Guitar Hero II

"Guitar Hero II could have easily been improved, but it is still an excellent game."

Unfortunately for this game, it had a lot to live up to. Guitar Hero is, in my opinion, the best music game ever to hit consoles. It didn't tire you out like DDR, it wasn't too bland like Donkey Konga could be, and it had a great list of songs that were well known and well done.

Guitar Hero II tries to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor and make itself even more amazing, but it falls short in a few aspects.

The Songs: 6/10

Guitar Hero II has more songs than the original, but unfortunately, they are far less memorable. They lost some variety that the first game offered. This game is, unfortunately, mostly metal and hard rock songs. I don't mind this music, but constant screaming and poor lyrics will give you a headache when playing a few of the songs in this game. Many times the guitar riffs are incredibly repetitive and bland, and other times they become so ridiculous that no one could ever really get 100% on the song ("Jordan" on Expert). Though this game blesses us with some excellent memorable songs such as "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Free Bird," and "Jessica," among many others, they are in the minority to the repetitive, thrash metal headache songs.

As for the quality of the covers, it is unfortunately not as good as in the original. Some have been done very well while others make you cringe at how far off they can be at times. This is not, however, very common. Overall, Guitar Hero II still has better covers than many games on the market.

The Characters: 6/10

This is where some easy improvements could have been made. They have introduced a few new characters in this game. These three characters easily join the last cast of characters as they fit in quite well in their stage antics and appearances. They also included an unlockable outfit for each of the original characters. There are 3 unlockable characters as well. Unfortunately, you've seen all of them before. All three were in the last game, 2 of which were just given to you in the last game. It was highly disappointing that they didn't make new characters available for unlock. These characters also don't have new outfits for purchase like the other characters do. It seems that it wouldn't have taken long for the developers to come up with something fun and interesting to add, but this is unfortunately not present.

Difficulty/Pacing: 7/10

The songs are more difficult, toward the end, than the last game to get 5 stars on. They become much more involved and crazy at times. However, there is a very poor flow of easy to hard as you progress down the song list. I found sets 2 and 3 easier than set 1 which should not be the case at all. The first Guitar Hero had excellent pacing, but this game just doesn't seem to get the difficulty pacing right.

The Guitars: 8/10

You see all of the old guitars present in this game for purchase. You also get a new one available for purchase for completing a number of tasks. These are all original (except for the battle axe which was in the first game). Though, there were not many new ones added which would have been nice to see. There are also bass guitars available: 6 of them to be exact. It would have been nice to see more of these available, though.

The Gameplay: 10/10

You see the same old innovative gameplay that the last game offered. This time around, they added chords that require pressing down three frets that were completely nonexistent in the last one, and they have made hammer-ons and pull-offs easier. The latter is the greatest addition to this game. It makes the long shredding runs much more fun and easier to hit. With the new mechanics, Texas Flood and Frankenstein would have been a piece of cake in the last game, but Guitar Hero II makes up for this addition by making many more difficult solos. These, however, are at about the same difficulty level as the last game due to the change in mechanics.

Multiplayer: 9/10

Along with the duel mode that was in the original Guitar Hero, they have added two new multiplayer modes that many strongly wished were in the last one. You can now duel with your friends with both of you playing every note in the song, and you can play cooperatively with your friends while one of you plays lead and the other plays backup. It also allows you and your partner to pick different difficulty levels for the songs. So, if you are a true "Guitar Hero" and play expert, but your girlfriend wants to play and can't get past easy, it's ok! You can choose expert while she chooses easy and you can play together in the same song. The duel modes themselves are just as good as in the last game, and the addition of the "Pro Face-Off" is an excellent way to see who really is the best guitarist out of your friends. The cooperative mode is a lot of fun, but sometimes one part or the other can get downright boring and repetitive so a lot of fighting over who gets to play what part can occur. This, however, is to be expected with most songs. The only other bad part about co-op mode is that goals are limited to simply beating songs to unlock basses. It doesn't matter what difficult you and your partner choose.

Practice Mode: 10/10

This is arguably the best addition to Guitar Hero next to the change in Hammer-on/Pull-off mechanics. It is very easy to use and manipulate the way you want it. You can practice any song at 4 different speeds. It lets you choose whether you want to practice the Guitar part or the Bass part, and it lets you choose where you start and end your practice session in the song by choosing between a number of different divisions in the song. These labeled parts of the song are listed and you can highlight them to listen and hear the part of the song that they represent. This allows for easy quick practicing of exactly what you need to improve at. It is a perfect excellent feature exclusive to Guitar Hero II.

Pros:
-New songs, many of which are good
-Improved Multiplayer
-Excellent Practice Mode
-Improved Gameplay

Cons:
-New songs, many more of which are bad
-Few new characters
-Few new unlockables
-Poor difficulty pacing

Overall (not an average): 8/10

This game is worth the purchase if you were a fan of the first game. It makes an excellent game to play with your friends, but be sure to keep your copy of the first Guitar Hero for the somewhat better selection of songs.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/06