Metachronos overall score = 9.0 / 10
Positive
- Same superb gameplay you remember, but with an added splash of challenge
- More multiplayer modes, including cooperative play
- 64 total songs, 40 licensed from major bands
- The new practice mode is easy to use and wonderfully configurable
Negative
- Track list may be bigger, but it's not quite as good as the first game's
- Difficulty doesn't scale as masterfully this time around
- Some of the cooperative parts are highly dull, even on expert
Just in case you missed out on Guitar Hero, here's a quick primer on how it plays. The guitar controller features a strumming button, as well as five color-coded fret buttons on the neck of the guitar. Onscreen, notes color coded the same way as the fret buttons travel down the screen, and you need get your fingers on the correct fret buttons while strumming in time with the notes. Each hit note scores you points, and creating lengthy combos ups a score multiplier. Your progress is tracked by a "rock meter," and if you miss too many notes, you'll eventually hit the red and fail the song. Furthermore, every now and again you'll gain "star power" by perfectly hitting a section of notes. This star power feeds into a meter, and by tilting the guitar at an opportune time, star power will deploy, giving you twice as many points per note as you'd normally get. Oh, and there's a whammy bar.
What's weird about the cooperative mode itself is that you don't always get the sense that you're playing
with someone, so much as playing next to another person. Obviously, the different instruments play into each other within the song, but there's something slightly mechanical about the way the two instruments play together in this mode. This is less a problem with rhythm guitar tracks and mostly an issue in bass songs that aren't crazy in the way that the Rush or Primus songs are. Basically, it's frequently hard to hear the bass guitar, even with the bass audio cranked up as much as it is, so it's tough to gauge how much effect you're really having on the song when playing bass. Seemingly, the developers realized this and tried to give the mode a bit more oomph by tying both players into a single rock meter and combo multiplier. So if your friend is really tanking on their part, you'll both lose your combo buildup and potentially fail the song. You even engage star power by both tilting your guitars. While that could be potentially disastrous if you're playing with a less-experienced player, the game mercifully lets you select individual difficulty levels for each part in this mode. Without a doubt, Guitar Hero II brings to the table an impressive package. The new multiplayer modes are plenty of fun, the song list is gigantic, and the practice mode is going to very much come in handy as you navigate the trials and tribulations of metal songs with 11 guitar solos and nine-minute rock epics. The only thing that makes GH II inherently less impressive than the first game is simply that its track list doesn't make the same incredible impression that the first game's did, even with these songs' greater level of challenge. Of course, even without the ultimate rock-and-roll mix tape of a soundtrack, Guitar Hero II is bound to provide hours of fun to any fan of the original, and perhaps it will even win over a few converts that missed out the first time around.
Subject: Guitar Hero II 
Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:01 pm
