As my body trembles backstage the nerves are starting to hit me. I'm tossing my pick from one hand to the other and silently staring at my fellow band members as the crowd above us roars our names. A young woman walks up to us, we're due onstage 5 minutes ago. Guess it's time to go. We walk down the tight corridor squeezing between crew members and other bands that are in the same position we are. It's not easy being the opening act, you need to start loud and hard or you loose the audience and tonight it's not just us on the line. I'm handed my guitar, and a make-up girl makes her finishing touches to my face. I look at my band, none of us say a word but we all know exactly what each other is saying. The backing track kicks in and my heart pounds even faster. We stand on the elevator and it slowly begins to rise, the stage lights seep through the hole above us and we are blinded by their power. The roar is deafening but it gives me the kick of adrenaline I needed, it's the opening night of the festival and there are tens of thousands of people here. Time to show them what we are made of.
If there is one thing that Guitar Hero Live does better than any other music game I have played before it's giving you that feeling of actually being there, actually being that guitarist on stage playing to thousands of screaming fans. It's been five years since the music rhythm genre died out after it's bloated death last generation and Guitar Hero Live goes a very very long way to showing us that much like a band that goes underground for a few years after putting out a string of bad albums, all it takes is a bit of time and a few new tricks and you're ready to make a comeback that will be a million times better than anything you did before.
If there is one thing that Guitar Hero Live does better than any other music game I have played before it's giving you that feeling of actually being there, actually being that guitarist on stage playing to thousands of screaming fans. It's been five years since the music rhythm genre died out after it's bloated death last generation and Guitar Hero Live goes a very very long way to showing us that much like a band that goes underground for a few years after putting out a string of bad albums, all it takes is a bit of time and a few new tricks and you're ready to make a comeback that will be a million times better than anything you did before.
To the disappointment of many upon announcement, Guitar Hero Live comes bundled with a new guitar that is required to play the game. No backwards compatibility with old instruments and restricted to just the guitar on this outing, so all that money you spent on your full band set last generation goes down the toilet. Though at first this seemed like suicide as the whole reason the genre died was because the instruments cost too much to make, GH Live provides us with perhaps the best plastic instrument ever made. A 6 button controller that only requires 3 fingers to play.
Doubling up the buttons and placing them all up the top of the neck was a risky move but it ultimately pays off. Giving you a more authentic guitar playing experience as well as providing a controller that is easier to pick up and play with compared to the old guitar (good news for newcomers to this style of game), but also much more difficult to master which is also great news for people who are sick of being too good at the old games. In fact the only annoyance of this new controller is not being able to remove the neck of the guitar without using a flathead screwdriver. Gone is that handy latch from the previous games and in is a new lock that only serves to be a pain in the arse if you want to take the game on the road.
Onto the actual game though. GH Live presents two ways to play. There is GH Live where you can play the games campaign made up of two festivals (A set of 42 songs in total) or you can enter quickplay mode to play all these songs without having to play the other songs that accompany the ones you want to play in campaign. Otherwise you can switch to GHTV mode where you are provided with a 24 hour music video service that is constantly updating with new songs for you to play along to. This also includes a competitive element allowing you to see how well you're playing compared to other people in the same lobby as you.
The gameplay is as you would expect from a music rhythm game. Notes fly down the screen and you have to hit them in time and sustain a combo to play the song. Miss too many notes and you'll be kicked off the stage by an angry mob, but play like a god and you'll have the crowd going crazy for you.
In GH Live there are 4 different types of notes. Black and White notes correspond to the upper or lower fret buttons on the neck of the guitar. Leaning how to quickly switch between the upper and lower frets on the neck of the guitar is vital for success in GH Live. Next you have a mixed note, a mixed note is half black and half white requiring you to hold both the upper and lower frets on the neck at the same time. Finally you have a note that may look familiar to those who played the drums on previous GH/RB games, this note requires you to simply strum the guitar without holding any of the fret buttons on the neck. Things get pretty hectic pretty fast in GH Live so you'll need to learn fast to keep up with the steep difficulty curve.
