In quick play, if you can't get past a song you picked, no worries. We are still working with a flat list, so getting around is just as tough here as it is in Rock Band, but you don't have the help of difficulty ratings (even flawed ones) to help you find what you're looking for. It's much nicer than picking in between every song, as it allow a smoother gaming flow. This is where it's at for the party game experience. Quickplay lets you select up to 6 songs to play back to back from all the music you've unlocked and downloaded. Let's get on to the quickplay and career modes. That about does it for the actual playing of the songs.
Personally I like the RB approach better. Again, it's all about what you are used to and what works better for you. This helps me keep track of timing much better and I don't lose the count as often when it gets super complicated. In both games, there are lines every eighth note, but in Rock Band, all the "and" lines are lighter. I want this on Rock Band 2.Īnother bit I don't like about the highway is that the timing lines are all the same shade in GHWT. If you are coming from GH3, you'll be fine, but it might take some getting used to if you've only played Rock Band games.ĭetailed stats. You can get a good sense of the differences on youtube, just search for "ghwt rb2" and you'll find lots of side by sides. For whatever reason it's easier for me to tell when a rectangle lines up inside a rectangle than when a circle lines up over a circle (or when a line passes through a bunch of circles). I will say that the flatter, rectangular notes in Rock Band are easier for me to follow visually though. Anand feels like you have to have more of an internal sense of timing, but I think it's more about what you are used to. On RB2, the highway is also slightly convex. The notes also have more "height" to them in GHWT, and this adds to the effect. The tilt and perspective are slightly different, meaning that as they come down toward you, the spacing of the notes is not exactly the same as on the RB series. The "highway" and the notes are a little different than in Rock Band (more like Guitar Hero 3). You kind of just have to hope it's there when you need it and that you didn't steal it from someone who needed it more. Again, the indicators are less than easy to read for all band members as they are the vacuum tubes above the failure indicator. As with Rock Band, there is an upper limit.
If you build up enough to do so, multiple band members can use star power at once. Once you collectively acquire enough, anyone can use it. Star power is shared between all band members.
There are indicators of how individual band members are performing under the overall meter, but these are impossible to read while playing and thus totally useless except maybe to the vocalist. Since you can't save individual people once they fail out, you have to keep the band in by playing better, which can be tough, especially if it's not clear when you are about to fail (failing can happen in a split second and seems much faster than Rock Band in the worst cases). It's harder to tell when you are about to fail as the little red yellow green meter is smaller and harder to see than the RB/RB2 failure indicator. Okay, so now that we know a little more about the instruments, the unique gameplay features of GHWT, and the songs, it's time to take a look at how it all comes together.įirst, the gameplay interface.