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Developer: FreeStyleGames
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: October 20th (NA/AUS), October 23rd (EU)
Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, iOS
RRP: $99.99 USD, £74.99 GBP, 99,00 EUR
Guitar Hero Live is a revival of Activision's Guitar Hero franchise. It features a new guitar peripheral, two new ways to play and a steady supply of new music available to be played online for free. Coming in only a couple of weeks after Harmonix's revival of their own franchise Rock Band, will we be seeing a resurgence in the plastic instrument genre, and will we see one of the most vicious fanbase rivalries continue?
Shying away from the five coloured button layout previously used in Guitar Hero, and still used in Rock Band, Guitar Hero Live's new guitar features a six button layout. It consists of three black buttons on top of three white buttons. This is stated to make the game easier to pick up, but much harder to master. The guitar also retains staples of the previous guitars, including a clicky strum bar, a whammy bar, and a large button to activate Hero Powers. There is also a new button that allows the player to immediately connect to Guitar Hero TV whenever they want.
Although Guitar Hero Live has dropped both bass and drums, vocals are still supported in Live quickplay and GH TV. All you need to do is plug in a USB microphone and the vocal track will appear above the guitar track and plays identically to how vocals usually do. Vocals will also have their own score tracking. However, a guitar will still have to be connected for vocals to appear, so pure vocalists may want to wait on this game until solo vocals are supported.
Guitar Hero Live is the game's on-disc portion, and is something a bit different to what we've seen before. The first notable change is the use of FMVs instead of traditional graphics. The second is that instead looking on at the band, a first-person view from the guitarist is used, letting the player look out to huge crowds whilst on stage. If you rock, the crowd will react accordingly. If you suck, well, they will do the same. The game will also take away the track during moment with no guitar, letting you really get a feel of the crowd.
Live will put you in the position of the guitarist of various bands of varying fame, genre and members. These bands play at one of two festivals, the UK's biggest outdoor festival SoundDial or the US's unique musical event Rock the Block. If you're band is at the top, they take the main stage in front of thousands of fans. If you're band is a little more underground, they'll play on a smaller stage with with smaller crowds. All the bands also have a little bit of story to them, mimicking the trials and tribulations many real bands go through.
Live's campaign will be singleplayer only. Live quickplay IS multiplayer, supporting a second guitar and vocals. Both feature the same songs. The songs featured in the Live portion can be found below.
First off, it's worth mentioning that GH TV is an online-only service. However, it will NOT require PS+/XBL. Songs featured in this portion of the game cannot be downloaded to your console and can only be streamed.
The majority of songs featured in the game are part of GH TV, a music streaming service that will be continuously updated with new music. GH TV consists of various continuously running channels that play different themed shows such as "Metal Icons" or "Rock Classics". These channels will be constantly playing music and the player can jump in and start playing whenever they want, competing against 9 other players that are listening to the same channel. You can also plug in another guitar, a microphone or both to play with friends. Carrying on from Star Power, GH TV lets the player use Hero Powers. Instead of just doubling the multiplier, Hero Powers have a range of abilities, including the traditional multiplier doubler, removing a certain amount of incoming notes, and more. New Hero Powers are unlocked as the player levels up. New music and new channels will be added post-release, and will be available to the player for free, being folded into channels and available on-demand. It is possible that music might get removed from the service in the future, but this has yet to be confirmed. Also, instead of FMVs, GH TV uses music videos or concert footage as the backdrop.
GH TV contains two types of in-game currency. Credits are earned whilst playing one of the channels, and Hero Cash is purchased with real money. Hero Cash's sole functionality is to purchase play tokens, although you can purchase them with credits too. These allow players to play whatever song they want whenever they like, rather than waiting for them to come on one of the channels. The player will receive multiple tokens when they first access GH TV, and will receive some every time they level up. With Credits the player can also buy cosmetic items such as different fretboards and player cards. There is also a party pass, which the player can purchase to get unlimited on-demand access to all songs for 24 hours. This will cost $5.99 USD, £4.79 GBP or 5,99 EUR.
Another aspect of GH TV is GH TV Premium. Premium shows can range from brand new music videos to special live footage. To access a premium show, the player must complete basic challenges such as getting three stars on a specific song. They can also access them immediately using Hero Cash. If you do well at Premium Show, you will be rewarded with items such as unique note highways and playercards, boosts to Credit accumulation, discounts to store items and more. These premium shows will run for a certain period of time and then new ones will take their place, each providing new rewards.
The following songs are featured in the Live portion of the game, although some will appear in GH TV.
These are the songs available at launch for GH TV. These can only be streamed online and will not be available to offline players. There were 200 available songs on launch day.
For a list of songs added post-release, please refer to this Wikipedia page. The Live portion of the game currently features ~330 songs.
Destructoid - 9.5
The Sixth Axis - 9.0
GamingTrend - 9.0
HighDef-Digest - 9.0
GodIsAGeek - 9.0
PSNation - 9.0
Gametrailers - 8.7
PlayStation LifeStyle - 8.5
The Hero Feed - 8.0
ShackNews - 8.0
IGN - 7.9
Game Informer - 7.5
ZTGD - 7.0
Gamespot - 6.0
Special thanks to Fantasy Final for making it incredibly easy to live up to the last Guitar Hero OT. Hopefully my first OT is up to snuff.
