Some would consider Guitar Hero to be the uprise and downfall of rhythm based games, on a massive scale. Since reaching its highest peak with Guitar Hero 2, the brand once known around the country has lost all of its steam due to the overflow of Guitar Hero brand products. In 2009 alone, Activsion released five disc based Guitar Hero games, and they suffered financially because of it. Activision has learned its lesson and have gone back to their usual one game per year tactic. This is where Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock comes into play. But even with the inclusion of new tracks, a Quest mode, and challenges, Warriors of Rock feels like the same song and dance.
Warriors of Rock makes an attempt at having a somewhat narrative driven Quest mode. What you actually get is a lame, dull career mode with cutscenes. Quest mode is broken into different character set lists, you play the songs required for that character until you have earned enough stars to make the character transform, sorta like a boss battle. And you keep doing that until you reach the final boss. The Quest mode almost feel like a chore since you are never able to hand pick what song you play but rather look for a character with a set list that contains a song you like. The Quickplay option will serve as a blessing once you decide to take a well needed break from the Quest mode.
One of the key success’s to any rhythm based game is the music soundtrack, which is also where me, the reviewer, and the reader can possibly never see eye to eye due to different music taste. My taste in rock music spans across alternative and modern rock. Warriors of Rock mainly focuses on hard rock and heavy metal which is why I felt out of place when playing the game. The real issue I had with the song selection in Warriors of Rock is that it felt like the developers were choosing the songs based off of how difficult they could be when playing guitar and not how fun or memorable they are. But at least they feature plenty of bad songs to choose from.
As for gameplay, Warriors of Rock remains the same. You can use the four different band instruments to play. I normally specialize in playing drums when it comes to these types of games but the calibrating system in this game was a pain in the ass. I could never find a calibration suitable for my drum patterns. When I’m missing notes that I’m hitting on easy difficulty you know there’s a problem. Playing guitar seems like the ideal instrument to play this game with, especially for expert players looking for some blister inducing gameplay.
My time with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock was painful. I consider myself a huge fan of rhythm based games, and this is the first let down of the year for me in this genre of games. Having played the game, I can still see that this game was created with the sole intention of making a quick profit. Why else would this game exist? Unlike Rock Band 3, Warriors of Rock neither attempts or accomplishes on doing new and innovative things with the brand.
