Activision’s back with a bang to steal some of Rock Band’s thunder: Guitar Hero 5 is almost here, and we’ve just had a first strum on the music game. Want to know how it plays? Keep reading for first pics and impressions!
It hardly needs saying that the core gameplay remains the same in Guitar Hero 5. You know how it rolls: hit the buttons on your fret in time to the colours on screen, and imagine your an axe god. But are the new features thrown in enough to make Guitar Hero 5 an essential upgrade?
From our jam session, we’d have to say yes and no. Once you get into the tunes, everything is as per. Just hit those notes. All the tweaks have been designed to make Guitar Hero 5 the ultimate casual party game though. No fiddling around on menu screen after menu screen on a drum kit: just dive in. The party play mode is a great example – as well as being able to jump in and out, you can use any combination of instruments/singing, and there’s no fear of death. You can shuffle randomly between tracks or even create your own playlists.
Quickplay too lets you play all 85 songs included with Guitar Hero 5 from the get go, no waiting around to unlock. Even Career mode’s been made bitesized: you can change from single to multiplayer and back whenever you like. It’s little tweaks like this that make Guitar Hero 5 so appealing for newcomers. That’s not to say there’s no challenge of course: you’ll still have to nail all the songs in order if you want to unlock characters and venues.
Is it enough for the hardcore solo strummer to upgrade though? We’re not sure. If you’re all about acing those high scores without anyone holding you back, only the new songs will really tempt you. But hey, the more music the better, right?
Guitar Hero 5 goes on tour to shops across the land from 11 September, but have a look at our first play right here to decide whether it’s worth getting in line.
Out 11 September| £TBC | Activision
