f you didn’t get enough Guitar Hero World Tour information in our exclusive June issue of Game Informer, we have more details coming your way today. We recently had a chance to get an even closer peek at the ever-evolving game during Activision and RedOctane’s preview day. Unfortunately, we are not able to post any photos or videos from the event yet, so you will just have to trust us – we liked what we saw. Check out our laundry list of new World Tour details below.
The Basics
Unless you have been living under a rock, you already know that Guitar Hero World Tour is upgrading to a multi-instrument music experience – adding drums and a microphone to appeal to the full spectrum of budding rock stars.
World Tour will feature five career modes: guitar, bass, vocal, drum and band. The career modes no longer force you to move in a linear progression, you can play through the game as you choose. You can even choose to dumb down a gig in order to pass it for the time being, or skip it completely and come back when you are better prepared. RedOctane revealed that World Tour will include hidden milestones inspired by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Distributed in the form of cash – players will be rewarded for progressing through the game, no matter what difficulty they are playing on. Quickplay gigs are also a new feature, allowing you and your band to jam with up to six songs in a row, each played in succession.
The standard four difficulty settings are back – easy, medium, hard, and expert – and a new beginner setting has been added. RedOctane explained that the beginner setting will require little other than a basic understanding of timing and rhythm, and was included as a way to appeal to young kids and moms.
Battle will return in the form of online matches, and career mode boss fights have been modified to a call and response format instead of the more aggressive battles from Guitar Hero III. World Tour will launch with around 85 songs, all master tracks from what has been promised to be a roster full of A-listers. Several of these new tracks were revealed to us, including “Santeria” by Sublime, “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol and “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters. Undisclosed music by Linkin Park, The Eagles and Van Halen can also be expected.
The Instruments
Now that we have the basics down, it’s time to move on to the instruments. While the drum and the microphone were already revealed to the public, the guitar has remained a mystery until now.
The guitar prototype used at the demonstration did not look much different at first. It is still equipped with an accelerometer, fret buttons and a whammy bar – but that is where the similarity ends. A larger, back/select button has been included to more successfully activate star power, and the whammy bar has been elongated for convenience sake. Without a doubt, the highlight of the presentation was the reveal of a touch slider – which opens up an entirely new level of personalization in play. The slider, directly beneath the fret buttons, can be tapped to mimic palm-muted notes as well as rubbed to modify sustains. Seeing the addition in use was exciting, and because it is not required to play, it keeps the game accessible to all skill levels. Awesomeness aside, we are not going to lie – sliding one finger up and down the neck of the guitar can look goofy at times. Who cares though, you have to have a thick skin to be a rock star.
The wireless drum set – complete with elevated cymbals – plays like a real drum kit. The use of silicone in the pads not only helps the set be a bit quieter than its competition, but the resulting bounce adds another level of realism to the experience. The drums are velocity sensitive, which allows for expressive drumming. In the demo we were told that the sensitive pads would change gameplay, requiring players to hit harder when cued by armored notes.
The microphone is what you would expect it to be – a standard microphone. The Guitar Hero team did disclose that they added a bit of heft to the final model, to make it feel a bit more real. Unfortunately, at this point the microphone is corded, unlike the other World Tour instruments.
RedOctane confirmed that previous Guitar Hero peripherals are compatible with World Tour, but because of the addition of the touch slider, small levels of functionality will be lost.
Because Guitar Hero recently severed its relationship with Gibson – due to a copyright infringement allegation on the guitar manufacturer’s part – you can now customize all your in-game instruments to an unprecedented level. The system is user friendly enough to appeal to the masses, but has a level of complexity more than satisfying for any guitar enthusiast. With the guitar and bass you can adjust the shape, finish, color, fret board inlay, headstock, hardware, knobs – and even the type of strings.
Drums can be customized with almost as many features, and can even be topped off with your band logo front and center. The microphone is not ignored, allowing for adjustments to the size, color and stand details.