Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock | Review

Synopsis: It is time to save rock in the new Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and since Activision gave us a review copy with the new guitar, you lucky viewers get a mashbuttons review of the recent music game. Boasting a solid ninety plus tracks and a new gameplay features like quest mode, Guitar Hero now has more content than previous entries. To make this title as hardcore as possible, the developers have made Gene Simmons, from KISS and not the aerobics guru, the narrator in your quest to become a rock god. Quickplay+ is also a new feature to the Guitar Hero series, which is similar to the previous quickplay mode, with thirteen challenges to complete for each song. Along with a handful of new features, Warriors of Rock also has a new guitar peripheral, complete with a more hardcore rock god look. When all is said and done let’s see how Warriors of Rock compares with the previous Guitar Hero titles.

Praise: I have been a Guitar Hero fan from the beginning, playing Incubus on the original breakout entry on the PS2 with a wired guitar. Oh how far this franchise has come, from wireless instruments, addition of online play, a wider variety of instruments, and bigger more epic playable songs. Though it seems that the hype has died down significantly for these music games, it still seems like there is a strong demand and a large online community supporting each entry. The track list in Warriors of Rock is by far the best in my opinion with the large number of familiar songs and a handful of song that I am unfamiliar with, but almost equally good. I grew pretty fond of the quest mode throughout gameplay as you pick one of the available characters and each character has a set list of a specific genre, once you earn a required amount of stars you will transform into your character’s god form. The new guitar is not required but it does stand out from the previous guitars as is it customizable and the part in which you strum feels like it has more tension, which is a huge plus from the previous guitars.

Gripes: The downside to another Guitar Hero title, well, it is the same title we have been playing for years, with different background animations, peripherals, and tracks. Though it seems like each time one of these games come out, I look forward to the available tracks, play through all the songs in a matter of days, and then not play it again until there is a group of people around. Unfortunately, this is no different, as after sending each character into their warrior form, I tried out the quick play and quickly stopped trying to complete the challenges. In regards to the guitar peripheral, the change in which I am not a fan of is the shape as with the way I have held all the previous guitars was never an issue until now as the new guitar hurts my right wrist after three to four songs. You have the ability to import songs from other Guitar Hero titles, but I find it hard to pay Microsoft Points to import tracks from games I have already purchased once, but hey, to each their own.

Overall, this is another Guitar Hero title, not great, and not bad. Toting a strong track list, Warriors of Rock does stand out from the previous entries. Having a fresh title is always nice to have new songs to play either alone, online with other players that have not mastered the songs, or just to play at home with friends and family. Though fun to play through the first time, unfortunately I did not find a lot of replay value after the first playthrough, though I do see myself playing it from time to time when entertaining or trying to find out which Salido family member is the best until the next title is released.

Mashbuttons.com gives Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock a 6 out of 10.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is available now for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 3.