiplayer support... but unless consoles start coming with keyboards, they will never have the same appeal to many of the gamers who play MMORPG's. Especially if the systems are going to cost as much as a PC would. When faced with the choice of a PS3 or a new computer... I bought the PC.
[ edit ] - What bothered me about the article is that a statement was made which is inaccurate ( to say the least ). If anything... MMORPG's are the wave of the future over more traditional gaming, the fact that consoles are adding Internet access with multiplayer support is indicative of that.
Actually, many of the "next-gen" MMORPGs are going to be making their way onto the consoles. There is nothing inaccurate about the statement. MMOs will soon be expanding to include consoles as well as the more traditional PCs. I am quite aware of the history of consoles in gaming.
As for the article being on-topic... The column is clearly listed as "Beyond the MMORPG", examining games that aren't MMOs and that we don't normally cover.
Hope that clears things up.
I wish you guys would stay more "in scope" than writing articles like this. I'd prefer to see all MMO-based articles than stuff like this. No offense intended, it just doesn't belong here imho. I come here for the MMO stuff. There's plenty of other places I'd check for other games.
If the article had talked about MMORPG's on consoles, that would be fine. Since it didn't I must... respectfully... say that it didn't belong on a site dedicated to MMORPG's. I'd be reading Those Other Sites if I wanted console news or opinions after all.
Should of been in the off topic forum at the very least as this was hardly MMORPG "news".
shit still sucks
The publishers have also confirmed a PC release. Just thought I'd mention it for the sake of completeness. As I am primarily a PC gamer, I'm interested in the idea of having Guitar Hero III to take with me on travel trips and hooking it up to my laptop for some hotel-room fun.
Not that kind of hotel fun. Get your mind out of the gutter.
A few offtopic articles is by no means a bad thing, give the guy some slack, eh?
A decent article, about a game I bet some people have been cautious to pick up, what with the price of the guitar and all.
As for consoles being the future, I believe that cross-platform is the future, which is being proven by the number of games being released on usually about half of the current systems simultaneously, so the pro-pc lot can play on their pc (with a better control system and graphics capability), while the pro-console lot play on their console (sitting on their comfy couch)
The only thing I think left to be said is "Are you sure you want to play Freebird?"
Go to PCgamer.com then and not MMORPG.com for your updates?
Booo! Down with anything non MMORPG!
MMORPG.com starting to take on topics like this is just gonna turn it into a site that is no longer specialist... and lets face it, you couldn't compete with other multi-genre sites because the address is ***MMORPG***.com.
If i was looking for a site about animals in general, i wouldn't click on the site called "dogs.com".
Its not about the gaming platform, its about the game genre.
I do not believe the statement is accurate at all. You claimed console gaming was the wave of the future in an article discussing Guitar Hero, which has nothing to do with an MMORPG. To now state you intended to mean that MMORPG gaming through consoles ( which is not going to be the wave of the future, by the way ) and claim that was your point, is disingenuous.
I understand the column was intended to provide views into gaming beyond MMORPG's, but that doesn't mean the column is "on topic". If I wanted to get news alerts about console games emailed to me, I would go to a console gaming site to get them. I don't like that I get console spam in my email because I chose to receive news alerts for MMORPG's from this website. Add a separate option to the "Alerts" settings so that I can choose NOT to receive email alerts for off topic columns, and that will solve my problem.
Hope that clears things up.
[ edit ] - Edited for ease of reading
phew, tough crowd here
seems like a fun game anyway, altho not gonna buy a console for it...
maybe in the future this game will be a mmorpg where 25 ppl raiding with their instruments all needing to synch to progress the 'dungeon' ;)
ppl need to light up i guess, 'beyond the mmorpg' is just that and fun to read or skip if you dont like the idea...
I wouldn't have such a problem with it if I could opt out of receiving email alerts for the silly column, but it's bundled with the news alerts. If I want to get rid of the off-topic column's alerts, I would have to opt out of receiving any of news alerts which are actually ON TOPIC for MMORPG.com.
So, until I can opt out of receiving news alerts for things which are off topic for this site, I will continue to be irritated by receiving them. I get enough spam as it is.
Just to be clear, I mean you no offense Pruttel. My frustration is not directed at you, please accept my apologies if that is how this reply sounds.