Guitar Hero Live Reviews

In theory it sounds terrible, but Guitar Hero: Live's approximation of old-school music TV programming, coupled with the excellent hardware, makes it a winner.

I enjoyed the Guitar Hero: TV components a lot more than I thought leading up to the release of GH:L but it isn’t without some pretty major faults. The first downside to this streaming music video system is: there are no options to purchase any additional content for offline play. If you are disconnected from the internet, you will only have access to on disc, GH:Live songs. The multiplayer and scoring isn’t clear; I’d hit 99% of the notes, and still only earn second or third place to players hitting 96% but somehow earning a much higher score. The streaming nature means the song will have to buffer, and any troubles with internet can disrupt gameplay.

Yes, things feel a bit different this time around but do yourself a favor and give it a chance. Once you find the groove in Guitar Hero Live, which is the new GHTV mode, you won't look back or think about the way things used to be again. This is the future of guitar-themed video games.

I can’t help but love Guitar Hero Live. The more mature, and frankly flawless, visuals of the game coupled with the new controller works much better than I could have anticipated. The fact that everyone is, once again, a complete newbie is refreshing; we all get to enjoy those small victories of completing a song on 100% for the first time again, and relive the satisfying achievement of moving up to the next difficulty level. With a massive catalogue of songs to choose from, and a lot of scope for updates and DLC, we’re not going to be getting bored of Guitar Hero Live any time soon. Rock on!

Guitar Hero Live's microtransactions aren't necessarily as bad as certain sections of the gaming community would have you believe and the new controller presents a fresh new challenge that Guitar Hero veterans will be hungry to take on. The offline GH Live mode is very cool, albeit short-lived, even if the on-disc track selection is lacklustre, but the real meat in the pie is GHTV. It isn't as fully-featured as we'd have expected it to be off the bat, but being able to jump in and spin through a selection from the 200+ tracks (with lots more to come, we're told) for an hour while earning rewards and upgrades is pure addiction.

Guitar Hero Live is Activision's answer to Harmonix's Rock Band 4, and seems to be the complete polar opposite to it. While the new Rock Band allows you to use old instruments, Guitar Hero introduces a completely new one; where Rock Band 4 allows you to import old songs, Guitar Hero Live doesn't. The two rhythm games, despite being in the same genre, couldn't be taking more different approaches, then – but how does FreeStyleGames' axe-'em-up square up?

That's the genius of Guitar Hero Live. Rather than compete with Rock Band 4, it offers something completely different, and as such the two titles have quite different audiences. Live uses a more modern platform to deliver its content, and whether or not that's a good thing will come down to personal preference.

In many ways my experience with Guitar Hero Live can be summed up by the chorus from Faith No More’s Epic: “You want it all but you can’t have it.” No matter how much currency, real or virtual, you pump in, you’ll never actually own any of its growing library of songs beyond the 42 included on the disc. Yet, this restriction has in no way inhibited the fun I’ve had with it so far. The new guitar makes a tangible improvement to how you experience each and every riff and lick, and GHTV provides an almost irresistible service for enjoying tracks you love while discovering new ones, with absolutely nothing hidden behind a paywall. Guitar Hero Live might not return the series to the heights of its heyday, but it’s definitely the freshest and boldest Guitar Hero game in a very long time.

Rainbow in the dark.

Forget what you know about old Guitar Hero games. Those are in the past. FreeStyleGames has taken only the most fundamental pieces of what Harmonix and Neversoft introduced and instead put their own unique stamp on Guitar Hero Live. In many ways, it's for the better, especially in GHTV. In fact, GHTV might even have some players wondering why that wasn't the whole game. It certainly makes the live action concert element feel superfluous.

Guitar Hero Live is exactly what the franchise needed after its five-year hiatus, and I’d go as far to say it’s what the whole genre needed. Although naysayers will lament the lack of more instruments or complain about the non-permanence of extra songs, for many, Live will become the quintessential party game and is already set to be a permanent fixture in my sitting room.

Guitar Hero Live completely took me be surprise. I love the new controller design, the FMV portions work far better than they should, and Guitar Hero TV hooked me with its channel concept. Going forward, I’m hoping that the model further reinvents itself by introducing the world to new music.

There are two kinds of reunion tours: The Stone Roses Approach, where a band triumphantly returns to the stage amid huge nostalgic expectation and plays only old songs, and The Blur Approach, where the nostalgia is augmented by a whole load of new stuff.

In the suddenly reignited war of the music games, Guitar Hero Live is this year’s wild card. A fundamental reimagining of control, presentation, and progression adds up to an experience that feels novel, no matter your background with the series. Sadly, much of the gameplay is gated behind a labyrinth of currencies and purchases that ultimately pulls me out of the music and keeps me from playing the game the way that I want.

Guitar Hero Live is maybe a change too far for the Guitar Hero revival. It’s two facets, Guitar Hero Live and Guitar Hero TV, are wonderfully crafted and superbly engaging, but the fun factor seems to have been zapped from it somewhat. Maybe it’s a little too serious, maybe it’s hard to accept change, but that spark that we felt when we played Guitar Hero II for the first time… it’s just not there.

Guitar Hero Live is a bold step in a new direction for Rhythm games. While everyone might not take kindly to the restrictions put on players in Guitar Hero TV, there's a seemingly endless number of playlists and challenges to complete, with room to grow going forward.