The stage lights are blinding and my ears are ringing. I’m out of breath, my fingers are aching, and the crowd is on its feet screaming. The smell of old, spilled beer and cigarette ashes lingers in the air, but nobody seems to care. The only thing that’s on the mind of anyone with a pulse at the Rat Cellar in Boston is an encore. Am I doubtful I can pull it off after playing the finger twisting Pulp Fiction soundtrack standout "Misirlou" by Dick Dale? Haven’t I given this crowd a show worthy of remembrance? Exhausted, I wipe the sweat from my brow, and look past the lights at the legion of screaming fans before me. "Alright," I say. "Let’s do this." If it’s an encore they want, it’s an encore they’ll get. I breathe in deeply as my band starts the opening to nine minute long "Freebird," and pray to God my weary fingers don’t let my fans down. While it may seem like it, I’m not part of the world’s greatest cover band, but when I play Guitar Hero II it certainly feels that way.
"... while Guitar Hero II is in my Playstation 2 you’d think I was Carlos freakin’ Santana."
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Ladies and gentleman, this is what the Guitar Hero series is all about. No, I can’t play guitar like Mark Morton and Willie Adler from Lamb of God, but while Guitar Hero II is in my Playstation 2 you’d think I was Carlos freakin’ Santana. Harmonix and Red Octane have created a product that accomplishes what so many games attempt to do: draw the player into another world. It also achieves something else most games in this genre get wrong: it’s extremely fun to play.
You don’t need to know how to play an instrument to enjoy Guitar Hero II. Gamers with even the smallest sense of rhythm can pick up the guitar controller and begin rocking the house in minutes, thanks to the intuitive and simple tutorials. And like in any other rhythm action game, the game also lets players choose the level of involvement that best suits their skills. Easy is obviously the best place for beginners to jump in, using only three out of five of the buttons on the guitar. Medium steps it up to using four of the five buttons, and both Hard and Expert step it up and make use of all five buttons.
Wait... buttons? On a guitar controller? That’s right, the guitar controller is equipped with five buttons on the neck, each with their own color, symbolizing the frets on a real guitar. As colored notes scroll towards the bottom of the screen Dance Dance Revolution style, players will need to hold down the proper button combinations and push down or pull up the strum bar (located in the body of the guitar) as the notes enter the action circles. Sometimes the game will make players hold multiple notes at once and play chords, other times the game might send a flurry of finger-blistering single notes during a guitar solo. Sometimes the game will make players hold notes down, at which point they can wail on the whammy bar at the bottom of the guitar to gain extra points. And should you nail a combo outlined in stars, you’ll fill up a bonus Star Power meter that can be activated by lifting the neck of your guitar in the air for a temporary point boost.
"Guitar Hero II fixes some small problems and makes some helpful additions."
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As you can probably guess, the four difficulty levels are pretty different in terms of required skill level. Anyone who can get through the simple tutorials can probably pass songs on easy, and stepping it up to medium shouldn’t cause that much of a problem with enough practice – the addition of one button doesn’t throw too many people off because they have a finger for each one. Curious gamers will probably step it up to Hard after Medium becomes a bit of a bore, and they’ll likely find that adding the final button into playing almost makes it a new game. Using four fingers for five buttons creates an interesting dynamic in some of the more difficult songs, requiring Hero hopefuls to scale the neck of the guitar like they’re continuously pumping a shotgun. If players can master the game on Hard, they’ll find Harmonix was ready for them with Expert mode, which sends what sometimes appear to be unreadable combinations of notes towards you and judges mistakes harshly.
Those who don’t want to twist their fingers into pretzels and would rather strum casually to the beat needn’t worry, however, as all of the songs in Guitar Hero II are eventually available no matter what level you play through. All sixty-four songs can be unlocked via career mode. The game starts out with four songs open, and as you complete the set-lists put in front of you, more will open up. Completing all of the set-lists will open up all forty licensed, though mostly covered tracks. Completing each track will also net you some cash, which can be used to buy the remaining twenty-four tracks, some of which are licensed, some of which were made specially by the developers. Some real classics, like "Sweet Child O’ Mine" by Guns N’ Roses and "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas are mixed in with some surprisingly fun songs to play "Message in a Bottle" by the Police comes to mind as a shocking example. Aside from the tragically slaughtered cover of "Killing in the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine, all of the covers sound phenomenal and sometimes almost exactly like the real thing. The originals are great too, lending themselves well to some creative note positioning. The bottom line is that with sixty-four tracks covering a wide range of rock music, it’s not that big a deal if a couple are duds.
Guitar Hero II also fixes some small problems found in the original game, and makes some helpful additions as well. Pull-offs and hammer-ons have been reworked slightly to be more forgiving. Those who play left handed can switch the flip function (the ability to lift the guitar for bonus points) to work in the opposite direction now, allowing them to use the Star Power bonus the same way right handed players do. The game now throws three-note chords into the mix, adding an extra layer of difficulty for seasoned veterans of the series, and allows player to see their completion percentages for each part of the song after finishing.
"The greatest additions to the series are co-op and practice. "
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The greatest additions to the series, however, are co-op mode and practice mode. In co-op mode, players have several options to utilize, though they require two guitars (duh). One mode has a player playing the rhythm parts of a song, while their partner plays the lead. In order to use the Star Power bonus, both players must lift the guitar at the same time, lending a true Rock Star feel to the moment. A player can choose to play the bass lines during co-op mode as well, adding even greater diversity to the experience. Face Off mode makes a return from the original game, and Pro-Face Off mode makes its debut, allowing players to duel during lead parts in a song. The practice mode allows players to play different sections of the songs they’re having trouble with, along with options to slow the notes down if they need even more help.
Guitar Hero II might not be quite the revolution the original was, but it comes packed with an awesome track list and enough new features to warrant a purchase from fans of the first game and a look from anyone who hasn’t tried the series out just yet. It plays better than its predecessor, sounds better than its predecessor, and even leaves room for more games in the series. If this is the kind of encore we can expect from the folks at Red Octane and Harmonix, I’ll stay for the whole show.
