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Just when you thought you couldn't rock any harder...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Guitar Hero 2 is the single most funnest game to play! Now with the Co-Op mode you can rock out with friends and try to rise to stardom while one plays lead guitar and the other plays bass! All new songs makes for hours and hours of non-stop hardcore rockin'! Get ready to feel the burn in your hands because you will not be able to put this game down, a definite must buy!!

Fantastic Fun - a Must if you Love Rock Music

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved Guitar Hero. I thought it was fantastic. Guitar Hero II is even better! Great songs, great gameplay, quite addictive. A must buy :)

So first, how this game works. You have a special controller that looks like a guitar. If you have one from Guitar Hero (I), it will work so you won't have to buy another one. You get 5 buttons on the fret (the thin part on the left) and then a "push" toggle in the center of the guitar. So you're hammering down strings on the fretboard by pressing colored buttons, and you're "strumming" by pushing down on the toggle in the guitar's center. It's actually quite fun, although "real" guitar players have a fit because the notes are of course not in the right place and when they try to really play the song, it doesn't work properly.

But back to our fun air guitar playing :) They have a fantastic blend of songs on this. The intriguing part of any music game is finding songs that every single person likes. I imagine it's impossible. There are songs on here that I dislike that I'm sure other people love. Then again they have "Surrender" and "Message in a Bottle" which I find amazingly fun to play, which I'm sure some people hate with a passion. Hopefully there's a middle ground here!

The game moves you from club to club, and you have to pass 3 out of 4 songs at each club to move along. You go through some classic locations like the Rat Celler in Boston. You get to choose your character from a number of pre-sets (both male and female, hurrah!!) and even choose your guitar. The songs get trickier as you progress.

When you unlock songs in career mode you can then play them whenever you want in the casual playing mode both for one or two players. It's great fun to rock out with a friend with the music blasting!

Then there's always going back to get perfect scores - and increasing the difficulty to get to special songs that the Easy People can't see.

The graphics are pretty good - but really, when your fingers are flying and you're trying to push the buttons in super-fast-time (that's a musical term), how can you possibly even see what those on screen characters are doing in the background? That's more to entertain whoever is watching you. Still, I like that the audience waves lighters during the quiet parts of songs :)

If I have a complaint, it's the same complaint I had with the first one - that sometimes their prompts show up OVER THE FRET BOARD so you can't see what the upcoming notes are! Surely some of the testers must have realized this - or were the testers all so glazed at that point that they knew the songs by heart and weren't having to look at the screen?

Still, it's a minor issue. Definitely a game to get, that is great fun for anybody who loves rock music!

Here are the songs you begin with, to whet your appetite!

Shout at the Devil / Mother / Surrender / Woman / Strutter / Heart-Shaped Box / Message in a Bottle / You Really Got Me / Monkey Wrench / Them Bones / Search and Destroy / Tattooed Love Boys / Cherry Pie / Who Was In My Room Last Night? / Girlfriend / Can't You Hear Me Knockin'

Bruised My Knee On Guitar Hero Spree

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As an avid fan of the original, it is no surprise that Guitar Hero II swept me from under my feet (almost literally) and took me in for a ride... again. For anyone who knows a hint of what this game is about, stop reading, go buy it, and enjoy the three hours of gameplay you'll be sucked into at first play.

Guitar Hero's offspring works in the same way as before, only now you can set up a band with co-op play involving lead, bass, or rhythm and the audience can demand an encore. There's plenty more here, but for the most part, those are the areas that will have any fan rolling over, Beethoven.

Bands, from yesterday, today, and tomorrow, have all taken part now in this exciting and entertaining title. They'd be stupid not to. Even the unknown tracks are fun to "jam" along to, while most staying in your head soon afterwards too.

From playing as Slash from Guns N'Roses on "Sweet Child of Mine" to trying to emulate Paul Stanley of KISS during the equally fun, "Strutter", it's everyone's dream... but in reality. There aren't too many games that offer that, to be honest with you, and while Guitar Hero II has it's share of lame duck songs, there are too many classics here that complaining is just uncivilized.

What else?

Nothing really. Guitar Hero II was everything I expected and more of the same greatness that made the original so promising. If anyone is ever bored on a rainy day or a Friday night with no parties, concerts, or new opening movies... this is your night right here.

A representative told me at EB Games that an XBOX 360 version is to debut where you can actually buy and upload more songs to the system. As tempting as that sounds, I kind of like the forty song soundtrack. It lets you limit yourself and maybe be excited for what else the makers of the game have under their sleeve.

