Guitar Hero World Tour Review-For the first time in the series, the game will offer fans the opportunity to play drums and sing as well as the rock guitar and bass. This scenario seems clearly a lot like Rock Band, and in some respects, the game is very similar to a simulator Band Harmonix. However, as he tried, Neversoft has not been able to catch up to Rock Band quite yet. And yes, I mean game of last year, and not even Rock Band 2.
Let's begin with the fine bits. If you followed the progress of the game, you previously know how impressive the list is. Van Halen to Jimi Hendrix to Joe Satriani to instrument, the lineup of integrated tracks is pretty inspiring. There are even some surprises there, such as Willie Nelson live rendition of "On the Road Again", which actually turned out to be one of the most fun tracks on the disc.
A rather interesting bit on the song list is that Activision and Neversoft managed to sign on Tool to contribute three songs. Fans of the band (including myself) are obviously happy about that, but what is really interesting here is that Neversoft worked with the group to create something unique and different from the contents of Part. The songs were originally played in a place-specific tool that blends art and content from some of the work of the album and latest videos. You do not even see the band members. it's just the pulsing, undulating and flowing artwork and the note highways. It's very cool to see that Neversoft was capable of working with the band so closely and he was able to present the art and mood so well.
We got to the point with music titles where the downloadable content winds up being equally if not more important than substance included on the disc. Like the Rock Band titles, Guitar Hero World Tour features a store built right into the game, allowing you to purchase new tracks without having to leave and purchase via the Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation Store. A little to consider all this part is that since World Tour is a full band experience, content that you downloaded for GH3 will not transfer over (with the exception of Death Magnetic by Metallica). So right now, there's not a whole lot of stuff available, and the store works fine. When it starts to become rich in content, there may be organizational issues as the installation is pretty simple right now, but again, we will see how it goes as Neversoft could certainly patch and put update the store as it grows.
Progression of the game has changed this year. In previous versions of Guitar Hero, you get a handful of songs at a time, be able to read them in the order you want, then once you beat them all you unlock the next (and harder) together. This time, the "pieces" are interrupted by events. Browsing the ads and show flyers posted on a wall that show you the available options. Each concert has a handful of songs and a general recall, and when you choose a gig you play and fight through all the songs in order. Beating a gig will always open at least another gig, and usually more than one. It gives the game a feeling much more nonlinear than the previous titles you can skip a concert if you want, but you will not know what the songs will still be and may miss something you want really play.
