Guitar Hero: Van Halen – Review (X360)

By Clinton “dreddsix6six” O’Shea

Overview

The thing I love about the Guitar Hero (and almost all other rhythm) games is the way it can make you feel like a rock star. Choose a difficulty level that doesn’t frustrate you, and rock star glory awaits…however, Guitar Hero: Van Halen kept making me think of a bunch of geriatrics trying to relive their youth. Now, a lot of this has to do with the band themselves, but even the game itself felt like a shallow, unfulfilling experience.

Features and Game play

The mechanics of Guitar Hero essentially remains unchanged since it started. There have been a few tweaks, but ultimately, the game is about timing and even a little rhythm…something I lack, but as mentioned above, that’s not the point. If hard and expert leaves your fingers in a twist, try an easier difficulty and you’ll be rocking out in no time. But how you ask? Well, young beginner to the franchise, I will give a broad explanation of how the game works.

Using an instrument peripheral of choice (guitar for bass and lead guitar, microphone for singing or drums for, erm, drums) you can choose to either play Career, Quickplay or even head to the tutorials for a little tuition from the ‘experts’. If you have enough friends, you can rock out like a band, if not, the game will play the rest of the instruments, so you won’t look like a lunatic one man band flailing away. If you decide on guitar (singing can make one feel a little self-conscious and drumming requires the kind of hand-eye coordination very few of us have), you will be required to hold down coloured fret buttons on the guitar neck (which match the colours been fired down the ‘highway’ at you) while striking the strum bar at the correct time. The idea is to hit as many notes as possible – missing too many and you will fail the song.

The franchise has used this basic mechanic since the beginning and the minor changes have come and gone over time. With Guitar Hero: Van Halen, it really feels a little like the bare minimum has been kept in the game. After the massive leap that was Guitar Hero: World Tour (drums and voice added for a true ‘band’ experience) and the polish of Guitar Hero: Metallica, this version feels rushed, and leaves one wondering why the tracks were not simply released as DLC. Yes, one could argue that you get the band’s likeness and all the interesting facts about the tracks (25 Van Halen tracks and 19 ‘guest’ artists), but I honestly can’t say that it’s worth the price of a (nearly) full priced game. It does nothing overly new and the motion capture and animation of the band feels…’unnatural’…maybe a little like the band themselves.

In the end, the franchise has always been about the songs and the way it makes you ‘feel’ when you play the game. Some songs on other versions of the franchise make you feel giddy and bring out the inner rock god who used to jump around in front of the mirror as a kid (I’m not the only one surely). The songs on GH: Van Halen never quite do that. Yes, there’s ‘Jump’ and ‘Hot for Teacher’, but I got more thrill playing the ‘guest’ artist’s songs. I kept wanting to pop GH: World Tour, GH: Metallica or Guitar Hero 5 in rather. Maybe this slight indifference to GH: Van Halen has a little to do with the band themselves – while I am a child of their heyday, Van Halen were never a band I connected with. For fans however, I think this does everything they would ever want.

Bits I Loved

More tracks to play.
Jump.
End of Heartache by Killswitch Engage – I’m a fan.

Bits I Hated

A little shallow.
Animation feels a little robotic.
Almost reminded me too much of the eighties.

Conclusion

If you are new to the franchise, there is no harm in getting this. If you are a Van Halen fan – what are you waiting for? If, like me, you feel that it’s time to release the band-centric versions as DLC, then steer clear. It’s a perfectly adequate addition to the franchise, but adequate really isn’t good enough, is it?

Zombiegamer Rating: