Warriors of Rock’s risky take on music gaming falls victim to a mountain of poor execution.
What follows will be an extremely concise, to-the-point review of the latest game in the Guitar Hero franchise. In fact, the entire review can be summarized in just a few words: We do not recommend this game. At all.
Vitals
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft
Release: Available Now for Xbox 360, Wii, PS3
For a while the Guitar Hero franchise, regularly outselling its Rock Band counterpart, rode the sales crest of the rhythm game wave. With sales beginning to slip and increased competition from Rock Band, developer Neversoft felt that it was time to go in a new, more game-like direction. Unfortunately, the execution falls apart before it ever really takes off.
The idea: Power-ups during gameplay, emphasis on the GH brand “characters,” more hard metal influence, engaging story mode
The reality: Inconsistent gameplay, poor visuals, unplayable songs, Gene Simmons
Let me get the acceptable parts of the game out of the way first: Warriors of Rock has a massive amount of in-game achievements and collections, a seemingly never ending amount of modes of play, improved user interface from previous GH games, and deep statistical gathering.
But, that’s it. Apart from achievements, there isn’t much reason to play this game.
My experience with music rhythm games was always a collaborative, group endeavor. Even if I was playing solo guitar in GH III, it felt as though I was jamming along with a band or for a crowd, thanks to the enjoyable rock music hits. Warriors of Rock uses an almost exclusive set list of heavy metal. Heavy metal is horrible to play in Guitar Hero, apart from a few popular Metallica songs. It’s impossible to want to play any of the music in the game. Even Rush’s 2012 felt bastardized, broken up into an unfortunately way-too-long opus that wore me out for the rest of the game.
Added on top of that are horrendous graphical issues (hair clipping into heads, low res polygons and textures), visual feedback that is difficult to understand (skinny, unlabeled bars of star power), and the worst voice-over ever (Gene Simmons sounds half asleep as he narrates with cliched remarks). The overall presentation and execution of the game seem rushed.
The only redeeming factor I found was in new guitar. It’s definitely designed to be sturdy and is the nicest in aesthetic appearance of any GH or Rock Band guitars yet (sans the Beatles special edition of Rock Band). I almost recommend buying the guitar and using it on any other music rhythm game instead.
If Activision really needed to release Warriors, it could have been as DLC for Guitar Hero 5. I’d imagine that those who were even remotely interested in playing a fantasy music quest would rather plop down $15 for a download rather than buy an entirely new disc at full price. At least that way they could play with the songs they already own instead of the live version of “Call Me the Breeze”.
I give Activision credit for trying something different, but I don’t see it as the return to classic form that they were hoping it would be. It’s just not fun anymore.
This review was based on a copy of the game and a guitar provided by the publisher. The game’s Quest Mode was completed on Medium difficulty, and some time was spent playing online, quick play+, and with the music creation tools.
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