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gnuanes's Guitar Hero II (PS2)
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| [February 9, 2007 07:21:36 PM]
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Guitar Hero 2
Log Entry #1
Yesterday, my buddy brought over Guitar Hero 2 and two guitar controllers. I had never played the game, I had only heard it was fun and addicting. I actually had no idea what it looked like or how it was played. At first I was a little taken aback. It seemed more like those Dance Dance Revolution games and less like a musical instrument, and essentially that what it was. This turned out not to be a bad thing. Almost instantly I was hooked. I started playing in Career Mode in order to unlock more songs. In the game there are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Initially, even the Easy difficulty is tricky, but the best part of this game is how rapidly you learn how to play. What seems overwhelming at first can be mastered in no time.
The way the game is played is simple. On the screen is a rapid succession of notes represented by colored circles, the colors correspond with the buttons on the guitar controller so when the green note is to be played the player must press the green button and “strum” the guitar at the right time and hold it for the amount of time indicated. The game is based on points and there are various ways to get points and point multipliers (such as hitting a certain number of notes consecutively without messing up).
Once my friends and I unlocked more songs we decided to try multiplayer. This is what makes the game really fun. There are two multiplayer options: Face-off and Cooperative. In co-op one of the players plays lead guitar and the other player rhythm or bass. You work together to get the highest number of points. This whole time we all were playing on easy, but next we will attempt Medium difficulty.
Log Entry #2
Medium difficulty adds a new element to the gameplay. On easy the player only has to worry about pressing three of the five buttons on the guitars neck. Now it is four. Also, in medium difficulty the player may have to press multiple buttons simultaneously. My buddies and I decided to battle each other in the face-off multiplayer mode. In this mode both players play different portions of the same song and get individual point totals. Also, each player can choose their own difficulty level. Unfortunately, difficulty doesn’t affect point total, so when I upgraded to medium and my friend stayed at easy he ended up with a higher point total than I did, because I made more mistakes. I see this as a flaw.
Medium was almost unbearable my first try, but it is astonishing how quickly a player can adapt, especially if they know the song they are playing. After a few attempts the controls and the rhythm become almost second nature and you don’t focus so much on how to play but what to play and when. I actually found myself zoning out at certain points and still hitting all my notes. I also discovered another way to rack up points. On long notes you can use the Whammy bar (the same as on a real guitar) and add more points to your total.
Overall this game is highly addictive, probably because it makes you feel like a real guitar hero for those brief moments when you hit all your notes. There are a few flaws I noticed. The main one was in career mode. In career mode you rise to stardom playing various gigs and earning more and more money each time depending on how well you do. However, the money is essentially useless. It allows you to buy newer cooler guitars and stuff, but these are merely nice looking objects and don’t sound any better or give you a better point total. I think in the next guitar hero they should adjust this feature so that the money you make in career mode can actually affect the game. Other than these few flaws the game is great fun especially after a few beers with some buddies!
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Feb 9th, 2007 at 19:42:56.
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gnuanes's Guitar Hero II (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 9 February, 2007
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