Guitar Hero Live - Hands on Preview

Written by Matt Mirkovich on 9/14/2015 for 360   MOB   PS3   PS4   WiiU   XBO  

This is kind of terrible, but after playing the latest build of Guitar Hero Live, all I could think of is the episode of South Park about Guitar Hero, Stan just blew his chance at super stardom, and the record executive for his event says, ‘Look at that virtual crowd! They hate you!’ I got that same sinking feeling as I tried my hand at an expert chart, going in totally blind with the new controls. But I’ve heard plenty of Fallout Boy’s smash hit, My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark to know what it sounds like. Suffice to say, the crowd was not impressed. So I had to drop it down to Advanced difficulty. That was my first legitimate experience with Guitar Hero Live, and I certainly doubt it will be my last.

At an event in the balmy hills of Playa Vista this past Thursday I was given my first hands-on experience with Guitar Hero Live, and GHTV, the streaming service that accompanies Guitar Hero Live. The songlist has quite a wide range of appeal, including tracks from Echosmith, Passion Pit, Judas Priest, Kings of Leon, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, along with a lot of previously announced tracks, more than I bothered to count. The easy drop-in, drop-out gameplay made it a snap to get in and out of songs in a hurry, and you could see in real time where your scores stacked against other players.

Let’s talk about the new controls. Initially they were a little tricky to figure out. There’s now six buttons on the new controller, an upper set of three, and a lower set of three. This makes for a couple of awkward button combinations, like an upper one key and a lower three key, and it takes some getting used to, but once you start to get a few tracks under your belt you'll find that old Guitar Hero groove and find that this is as close as you’re going to get without actually picking up a proper six-string. The notes do a good job of telling what you need to hit as well, and while it’s easy to get lost in the maze of up and down arrows, it makes sense the more and more you play it. The star power also has some more utility now, in addition to increasing the multiplier, one of the new powers on display would clear all the notes currently in the lane, giving you a breather through a difficult portion of a song.

The new clean layout and UI means you’re getting a really utilitarian experience, and the game kind of feels barren as a result of it, that is until you start playing something. You’ll earn unlocks that allow you to customize the lane and note effects, and we got a small sample of that during the reveal of three Avenged Sevenfold tracks that will be available to people that pre-order the game. Really, the music is the star of the show though, and thanks to the music videos there’s no shortage of interesting visuals.

Playing Guitar Hero in Live mode means you get to see that crowd and your bandmates react to your performance in real time. There’s definitely an additional layer of pressure, although playing a song with a band without a lot of context makes it a little difficult to get immersed. I’m hoping that the Live portion has a bit of a story element to encourage me to not hate my bandmates for the nasty stares I get for dropping a wicked guitar solo.

We’re a couple weeks out from Guitar Hero Live, and this preview actually sold me on the concept. The new controls feel pretty good, and the gameplay is as solid as ever after such a long hiatus. The song selection had plenty of stuff for me, and having those classic videos had me pining for the character creation of old, but then Tenacious D’s Tribute showed up and all was forgiven.