Article by Samuele Zaboi
Low lights, a distant buzz, tension in the veins and on the skin, pats on the back, everything is ready. A few steps, the spotlights turn on and the audience goes wild. Welcome to the stage, welcome to your center, welcome to Guitar Hero Live.
The return to rock
With the arrival of next-generation consoles and the lack of backwards compatibility (except for the recent announcement by Microsoft for Xbox One), fans and next-gen players felt the lack of music titles and Freestyle Games with Activision decided to satisfy this request but have decided to do it in style, with a product that is preparing to become the new reference point for the rhythm game genre.
Guitar Hero Live brings with it a roundup of novelties, starting with the pivotal tool for the gaming experience: the new guitar. This is equipped with six keys, three upper and three lower, which are extremely comfortable and above all guarantee a layered experience. Newbies to the game, and to the series in general, will thus be able to tackle Guitar Hero Live step by step, initially using only the three lower frets and then slowly rising with the addition of the three upper frets, to then reach the maximum level of difficulty. a real challenge that will satisfy the most demanding palates, who can try the breeze to feel like a real rock star by moving your fingers with impressive speed and precision. To review the noise caused by the frets and the picking, too many clangs, which thus cover the music as long as it is not at an above average volume.
Having in mind the player's totally immersion in Guitar Hero Live, the developers have totally revolutionized graphics, if you can define it that way, doing a job whose amount must have been immense. Freestyle Games has in fact decided to abandon the avatars to bring to the screen a real band with real musicians and, above all, with a real audience. This is in fact another great novelty of the title, which will make players really feel on stage during a concert; as normal, the public will be able to appreciate the performance, exalting and praising the rock but if the performance of the band, and consequently of the player, should be disappointing or subdued, the public will have no qualms about whistling while the members of the group will try to encourage you to sound your best. This is what happens with Live mode and it is really impressive to see how audiences and musicians (who we remember are real people) can react to your performance in real time.
A sea of songs
In Live mode it will be possible to be part of different bands to be able to play in some concerts and thus have the real breeze of being on stage and, at times, even in direct contact with the public. This mode, which is accompanied by that "quick game", however, turns out to be fairly short and with a short-lived tracklist with some questionable tracks: we are not talking about musical tastes in this case, far from us wanting to express an opinion on our favorite music of each player, but it seems difficult to understand why the presence of rap songs in a title like the one developed by Freestyle Games. The Guitar Hero Live campaign offers about fifteen concerts, most of which feature three songs (rarely the number will go up to five) to play straight to satisfy their audience, who flocked to hear you play.
Guitar Hero Live however, it continues to reserve some surprises and perhaps the greatest of these is GHTV, a real television dedicated to music. Here it will be possible to find hundreds and hundreds of songs continuously updated. GHTV allows you to play a personal playlist or your favorite tracks selected from the vast list: to do this you will need to spend tokens whose management is dedicated to a system that is well balanced with the gameplay. By playing songs it will in fact be possible to receive credits that can be spent to buy business cards, objects to customize your guitar and even tokens to spend on GHTV.
Should you choose to play directly with the channels of this mode which, just as if it were a television, will broadcast different programs at different times depending on the schedule, it will not be necessary to spend the aforementioned credits thus guaranteeing, in fact, a longevity that can extend to infinity. Finally, last mention for the Premium concerts (unlockable from level 6) which will allow you to have access to some songs in preview, before their arrival in GHTV.
Guitar Hero Live App
The Guitar Hero Live experience doesn't end with the console title. Alongside the mobile version, there is also the companion app of the game developed by Freestyle Games which allows you to add a microphone in addition to the guitar. This will also allow you to sing your favorite songs, with the lyrics appearing in the alt part of the screen. At the end of each song you will receive an evaluation not only for the "guitar" part, as always, but also for the singing performance. Of course, the microphone can also be controlled by a friend of yours in order to create a real band.
Conclusions
Guitar Hero Live sets the new standard of rhytm games. The ability to truly feel on stage for a concentrate, the new guitar and the breadth of content and songs featured in GHTV make the Freestyle Games product a must have for all lovers of the genre. Some difficulties, as expected, are present in the choice of some songs (the obvious goal was to welcome the public as heterogeneous as possible) and in a campaign mode that is a bit sparse in content but which for innovation has nothing to complain about. The Guitar Hero series restarts from here.