Who knows? I'll probably be there opening day to buy my bundle for XBOX 360. Anyway, for now, this is your best bet for all around the greatest gameplay as of now.

Dirty Pool from Red Octane

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 34
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In case you haven't heard, RedOctane, the makers of this game, are suing The Ant Commandos, maker of the Wireless Freedom V Guitar Controller, for marketing a guitar controller to compete with RedOctane's own. Why is this important to my review?

Because I was unable to play Guitar Hero II as a result of Red Octane's dirty pool. For this game, they changed how signals from the guitar controller are interpreted by the game. . .making the Wireless Freedom V completely nonfunctional. If you have purchased the Freedom V and like to rock out with your wireless guitar, you're out of luck in playing this game. . .that controller doesn't work.

Because RedOctane's own SG Controller feels cheap and flimsy (the one I bought with the first Guitar Hero shattered in my hands), I swear by my Freedom V. So much, in fact, that I choose my Freedom V over Guitar Hero II.

RedOctane's smarmy little legal battle cost them my business. If you like your Freedom V, hate to say it but you'll need to avoid this game.

Rent before you buy if you played the original.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What happened to the sound in this game? Heavy majority of the songs sound like they were recorded thru a wall. The sound is far inferior to the one provided in the original game. Whereas the original sound was clean, crisp and bold (especially in Godzilla), this game's sound is muffled significantly; game has numerous tracks that you can barely distinguish the guitar from the singer. No matter what I did to my stereo system, I could not get the game to sound right. Furthermore, what happened to quality of the covers? Some of these are absolutely bad; definitely below the quality produced by Harmonix in the first game. The only redeeming quality is that the song list is good and graphics are improved. Rent before you buy... overall I'm disappointed after paying full price. IF this was $20 game, the rating would be better.

Absolutely awesome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you played the original, you'll love this one! Coop mode is off the hook! Definately a must have for any PS2 collection.

Great improvements

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Picked this up this morning, and I'm pretty impressed. I was a big fan of the last one, and this one has some nice improvements over the last one.

Most notably, you can finally play two player on two different levels of difficulty. Being able to let a beginner strum out the basics while you play on expert is definitely the feature I wanted to see the most.

This is a great game for parties, and the additional songs are all lots of fun. It was also a great choice to add Thunderhorse (Skwisgaar is a god).

Good stuff. If you like this, check out the original guitar hero and taiko drum master. Both are also great.

Even better than the first

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Why do I think this game is even better than the already fantastic first release? Well....there's several reasons. The main reason is the song list is larger. You must complete 40 songs to beat the game; the prior version you only had to complete 30. Another very cool feature is the Practice mode. I've played guitar for years (albeit poorly) and whenever I've been trying to learn a tough section of a song, I always learned to play those parts by playing the tough version over and over at a slower tempo. After a while you're able to pick up speed and nail the portion you had trouble with. You can now do the same thing in GH2. Fans of the original version will remember how hard it was to complete "Cowboys from Hell" or "Bark at the Moon" becuase you couldn't practice the songs at a slower tempo. Well, you can practice everything in GH2 and it will make you a better player. It even has a metronome clicking so you can make sure to stay "on the beat."

I can't wait to get together with some friends so I can try out the new versus modes. Even without the versus modes the added songs, practice mode and new three-finger chords make the game a must-buy for anyone who liked the original. Plus, I totally disagree with one of the other reviewers that said the sound is muddy. I honestly believe the sound is higher quality than the original.

Not quite what I would've hoped for...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: November 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I agree with the concerns over the sound quality, it's very poor. Everything just seems muddled together. I didn't know a lot of these songs going in and I wish I still didn't. I loved the sound track for the first game, it's what made it, but this go around the listing is sub par, much like how Amplitude was the Frequency (other harmonix titles). Better gameplay than the first, but there are so many songs that I pray I get a five star the first time because I don't want to hear that song again. War Pigs? Whoever decided to put that song in the game should have their college degree revoked. The last game already had two Ozzie tracks and this one has no guitar through half the song. And while I love Kansas, half of Carry on My Wayward Son is non-guitar as well. I guess this game is good, but it's very bitter sweet because of the songs (though kudo's for including some Alice in Chains and Shadows Fall). Something about it doesn't have that same good feel to it like the last.