Doubling up the buttons and placing them all up the top of the neck was a risky move but it ultimately pays off. Giving you a more authentic guitar playing experience as well as providing a controller that is easier to pick up and play with compared to the old guitar (good news for newcomers to this style of game), but also much more difficult to master which is also great news for people who are sick of being too good at the old games. In fact the only annoyance of this new controller is not being able to remove the neck of the guitar without using a flathead screwdriver. Gone is that handy latch from the previous games and in is a new lock that only serves to be a pain in the arse if you want to take the game on the road.
Onto the actual game though. GH Live presents two ways to play. There is GH Live where you can play the games campaign made up of two festivals (A set of 42 songs in total) or you can enter quickplay mode to play all these songs without having to play the other songs that accompany the ones you want to play in campaign. Otherwise you can switch to GHTV mode where you are provided with a 24 hour music video service that is constantly updating with new songs for you to play along to. This also includes a competitive element allowing you to see how well you're playing compared to other people in the same lobby as you.
The gameplay is as you would expect from a music rhythm game. Notes fly down the screen and you have to hit them in time and sustain a combo to play the song. Miss too many notes and you'll be kicked off the stage by an angry mob, but play like a god and you'll have the crowd going crazy for you.
In GH Live there are 4 different types of notes. Black and White notes correspond to the upper or lower fret buttons on the neck of the guitar. Leaning how to quickly switch between the upper and lower frets on the neck of the guitar is vital for success in GH Live. Next you have a mixed note, a mixed note is half black and half white requiring you to hold both the upper and lower frets on the neck at the same time. Finally you have a note that may look familiar to those who played the drums on previous GH/RB games, this note requires you to simply strum the guitar without holding any of the fret buttons on the neck. Things get pretty hectic pretty fast in GH Live so you'll need to learn fast to keep up with the steep difficulty curve.
Guitar Hero Live utilises a method of visuals in games not seen properly since the 90's, Full Motion Video. FMV is a recording of real people and placed inside a game. Filmed on a green screen with around 200 extras and session musicians as your band mates, GH Live really gives you the feeling of being there on stage. Though appearing as though it was filmed on a mountable camera such as a GoPro, it was in fact filmed on a robotic arm called a Bolt, following a programmed path, with the band members having choreographed routines to interact with the camera. The crowd will also react to how well you are playing, play well and you'll have screaming fans reaching out to you and stagedivers. Play badly and you'll get things thrown at you, booed off and even angry audience members storm the stage to throw you off. It adds a layer of unparalleled realism to the game and I can't help but imagine what the game would feel like if played in virtual reality.
The UI for GH Live is very minimal in comparison to many music games. For the campaign mode there is no visible score or multiplier indicators, there is only the scrolling track and your 'Hero Power' meter. This provides a much more immersive experience than if they were displayed like in quickplay where the multiplier and score indicator return. For GHTV, the music video that accompanies the song will play in the background with all the score indicators and a lobby leaderboard displayed in the foreground.
Guitar Hero Live is a defibrillator to the music game genre. Woken from it's coma it has a new look, new gameplay and has a setlist containing very few songs from over a decade ago. Whilst for some this may disappoint, for everyone else this is GH for a new generation. It's revived the genre and is bringing it forward into this decade. Though the campaign may be short, the ever growing GHTV library makes it a game you'll always be coming back to. Rock Band 4 may have the backwards compatibility and the largest songlist as of release, but give it just a few months and GH Live will have a songlist double the size of Rock Band 4 (and all import songs) with the innovation the genre desperately needed already in place.
The UI for GH Live is very minimal in comparison to many music games. For the campaign mode there is no visible score or multiplier indicators, there is only the scrolling track and your 'Hero Power' meter. This provides a much more immersive experience than if they were displayed like in quickplay where the multiplier and score indicator return. For GHTV, the music video that accompanies the song will play in the background with all the score indicators and a lobby leaderboard displayed in the foreground.
Guitar Hero Live is a defibrillator to the music game genre. Woken from it's coma it has a new look, new gameplay and has a setlist containing very few songs from over a decade ago. Whilst for some this may disappoint, for everyone else this is GH for a new generation. It's revived the genre and is bringing it forward into this decade. Though the campaign may be short, the ever growing GHTV library makes it a game you'll always be coming back to. Rock Band 4 may have the backwards compatibility and the largest songlist as of release, but give it just a few months and GH Live will have a songlist double the size of Rock Band 4 (and all import songs) with the innovation the genre desperately needed already in place.