Guitar Hero World Tour is finally out of our PS3, but usurped only by another guitar game, namely Rock Band 2.
A lot of people prefer the Rock Band games to the Guitar Hero ones, but after a week or so of playing Rock Band 2, I have to say that they’re very similar in quality.
For example, Guitar Hero WT has better song-playing statistics at the end of each song. It also displays song high scores per difficulty level and clearly indicates songs that have been played perfectly, using gold stars. Rock Band 2, on the other hand, notes only the highest score attained for a song at any difficulty level and doesn’t indicate which songs have been played perfectly.
Guitar Hero WT is also harder than Rock Band 2 at any given skill level. Where the two titles have an overlapping track listing, those songs are easier to play at, say, medium difficulty in Rock Band 2 than in Guitar Hero WT.
Guitar Hero WT also looks better than Rock Band 2. The characters have more detail and the player has even greater control over the design and clothing of his character. Rock Band 2 is by no means bad in either area, but Guitar Hero WT is definitely its superior here.
Where Rock Band 2 scores better is in the area of downloadable content, or DLC as it’s commonly known. Simply put, there’s a lot more of it, and it’s even possible to import songs from the original Rock Band title into Rock Band 2.
To do this, one simply installs the latest Rock Band patch, which adds the export feature to the game. Then, one visits the on-line PlayStation Store to purchase an export key for €3, the proceeds from which are licence fees due for the use of the songs in the game’s sequel.
With the export key purchased, you export the songs and then simply slip the Rock Band 2 disc back in the drive. Almost all of the songs from Rock Band are now available in Rock Band 2.
The actual game play is quite similar in both titles, with just a few conspicuous differences. For example, Rock Band 2 allows freestyle guitar playing at the end of some songs, similar to the drum fills allowed in Guitar Hero WT. The addition of this feature for the guitar is a welcome bonus.
Career mode from Guitar Hero WT is known as Tour mode in Rock Band 2. It’s similar in idea, but the execution is slightly different, in that there are single song sets and mystery set lists, where the songs are basically chosen at random. It’s also impossible to change the difficulty level halfway through a set in Rock Band 2, which can lead to the unpleasant discovery that one is unable to finish a multi-song set at the current level. This results in having to abandon the gig, resulting in the forfeiture of a few thousand fans.
That brings me to another difference. One plays just for money in Guitar Hero WT, but one plays for money and fans in Rock Band 2. The notion of playing gigs in different venues, cities and countries has also been enhanced by the ability to unlock vans and planes, which carry one away from one’s home town to other cities, then countries and eventually continents. On the way, one can hire staff, such as managers and promoters, although it’s unclear to me what effect these actually have on the game.
There are many other differences, such as in the on-line play against remote players, but in the final analysis, I consider both games pretty much equal in terms of the gaming experience that they offer. It’s even hard to pick a winner as far as the track list is concerned, because many tracks that are fun to play aren’t ones you would necessarily choose to listen to.
Eloïse seems to prefer Guitar Hero WT, though, as she’s forever telling me to play “Ozzybourne”, necessitating a change of disc in order to keep her happy. It’s a shame the songs aren’t interchangeable between games, but as I mentioned above, Guitar Hero WT can’t even play the songs from earlier games in the GH series.
So, my Guitar Hero WT ranking has pretty much stalled while I now plough my way through the tour mode of Rock Band 2. It remains to be seen whether I will then find myself coming back to one title more than the other. In the end, the tiebreaker may just turn out to be the track listing.