Reviews// Guitar Hero Live

However, as fun as the Live mode is from time to time, it’s clear where the real game is.

Guitar Hero TV is an innovative, interesting and excellent addition. It’s essentially a music channel that lets you tune in and out whenever you want and play along with the videos. Pick a channel based on music genres and you’re dropped into a never-ending loop of hundreds of songs to play.

Although this means you can’t freely choose what to play, it manages to implant that ‘one more go’ feeling into your brain as your current tune is coming to a close. Partly because you want to see what they have for you next, but also to try and try to finish higher in the leaderboard than your current rivals.

As you play, the left side of the screen shows you how you’re doing against other wannabe rock stars. The constantly changing league of 10 players gives you something to aim for as you try to keep up. There’s frustration as you make a mistake and drop a few places, and satisfaction when you hit the zone to battle your way up in equal measure.

At the end of each song you get to see how you did compared to everyone you’re playing against. It's easily the best way of getting you to score-chase that Guitar Hero has ever had to offer.

When played alongside another strummer the league table focuses on the two playing and drops the worldwide rivals. It’s a shame really, as depending on skill level one of you may find that you’ve got nothing close enough to battle against.

The game makes an effort to level the playing field depending on the difficulty setting so that those playing a more complex note chart won't completely run away with it, but if someone playing on casual beats you, you’ll feel annoyed that someone using just three buttons came out the victor.

DLC tracks have been removed, which may upset some. There’s no way to own a track to play, but what it’s been replaced with is a far better idea. Throughout your playing time you’re awarded currency to spend on Play Coins. These can be spent on single plays of any song in the vast Guitar Hero TV Library.

Of course you can pay real money for them but the game is pretty generous with the play coins so I never felt that it was really forcing you to hand your wallet over. Alternatively for £3.99 you can buy a Party Pass that gives you full access for 24 hours.

I guess whether you welcome this new system or not all depends on how you played the older games, but I would spend a lot of cash buying songs that I liked and barely got my money’s worth.

This way I can play an hour or so of TV mode and if I find a song I really like playing I can use a few play coins to master it and move on. Then when my mates come over we can get a party pass and we’re not having to stick with my cherry-picked playlist of weird alternative rock.

Everything Guitar Hero Live does, it does with confidence and apart from a couple of minor niggles, it’s a game that’s really hard to fault. The two new game modes are both fun and although Live mode will lose its appeal over time it’s hard to see how TV mode will.

With the promise of new songs being added every week, Guitar Hero Live has staying power and with the new guitar I still have lots of room for improvement.

If Guitar Hero Live is a reformed band then it’s one that has managed to find a new direction. One that feels fresh and manages to capture what made them so good in the first place without forgetting their roots.

When you boil things down to its basics this game is simply rhythm action gaming at its best.

Pros:
- Six button guitar is excellent
- Guitar Hero TV
- Songs are fun to play

Cons:
- Live mode's tracklist not to everyone's taste
- Some may not like the switch from owned DLC

SPOnG Score: 9/10