Guitar Hero II Review

By Mike D'Alonzo - Posted Aug 27, 2007

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Mike D'Alonzo

It's time to take your Guitar Hero to a whole other level as Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s brings the Reagan era to the game. X-Play grabs an axe and gives the PS2 review.

The Pros
  • It’s more Guitar Hero
The Cons
  • Lacks extra content
  • Sub-par song list

How much Guitar Hero is too much Guitar Hero? Is that even possible? Well it seems RedOctane is set to test that very limit by releasing what can only be described as an interim product. Make no mistake: this is Guitar Hero II, right down to the level, menu, and character graphics.

We Got The Beat

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s ReviewThere are a few differences. Obviously, the song list is the major thing. Other than that, you’ll notice lots of neons spattered over the various menus, big hair, and too much makeup on your on-screen avatars. Oh, and there are only half as many of said avatars this time around.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, except for the fact that the game is being sold at regular price. When all you’re really getting is a new song list and less content elsewhere in the game (no bonus tracks here, all you get are the standard 30 songs), it’s hard to get very excited about Rocks the 80s.

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Round and Round

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s ReviewThe song list is decent but not great. It’s always a slippery slope when one tries to critique a song list, though, since it’s so heavily based on personal musical preference. The issue with Rocks the 80s’ song list isn’t so much the overabundance of hair metal as much as it’s because most of the songs feel like they play almost exactly the same as one another. Sure, there are a few oddball titles that switch things up a bit – like Turning Japanese or Synchronicity II – but in general the whole song list feels very similar from start to finish.

That being said, there are some great songs on here. As stated before, you get a lot of stuff from the likes of Ratt, Twisted Sister, White Lion and Extreme. But it’s tempered just a little bit with names like The Police, Eddie Money, The Go-Gos and Flock of Seagulls.

Caught in a Mosh

With the ridiculous amount of eccentric music that was considered “mainstream” back in the decade of decadence, it’s a shame Rocks the 80s sticks so closely to one main genre. Even more disappointing, though, is that the whole thing feels like a total cash-in; like the yearly iteration of a sports game that no one put any major effort into. With Harmonix moving on to their opus later this year in Rock Band, the Guitar Hero brand needs to stay strong…and this really isn’t the way to go about it.

Article by: Greg Sewart