Game review: Guitar Hero 5 – PS3

With Guitar Hero 5, Activision have finely tuned the experience and put together what is quite possibly the best game of the series yet.

The standard rules are the same - you have to use your musical controllers to hit the correct notes at the correct time – failing to do so will result in your band getting booed off. However, this time round the developers have turned it up to 11 with the introduction of a variety of multiplayer modes:

The best is “Rockfest”, where you can have up to 4 local players (or 8 online players) and take part in several different battle modes.

This is followed by “Pro Face-Off”, which is a standard score battle with the highest score winning, “Momentum”, where you start off at medium difficulty but can progress up to higher difficulties when you play 20 consecutive notes, “Streakers” – when you are awarded more points for making long streaks (of the music kind of course), “Perfectionist” – when players are ranked by the percentage of correct notes hit, and “Do or Die”, when the player is forced to wait out the next section if they miss three notes in the current song.

Finally, “Elminination” does what it says on the guitar case – the lowest scoring player is eliminated every 30 seconds.

Multiplayer perks aside, the career mode remains the same as the previous titles, you can create your rock star (more on that later) and then work your way through the sets before progressing on to more glamourous venues.

Possibly the most interesting addition to the game is the “Party Play” mode, where players can drop in and drop out in the middle of a performance to change instruments or difficulty. This mode is a great little addition because it gives newcomers the chance to adapt to the game without interrupting the flow of the game, making it the perfect option if you are hosting a party.

Creating band members is quite fun, despite the fact the Playstation 3 does not have any compatible avatars like the Xbox 360 version.

The range of characters and styles available in the game are flexible enough to create someone who looks vaguely like yourself. Pretty much every feature is amendable – face, clothes, sex, piercings, instruments, even the make up.

The tracks are also the most diverse of any Guitar Hero game to date.

Should you want to rock out to something a bit heavy, there's Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and The White Stripes. Should you want to go for something a bit lighter, there's tracks from Coldplay, Gorillaz and Beck. If you’re a fan of yesteryear there's even The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and Queen. There is literally something for everyone.

The game also features several unlockable bonuses, such as the option to play as several rock stars – the late, great Johnny Cash, Matt Bellamy from Muse and quite controversially, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

Also, kudos to the developers for including the option to be able to import songs from the previous titles.

Having said that, the system is a bit awkward and it’s a shame the downloaded songs from previous titles can't just appear like they do on the Sing Star series. What the developers have opted for is some form of registration, with a unique id printed on the manuals of the previous games. That is all very well and good, but what if you have lost the manual?

Graphically, the game is as strong as ever, with the bands performing with all the required swagger and ticking all the right clichés. Naturally, being a music-based game, the sound is also quite solid. The songs are crystal clear, and if you find they are drowned out by the audience you can turn their cheering/booing down in the options section (aka, the “Mixing Desk”).

Overall Guitar Hero 5 is a great addition to the series. Whilst it’s not a groundbreaking game for the genre of social gaming, it is still a very welcome one.

Grab your axe and hit the road.

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10

The Good

- Great selection of songs
- Customise your band

The Bad

- Loading times are still quite long