Guitar Hero Live Reviews
Guitar Hero Live brings Activision's former fan-favorite franchise back to the fold in new and impressive ways.
All of Guitar Hero Live's numerous changes result in a mixed bag of a revival, but one that rhythm game fans should still try out.
Guitar Hero Live gives us an offline first-person rock-and-roll fantasy, but it's Guitar Hero TV that gives this series new life. The new guitar gives veterans new challenges while breaking down the barrier to entry for new players. While the on-disc tracks are, in my opinon, throwaway, Guitar Hero TV should keep players busy for a long time to come.
The changes made to Guitar Hero: Live go a long way in giving the series its own unique identity, but at the cost of making the game less fun to play than its competitors. An innovative post release content delivery system of streaming music elevates what's otherwise an average and expensive rhythm game.
Guitar Hero Live is maybe a change too far for the Guitar Hero revival. It's two facets, Guitar Hero Live and Guitar Hero TV, are wonderfully crafted and superbly engaging, but the fun factor seems to have been zapped from it somewhat. Maybe it's a little too serious, maybe it's hard to accept change, but that spark that we felt when we played Guitar Hero II for the first time… it's just not there.
If it wasn't for some questionable design choices with the game's most important element, it could have been a flawless experience.
As long as they're running and updating Guitar Hero TV, I'll carve out time for this game. It may not be the party machine that Rock Band 4 is, but it offers something no other game, and really, no other TV station, currently does: a powerful combo of play, nostalgia and discovery. I mean, I'd never buy a Darwin Deez record, but I'm glad I've seen that video, you know?
Guitar Hero Live is quite fun.
The Guitar Hero for people who got bored of Guitar Hero
I dunno, in the end it feels like Guitar Hero Live is a job, and not the party the previous games were.
Though I was a bit disappointed by the Guitar Hero Live portion of the game, Guitar Hero TV is onto something special with a lot of potential longevity. I've scored the full game just under a "must buy" because players who mostly enjoy a beefy single-player campaign will find it lacking. However, I encourage fans of Guitar Hero to check out this package for Guitar Hero TV. It's both a blast from the past days of music videos on television, and a step into the future of interactive entertainment. I'm looking forward to seeing where Activision and FreeStyle take GHTV in the future – things like a more formal vocal competition or user-curated channels are all possibilities for this new format. I'll be watching and waiting to strum along.
It's good to have this franchise back and Guitar Hero Live successfully tweaks the gameplay by giving gamers a more fulfilling experience that is closer to playing a real guitar then the previous last-gen console versions. More importantly, the guitar works well and if you're familiar with the previous game, you will need to re-learn the mechanics again but once you put the time and effort into this, you'll soon become a rock god. The only slight gripe I have with this release is the campaign mode is a little cheesy but thankfully the streaming "TV" mode which boasts some awesome music plus video clips really puts some unpredictability into the game and more than makes up for this clichéd oversight.
A great evolution to the controller, but lacks the fun of the originals.
Guitar Hero Live is a wonderful evolution of the music genre. Everything from presentation, to mechanics, to the new controller was an advancement for the better. Whether or not this picks up steam with the gaming crowd is left to be seen, but the effort on both FreeStyle Games and Activision is apparent.
A bold experiment that pays off, Guitar Hero Live moves in a new direction that's vibrant, exciting and contemporary.
The fact that everyone is, once again, a complete newbie is refreshing; we all get to enjoy those small victories of completing a song on 100% for the first time again, and relive the satisfying achievement of moving up to the next difficulty level
It's been five years since we've had an effective Guitar Hero release to tell us that the series is relevant again – especially one that doesn't have Gene Simmons delivering a hammy performance on why we should care about rock gods.
Guitar Hero Live ushers in a new era for the music game genre. It's bold, innovative, but it won't be a hit with everyone.
Guitar Hero Live brings a lot of new things to the music rhythm genre of video game and everything elevates the latest installment to "classic" status.