Guitar Hero II

Everyone wants to be a Rockstar right? or is it just me? for years I have plugged away trying to learn guitar in the hope that one day I will grace the stage with thousands of fans screaming at me, but lets face it, that will never happen, so what am I to do? Well thankfully Activison have the answer in the form of Guitar Hero II, it may not bring me the dream that I once hoped of but it's as close a lot of us are going to get.

The first thing that strikes you about Guitar Hero II is how well the Guitar Controller is built, it just feels so natural in your hand and it is very comfortable, so much so that you feel like you are ready to tackle that game straight away, even if like me you have never played it before and although you can play this game without the controller, it just doesn't feel the same, meaning that the Guitar is an essential purchase if you want to play Guitar Hero II.

The controls are very simple to get to grips with, on the necks of the Guitar are the green, red, yellow, blue and orange fret buttons, each corresponds with the note of the same colour, although at first you may not play all the notes depending on what difficulty you choose, at the other end of the guitar you have the strum bar which you move in time to the music to activate the notes you have pressed and there is also the whammy bar which is pressed in and out to add your own style to each song, you will also find the start, back and Xbox guide buttons at the very bottom of the Guitar but these explain themselves.

On the menu there are quite a few options to get you started in the game, although it is probably best to start with the training, this will help you to get accustomed to the way the game is played, there are two options in training mode, Tutorials in which you learn everything you need to know about the game, this is the one you will want to make use of as in the other, Practice mode you can only perfect the songs you have already played in the main part to the game.

Once you have got used to the techniques learned in practice mode it is time to start your career, there are four levels of difficulty to choose from, these are easy, medium, hard and expert, if you have never played the game before then it makes sense to start on the easy setting as you will soon pick up how to play and with the learning curve being just right, you will be able to step up to medium without too much difficulty.

While it will probably be in most peoples comfort zone to play the game in medium, it is when you step up to the more difficult modes that things get interesting, up until the medium setting the most fret buttons that you would have used is four, but in hard mode five are played as well as you having to use some advanced techniques such as hammer on's and pull off's, this is extremely challenging and unless you have been playing a while then you could struggle and if you think this is challenging then expert is just crazy.

Playing the game itself is quite simple, notes will scroll down the screen in time with the music and all you have to do is make sure you hit the note at the right point, the more notes that you hit, the better your score will become (which is shown in the bottom left of the screen as seen in the picture above), if you manage not to miss any notes then a multiplier will appear, this then multiplies your score by the number shown, this will stay until you mess up.

Another aspect to the game is the star power and rock meters, star power is gained by nailing a series of star shaped notes that glow (you must play the entire group without missing one) or another good way to earn star power is to use the whammy bar on long notes, once you have filled the star power bar (shown on the bottom right hand side of the screen above the rock meter) you just tilt the Guitar, this will then activate it and the crowd will go wild and any multiplier you already have will double meaning that your score will improve fast. The rock meter is presented in the form of three colours, green (You Rock), amber (Ok)and red (Terrible, you need to practice more), if the red light is flashing then unless you pull of some super moves chances are you will fail the song and the concert will end there and then with the crowd booing you off the stage.

In medium mode and upwards you will earn cash everytime you finish a song as well as money from sponsors who think you rock, this can be used to buy things like new characters, guitars and songs, so it is well worth saving up your cash.

The songs that are included in the game offer good diversity from Foo Fighters 'Monkey Wrench' and Nirvana's 'Heart Shaped Box' to Guns and Roses 'Sweet Child O'Mine' and Wolf Mother's 'Woman', with over 70 songs all in and more promised via downloadable content, there is certainly plenty to keep you busy for a while when combined with the different difficulty modes.

Guitar Hero II also includes a multiplayer mode, although you will need another Guitar controller if you want a friend to play, it's well worth it though as it is great fun, there are also quite a few options too, meaning you can either play together or face off against each other, thankfully the developer has enabled you to switch difficulty between players meaning a novice can play on the easy setting while you more experienced friend can play on a harder setting.

Graphically the game looks fantastic (not that you are likely to notice much), the lighting is just right and the modelling of the characters looks good, the sound is also sounds great and you will find yourself cranking up the volume to hear your favourite song once more while you frantically try to hit the notes.

The only disappointment in my opinion is the exclusion of a online co-op mode, in fact if it wasn't for this I don't think I could have found a single flaw, but despite this Guitar Hero II has me hooked, I have never really been drawn to rhythm games before but give me a guitar, some rock music and a adoring public and just try to stop me having one more go, while there have been some grumbles over the cost of the game, in my opinion it is worth every penny, no other game will keep you coming back like this does, in fact excuse me while I go play Monkey Wrench one more time, my fans are calling.