Game Info

Publisher: Red Octane

Developer: Harmonix

Platform:  PS2

Genre(s): Music

Players: 2

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 7, 2005


Intro:
The intro to the first game in the franchise is pretty simple. The sound of a slide across guitar strings and visuals of real players tuning their guitars and turning up their amps gives way to the load screen. Players are prompted to choose a band name and then a rocker.   A mini-tutorial of the controls is shown and an image of an old guy holding his ears is the space-keeper for all load pages.  It is obvious that Red Octane and Harmonix kept the player in mind here.  There is nothing unnecessary keeping the player from loading and playing this game quickly.

Getting Going:
Pick a rocker, choose a guitar, choose from career mode or quick play, choose your comfort level and then choose from a short list of five songs.  It's pretty basic, but it gets the player making decisions right away and that is also a part of play.

Fun:
This game, obviously, has been considered fun by many and has become a huge franchise which has started to finally die down.  It tackles one fantasy of both males and females, pretending to play guitar and wanting to play music.  It feeds into our need to drum on desks and tables even though this first game is only about the guitar.  It feeds on the air guitar phenomenon.  It's completely immersive.  Of course, it's fun. 

Visuals:
There are a lot of visuals here, more than the player can take in.  The PC has animations all during the show, as do the rest of the band members and some of the audience.  In some venues, there are background venue visuals, as well.  In addition, the PC has special moves for power-ups.  The scrolling screen is a visual all it's own with notes, special notes, Power-Up animations on the bar, and the exploding notes as you hit them.  A HUD on the right lets the player know how they're doing and is animated in perpetual motion.  The HUD is themed to fit the game as are all background visuals.  Guitar Hero is a perfect party game and it is clear that this was the intent of Harmonix while creating the background animations.  The player can't really see them, but their friends can while waiting to play.

Sound:
Obviously, this is a game that is all about sound. If you turn the sound off, the game becomes nearly impossible to play well, which is astounding considering that this is really basically a pattern-matching game with sound. The recordings are amazing, sounding just like the original bands.  There are special sound effects for errors and, of course, the sounds of the crowds cheering you on or booing when you're bad.  The only outstanding problem is with play in the lower levels.  Players hear many more notes and a different rhythm than is being played.  As stated previously, since the pattern matching is so dependent on the sounds you hear, this actually makes playing on lower levels harder, at least once you gain some degree of aptitude in the game.

Intelligence:
This game is completely based on timing and pattern-matching and instantly recognizes when a mistake is made.  Players lose multipliers they've been gaining, hear the failed note sound and, if they're playing really poorly, begin to hear audience response.  Feedback is instant and constant. 

Immersion:
With all of it's sights and sounds and the rapid, continual march of notes across the screen, it is nearly impossible not to become immersed in gameplay.  Sometimes you get into the song and find yourself moving with the play or tapping a foot.  Sometimes, as in Tetris, you find yourself in a zone and the notes slip by effortlessly.  Either way, you're immersed in the experience of Guitar Hero.  Also, while there is a player character, gameplay is actually played in first-person mode.

Rewards and Punishments:
Guitar Hero's rewards and punishment system seemed unique to me, while being apparent and plentiful.  Players earn multipliers, Power-Ups, applause, a meter showing ability, a cheering and guitar-smashing PC animation and feedback including a press release.  The press release gives a star score, your longest note streak, and a nice headline.  Completing a set unlocks new sets and new venues.  It also earns the player sponsorship which equals extra cash.  Cash can be used to buy new characters, songs, guitars, skins, etc.  If you are not playing well, a sound effect marks each missed note.  Missing a long note causes the audience to "awww".  Repeated missed notes cause the meter to begin dropping.  The same press release seen for a great score shows your lower star score and reflects in the headline and note streaks.  A failed song gives the player a sad animation and boos from the crowd, while the game prompts the player to try again. 

Win-Lose State:
There isn't a real win state.  The sense of accomplishment of completing all of the songs and the abundant awards is the win state.  For completionists, there is always the option of 5-starring every song on every level.  What struck me positively is the lose state in Guitar Hero, because it allows the player to save face.  Player characters occasionally seem to blame their guitar for their failure.  They hang their head in shame.  And then, the game prompts you to try again.  The game doesn't say "you failed"; it says "song failed".  It even tells the player how far they got.  When a player is struggling with a song, this alone can be encouraging feedback.  At least you know when you're making progress.  At every turn, Guitar Hero continues to empower the player, even when they are not playing successfully.

Cameras:
Basically, there are none.  You don't have control of the game visuals.  There's no time, so it's not a problem.

Controls:
Occasionally, the guitar would slip into a Power-Up without me lifting it.  Occasionally, it would fail to go into a Power-Up when I wanted it to.  Sometimes, attempting to go into Power-Up caused me to miss a note I was sure I'd hit.  There are, however, a lot of options to master here.  There is the aforementioned Power-Up, the whammy bar, the buttons, strum bar, and the hammer-ons and pull-offs abilities.  All of this gives the player more control and more ways to become more adept at gameplay.  I've always found myself squeezing just a bit too hard on the neck of the guitar and on the buttons when a light touch is so obviously the key to success.  It's a personal problem, not a controller problem.

Ideas:
Evaluating this game as a designer gave me an incredible amount of surprising insight.  It would seem that Guitar Hero, with it's pattern-matching and it's ability to put a player into a zone similar to play found in Tetris, might be a good option for warding off early signs of dementia and Alzheimer's.  Guitar Hero empowers the player.  As play progresses, skills improve.  Players move from exclamations of "I SURVIVED!" into a lasting sense of artistry and accomplishment.  The skills mastered in lower levels are taken up to the next level.  This gives a whole new meaning to the term "leveling up".  It is quite literally the player who is leveling up.  In addition, there are skills that some players master while other players never do as is the case with hammer-ons and pull-offs.  While playing, I decided to look more into rewards and punishments as well as win and lose states in the games I'm evaluating.  I will definitely keep in mind the liberal use of feedback in rewards and punishment, as well as the player-empowering utilization of the win-lose state in my personal game designs.

Memory:
I have four Guitar Hero games on my Top 100 list, so I purposely steered clear of playing any of these games for quite some time.  I hadn't played Guitar Hero I or II in a year.  I have never played the other two on the list, even though I do currently own the first four games in the series.  One would have to be living under a rock if they had never at least tried a Guitar Hero game. It was difficult, at times, to stay away.  Hearing some of the songs on the radio would make me want to play all over again.  That being said, picking up a guitar again was easy.  The skills you learn don't leave you.  I played easily through solos and intros that I remember struggling with when I first played.  I have since mastered them and playing now was a breeze.  I don't know what would make me part with any of my Guitar Hero games; I'm sure I'll be dusting them off and playing again for years to come.