Gamescom 2010: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Hands-On Preview - No Way Back
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Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 03:20 PM
Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 04:11 PM
Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 04:35 PM
Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 04:37 PM
Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 06:17 PM
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Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 11:30 PM
Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 11:35 PM
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 @ 02:32 AM
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 @ 11:02 AM
Thursday, September 02, 2010 @ 02:50 PM
Monday, August 30, 2010
After being given some hands-on time with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock at Gamescom this year, it is easy to get the basics out of the way – nothing here has changed. Ignoring the addition of an open-string bass note sustain, the rest of the game handles just as you have come to expect. Up to four players can take part using a mix of vocals, guitars and drums, so you pretty much know the drill. One thing I did notice is that the new guitar peripheral seems extremely small and light compared to recent years, heralding back to the popular Guitar Hero 2 instrument if anything. The idea behind this is the hope that players will create their own dream controller should they so wish, but it gives the guitar a very poor feel and the main fret button seems a tad sponge like to say the least.
So with no sweeping gameplay or peripheral changes, what exactly is going to draw players in? Well the awesome looking Quest mode of course. Narrated by none other than KISS Legend, Gene Simmons, this tells the tale of your quest to help out the Demigod of Rock in his eternal battle with the Beast. Obviously it sounds ridiculous, but it superbly draws upon practically every rock stereotype and album cover you can think of to create an epic journey. The whole thing is more story-based and more involving than a regular career mode would be and actually gives you something tangible to aim for rather than just the next gig.
Along the way you have to recruit other rockers, who are mainly recurring series favourites like Johnny Napalm and Lars Umlaut. They all have a specifically themed set list that you have to complete, although the real objective is achieving enough stars on each list to power up your rocker and acquire their special abilities. Johnny, for example, has the Speedfreak power which gives you a minimum of a 2x multiplier at all times. Snag enough stars though and this ability gets buffed even higher. As you unlock more rockers, you get a wider range of abilities to use. Plus, come the game’s finale, you can utilise multiple character abilities at once and really rack up the score and stars.
The real key here is getting back to the hardcore audience and bringing the game back to its pure rock roots, as opposed to the more family friendly fare of recent times. As a result there are no pop style chart toppers in the 93 strong track list and the emphasis is clearly on players who prefer to rock out at a Hard or Expert level.
Outside of story mode the game is also trying to bring a bit more value to the songs available, with each of them having up to thirteen challenges on offer. These will vary depending on the song, but can involve hitting a certain string of notes, maintaining your multiplier or snagging so many points. The neat thing here is that the challenges will also be added to any DLC you may already have, not to mention songs from the other games in the series, so you can go back to old favourites and find something new to do.
You can also challenge your friends with Target Play, which lets you throw down a score and then they can try to surpass it – along with the addition of messages to inspire or mock your nearest and dearest. It was also let slip that there could be some social networking aspects to the title too, so whether you might be able to trade songs or insults via Facebook, Twitter et al remains to be seen, but it would certainly open the game up to a much wider audience.