While most people on the internet cry wolf at Guitar Hero 4's gameplay because "HURR DURR THEY R COYPIN ROCK BADN!!", I'm welcome to give it the benefit of the doubt. Developer fanboyism is retardedly worse than console fanboyism, mostly because it goes unnoticed by the majority of the internet's occupants. Probably because they're the ones doing it, but whatever, that's another story. My point is that I can accept that GH4 might be good. We just don't know yet. Looking at the screenshots, it definitely looks like Rock Band, and Rock Band was an awesome game. It was also monstrously hard.
See, while they promoted it as a community-based game, spending more time on gathering points together than competing against one another, it was hard. Well, the drums were hard, and that was the game's mass appeal. We've all sung before in games (Right...
RIGHT?!), and we've all achieved rock stardom with our plastic accessories. The drumming was Rock Band's icing on it's moist, sweet double chocolate cake. The Rock Band drums were no joke. Like the first time you got to Hard in Guitar Hero and realized you actually had to move your hand. Even on Easy I had trouble at the start, getting used to that flimsy bass pedal and wave after wave of notes. There's no "You only have to use 3 notes in this difficulty" for drums. No, you're left with 4 pads, a pedal and a shitstorm of red, blue, green and yellow.
So why is this a bad thing for Guitar Hero 4? Well, traditionally, Guitar Hero has had a moniker of being a hard game. Scratch that. It's masochistic, it's demanding, it's time-consuming, and it doesn't take shit from anyone. While most of us play Rock Band for the enjoyment of even finishing a song, Guitar Hero is known for the challenge. The excessive note tabs, even if the note isn't in the goddamn song. Thanks to sites like Scorehero, communities gather to show off their e-peens and tell all how they FC'd that song you couldn't even pass on Hard. Now imagine this, except for drums.
Yeah...
I'm not saying it will be like that, because I'd like to think Neversoft have the sense not to kill their demographic by exaustion from playing a video game. But looking at the franchise's library, it's a definite possibility. And while this might excite some gamers, those of us looking for a quick thrill and some 4-piece band fun might have to look elsewhere. Of course there's always the easier difficulties. But if Rock Band drums on Easy were difficult enough, I can only think what Guitar Hero 4's will be like.
What I'm really curious to find out is how Rock Band have adjusted the difficulty curve (Or even if they have). After playing Easy and Medium on drums, there's not too much difference between the two. It mostly seems to be a faster fill every 4 or so notes, and maybe more bass pedal notes. Knowing Guitar Hero 4 is in the mix, and given their reputation of being a "hard" game, I'd be surprised if they didn't lower the difficulty to attract the more casual crowd. To me the guitar difficulty in Rock Band was perfect. A great mix of beginner's slowly learning the ropes to the Guitar Hero ex's jumping straight into Expert that stays true to the song it's tabbing and doesn't go overboard. I'd like to think Rock Band 2 will do this for drums too, but who knows. I guess we'll all have to wait to see what happens.
Kif 's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
But maybe it doesn't work that way with everyone, which is one reason Harmonix put in the much more expansive drum trainer, which should make starting out a little easier.
The only feature that makes me wanting Guitar Hero 4 is the song making thing. Not that I'd be any good at it, but it'd be interesting too see what kind of instrumental tracks people can put in there... Black Mages anyone? Contra soundtrack?
GH4 will be successful because of the song creator. The sheer AMOUNT of classic gaming tunes that people will recreate with this feature has my pants tightening. Who needs vocals when all you're emulating are beeps and boops?
Mega Man, Zelda, and of course Mario...all are going to blow your minds this fall.
I thought that would be obvious.
Anyway, the easier difficulties will probably be fine for GHWT. They're even going to have a beginner difficulty, which just uses a single pad or just the pedal. The biggest problem with GHIII was the huge jump between medium and hard, so even if we assumed that Neversoft hasn't learned to make a smoother learning curve, the problem will probably be with people being either really bored on one difficulty or being completely overwhelmed on the next higher one.
The drums as an instrument will be much harder to change in GH:WT simply because they are the core of the rhythm section. By adding in extra notes you change the beat and/or rhythm of the song which would completely change the song. Hopefully Neversoft are smart enough to realize this.
Also I saw an interview with Travis Barker who's a boss character about GH:WT and he said he asked Neversoft if he played the game on expert drums would he be playing what the actual drummer in real life would be playing and they said yes.