Rawk.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: November 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Guitar Hero was something of a sleeper hit last year. Developer RedOctane delivered an excellent rhythm game that played quite unlike any other console game with its guitar controller and deep list of playable songs. Despite its pricey package, Guitar Hero sold and became a quick hit, garnering almost as much gaming media attention as 2005 classics like God Of War and Resident Evil 4. RedOctane's readied up Guitar Hero 2, and does the series continue to deliver a deep experience or is it a one-hit wonder?

Without a question, Guitar Hero 2 is better than its predecessor in most ways, though the gameplay mechanics haven't changed much at all. The guitar controller, bundled with either Guitar Hero or Guitar Hero 2, works as well as always. The notes in each song are played by holding one of five colored frets on the guitar while strumming the controller's strum bar. There's even a whammy bar for those distorted, drawn-out notes. If you've played Guitar Hero, you'll feel right at home with the controller. It's no surprise, this guitar wasn't broken and RedOctane didn't need to fix a darn thing.

There are a few new things added to the mix. Three-string notes will pop up on the Hard and Extreme difficulties and can really throw you off. Also, hammer-ons, which weren't very effective in Guitar Hero, are done much better here. The result is a perfectly improved experience, with little to no frustrations coming from the controller itself. Guitar Hero's a lot like golf; the only person you can blame for not doing well is yourself. Also like golf, the only way to get better at the game is to practice. Fortunately, Guitar Hero 2 has an extensive practice mode that actually lets you pinpoint individual sections in songs, slow them down, and practice them until you can't miss a beat. I'll quote my roommate Alan, "Practice mode actually makes you better."

The track list is something most Guitar Hero fans have become familiar with, even weeks before the game's release, but those of you in the dark will be happy to know that top rock artists like Foo Fighters ("Monkey Wrench"), Nirvana ("Heart-Shaped Box"), and Black Sabbath ("War Pigs") make an appearance. Some older groups are also there, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, with the 9+ minutes of guitar solo pain in "Free Bird." I was very happy to see some metal bands thrown into the mix, like Avenged Sevenfold, Shadows Fall, and Lamb Of God, but RedOctane earned the most bonus points in my book by including All That Remains' "Six" as an unlockable song. It's a current favorite of mine, after all, and it almost made my hands bleed when I kicked up the difficulty to Hard and tried to play it. The different levels of songs are unlocked in the familiar career mode, and it's as fun as always to earn money, unlock secret songs, outfits, and characters, and go for those difficult five-star reviews.

I have to admit that Guitar Hero 2 is noticeably harder than the original. The reason for this isn't because of the notes themselves, in fact, some of the songs are incredibly easy. Most of the difficulty comes from brutally long songs that require a lot of stamina. As I said, "Free Bird" is over 9 minutes long-that's asking a lot of your left hand for the frets and right hand for the strumming. While I'll admit I play the game on the Normal difficulty setting, I've tried a large amount of the songs on Hard and I've only beaten a few. "Free Bird" on a higher difficulty setting is just obscenely difficult.

Guitar Hero didn't really wow anyone with an explosive visual performance but it did have a wild art style and decently interesting environments to play in. This time around the background camera angles get a little closer to your player, allowing you to see him strum on his virtual guitar while you shred away on your controller. Some of the visual effects light up the screen and add a nice touch, like the fire effects that come from your player's hands as he strums on-screen. The environments deform and change in appearance during Encores, and the final shape-shifting venue was particularly interesting. The re-recordings are hit ("War Pigs", "Free Bird") and miss ("Beast And The Harlot"); but this isn't surprising to me. The same thing happened last year, and I'd be happy to see the actual recordings make it around for Guitar Hero 3. I'm very happy to report that RedOctane input an option that allows you to turn off that annoying scratching noise that occurs whenever you screw up a note-this sound effect was extremely distracting in Guitar Hero and it can be silenced once and for all in the sequel. I usually know when I screwed up a note, I don't need an annoying sound to rub it in

Guitar Hero 2 does nothing to change its predecessor's direction. It's essentially a fine-tuned update to last year's hit, and that's just fine with me. If you as much as watched someone else play the original, you simply can't miss out on the sequel. If last year's "Bark At The Moon" and "Cowboys From Hell" weren't enough for you, "Free Bird" will be. I referenced "Free Bird" five times throughout this review; if nothing else, play this game just for a hands-on experience with this classic. The only improvements I could suggest would be to include the real song recordings. Guitar Hero is one of those games that doesn't ever really need to be reinvented. That's not to say that something couldn't be done to make it even more fun, but even after all of the hand cramps, there's nothing I could think of.

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