Guitar Hero II

"So when you're playing you feel like a preserved moose on stage?"

About a year ago a game was released without much fanfare by the name of Guitar Hero. After rave reviews across the board and a few brave customers who dropped $80 to venture into the unknown, Guitar Hero launched out of obscurity and into an award-winning hit. Developer, Harmonix, knew the sequel would have to be bigger and better to match that success. Well, there is no denying its bigger, but is it better?

Among the many first impressions with this game, first will be the soundtrack. Guitar Hero featured 47 total songs - 30 main tracks and 17 bonus songs. Guitar Hero 2 trumps that total by nearly 20 with 64 total songs - 40 main tracks and 24 bonus songs.

The multiplayer in Guitar Hero 2 is also beefed up with the addition a Co-op mode which incorporates the use of bass and rhythm guitar. Also, a pro-faceoff mode which has both players playing the full lead guitar rather than splitting the notes up like in faceoff mode from the original; although faceoff mode does return with an improvement of its own - now both players can individually select the difficulty to play on.

In addition to the gaudy multiplayer modes is a practice mode. This feature allows the player to practice certain sections of a song ("Verse 1," "Chorus," "Bridge 1," etc.) on different difficulties and instruments. The player can also toggle the speed of the notes (Full Speed, Slow, Slower and Slowest).

So without question the game is bigger now for the burning question - is it better? Yes and no.

Both minor and major tweaks make Guitar Hero 2 better than its predecessor. Minor tweaks such as the lefty flip option now available on the pause menu, faster load time after failing then retrying a song and my favorite, the More Stats option after completing a song. This allows you to see how you performed on each individual section of the song as well as how many total notes you hit, how many star passages you hit and your average multiplier. Pretty neat.

Then there are the major tweaks to the formula that worked so well last time - both of which are very welcome. First is the improved and made easier hammer-ons and pull-offs. No longer do they require the previous note to be held down and the window for strumming them has been increased. This allows your fingers to fly and execute those difficult solos with greater fluency.

Speaking of difficult solos, Guitar Hero 2 as a whole has increased in difficulty over Guitar Hero which is a wonderful thing, especially for those who managed to conquer Expert mode last time around and feared they would roll right through this installment without a challenge. For those daring enough to jump right into Expert mode, which should be most of the Guitar Hero vets, be ready to hit a roadblock rather early with the combination of Heart's “Crazy On You” and the Stray Cats' “Rock This Town” in the sixth tier. The difficulty kicks up another notch in the next tier with “Psychobilly Freakout” and then you'll have to tackle the epic final tier including the exhausting “Freebird.” That's not to mention to incredibly demanding bonus songs. Good luck even passing Buckethead's “Jordan.”

For those not ready for Expert mode, Hard mode is still a great, balanced challenge that lingers somewhere between the difficulty of Hard and Expert from the first Guitar Hero. And for the complete newbies to the show, Easy mode will usher you in carefully with a slow moving fret board and only three notes to worry about. There should then be a smooth transition into Medium and when you're ready, Hard mode.

So now we're left with the song selection, perhaps the only aspect that Guitar Hero 2 is NOT better than its predecessor. Sure, there are more songs but they aren't much better. Gone are the likes of Hendrix, Cream, Blue Oyster Cult and Queen. However, there are great newcomers such as Rush, Guns N' Roses, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith to take their place. Also, returning from the first Guitar Hero are Megadeth and Black Sabbath.

It seems Harmonix wanted to run the gamut with musical appeal this time around because along with those big acts come death metal rockers Lamb of God and surf rocker Dick Dale. There was also a push for southern rock (The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd), rockabilly (Stray Cats, The Reverend Horton Heat) glam metal (Motley Crue, Spinal Tap, Warrant) and grunge (Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots). It's really all a matter of taste, but I think we were all disappointing to see a lack of Metallica, Zeppelin and other big names of that ilk. Instead we are left with such oddball selections as Butthole Surfers, The Sword, The Living End and Suicidal Tendencies.

Despite the song selection, its certainly not all about how pleasing they are to your ears, but how fun they are to play. That is another area Guitar Hero 2 wasn't completely successful in. Nearly every song in Guitar Hero could be played any number of times and never lose their appeal. In Guitar Hero 2 there are a few songs that you'll play once and never want to come back to. “Freya” by The Sword, “Stop!” by Jane's Addiction and “Monkey Wrench” by Foo Fighters come to mind (though some may disagree). Fortunately, this breed of song is the minority and of course the songs that are an absolute blast to play are still here - “Message in a Bottle” by The Police, “YYZ” by Rush and “Less Talk More Rokk” by Freezepop (bonus track).

Guitar Hero 2 is a worthy sequel to the smash hit from a year ago and a great game in its own right. Its a brilliant game with few flaws that can't help but draw comparisons from the original. Nearly every facet of this game is superior to the original with the exception of song selection and that is the core of the Guitar Hero series. In spite of that, Guitar Hero 2 remains not only one of the best games around, but flat out one of the most enjoyable times you can have. So grab a friend or go at it solo and rock on.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/06