Amazon.com: Guitar Hero 2 Bundle with Guitar: Playstation 2: Video Games

260 Reviews

5 star:		(179)
4 star:		(64)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (260 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

237 of 248 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great game, but lacking in some areas., November 12, 2006

By	Steven (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

Guitar Hero 2 is a fine sequel to the original but there are some areas of the game that could have used a bit more polishing. Lets break it down...

In case you aren't familiar with the Guitar Hero series i'll provide a brief description of how the game plays.

First, if you don't have the first Guitar Hero then make sure you get the bundle package with the guitar. Although the game can be played with the dualshock controller you will find it MUCH more entertaining if you play with the guitar.

This game is played by strumming notes at the correct time as they come streaming down a fret board. You strum the notes by moving the "strum bar" either up or down. On the neck of the guitar are five buttons. You must hold the correct buttons and strum at the correct time in order to successfully hit the notes. You can perform hammer-ons and pull-offs on certain notes to make it a bit easier (once you get the hang of it... it takes practice). Some notes can be held. There is a visual indicator that shows which notes can be held. You can use the whammy bar on these notes for cool whammy effects. There is a rock meter that has a red, yellow and green section. If you are doing good you will stay in the green section but the more notes you miss the further down you go in the rock meter. If you continue to mess up then it's game over. Star shaped notes provide "star power" if successfully played. Star power doubles your multiplier (8X max with star power, 4X without) and also makes it much easier to bring your rock meter back into the green zone. To active star power you lift your guitar vertically in the air (or press the select button on the guitar).

The meat if this game is in the career section. This is when your band goes on tour around the states and plays in various venues. You get money by beating songs. You are ranked on how well you performed. You get anywhere from 3 stars to 5 stars depending on how well you did. The more stars you get - the more money you get. You can buy new guitars, characters, guitar finishes, songs and videos. In Guitar hero 2 there are a total of 64 songs. 40 licensed songs and 24 songs from various bands that haven't made it big yet.

Guitar Hero 2 does provide the insane gameplay very similar to the original. Some of the songs are real gems, but there are others that just aren't as memorable is the original (this is an opinion though). I believe the original Guitar Hero had a stronger song list. Also, the cover bands that did the songs in Guitar Hero 2 aren't quite as good (still very good though!). Some songs like "Mother" by Danzig just don't have that powerful heavy metal feel like the original has. It feels a bit empty. Most songs are quite good instrumentally but the singing can get a bit iffy - but this is rare. Typically the singing is quite good.

There are two big improvements in this game. First is the cooperative mode which is a two player mode that allows one player to play the lead guitar and the other player to play either the bass or the rhythm guitar (depending on the song). One nice feature is that each player gets to set their difficulty level. The other major improvement is the practice mode which lets you practice sections of a song that you are having problems with. You can practice at normal speed, slow, slower and slowest. This is a feature that most people wished for in the original. Three button chords are new in this game (the original had two button chords) which ramps up the difficulty quite a bit. Hammer-ons and pull-offs are a bit easier to nail in this game which is VERY good.

Even though this game is an improvement over the original as far as features go, it could have used a bit more polish. First, most people agree that the song selection is iffy (I don't believe this, I just feel the songs in the first guitar hero are a little bit more memorable). This is an opinion however so I wont consider that. Although the practice mode is great to have it could have been done a bit better. My main complaint here is that there is no way to loop through the area you are practicing. You set your section(s) that you want to practice, set your speed, play it and once your done you have to go through the loading process again. This makes practicing tough areas a bit cumbersome. It would have been very nice to have the ability to continuously loop through the desired section. Even changing the speed causes a reload. Complaints aside, just having a practice mode is great. Another feature that would be nice is the ability to play through the game in cooperative mode. In this mode you can only play the songs that are unlocked through the single player career mode. It would have been cool to have a cooperative career mode. Not having the cooperative career will not affect the review though because just having the cooperative mode is very cool.

Although the game is great it does tend to feel like more of the same. This isn't all that bad because the game is just so fun but it would have been neat if they changed the gameplay a little bit more. Three button chords are new but it would have been cool if they did something like open notes (strumming without holding a button) to change the feel a little bit more. The difficulty level is just right. It's easy enough for those of us new to the series but on the harder difficulty levels it's quite a bit more challenging then the original which is good for us Guitar Hero veterans. They hit the middle ground just right. If you are a veteran that wants challenge the rest assured that challenge lies ahead in this game.

Overall I still highly recommend this game. Despite the issues listed above it's still a great game that will keep you addicted for many hours, especially with the new cooperative mode. I hope that if Harmonix plans to release another game that they change the gameplay a bit more to keep the veterans interest. Rock on.

Comment Comments (4) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guitar Hero Totally Rocks!, December 4, 2006

By	Mom of Sons (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

We gave my son Guitar Hero II for his 11th birthday. He and my 15-year-old son both absolutely love it. So did my sons' 11- and 12-year-old friends at his birthday party. HUGE hit, they played for hours. The guitar is the controller, but you can also use PS2 controllers to play the game; some kids did that to play the bass track while someone else was playing the guitar. The player progresses from easy to hard and gets the chance to "win" fancier guitars, choose the name of his band, etc. It's creative and it's not violent, which is getting rare for video games that appeal to older teenagers. We may get another guitar for this game. Can I give it 6 stars???

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complaints about the song list?????, November 15, 2006

By	Ink (NY) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

This game is great, it is so much fun. I have nothing to compare this too because I never had a chance to play the first one. There is a funny thing happening here though, a lot of the reviewers are complaining that the songs are obscure and no one knows them, I completely disagree, the list is phenomonal I never expected them to get so many copyrighted songs on here. I am going to provide a list of the songs so everyone can check it out for them selves rather than have some kids who bitch because they dont know the classics (note: I am in no way calling all these songs classics, for example Avenged Sevenfold I personally think suck and shouldnt be on this game but hey the guitarist can throw together a slick solo).

1. Opening Licks

"Shout at the Devil" - M�tley Cr�e
"Mother" - Danzig
"Surrender" - Cheap Trick
"Woman" - Wolfmother
"Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" - Spnal Tap

2. Amp-Warmers

"Strutter" - KISS
"Heart-Shaped Box" - Nirvana
"Message in a Bottle" - The Police
"You Really Got Me" - Van Halen
"Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas

3. String-Snappers

"Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters
"Them Bones" - Alice in Chains
"Search and Destroy" - Iggy Pop and The Stooges
"Tattooed Love Boys" - The Pretenders
"War Pigs" - Black Sabbath

4. Thrash and Burn

"Cherry Pie" - Warrant
"Who Was in My Room Last Night?" - Butthole Surfers
"Girlfriend" - Matthew Sweet
"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" - The Rolling Stones
"Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns N' Roses

5. Return of the Shred

"Killing in the Name" - Rage Against the Machine
"John the Fisherman" - Primus
"Freya" - The Sword
"Bad Reputation" - Thin Lizzy
"Last Child" - Aerosmith

6. Relentless Riffs

"Crazy on You" - Heart
"Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart" - Stone Temple Pilots
"Rock This Town" - Stray Cats
"Jessica" - The Allman Brothers Band
"Stop!" - Jane's Addiction

7. Furious Fretwork

"Madhouse" - Anthrax
"Carry Me Home" - The Living End
"Laid to Rest" - Lamb of God
"Psychobilly Freakout" - The Reverend Horton Heat
"YYZ" - Rush

8. Face-Melters

"Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold
"Institutionalized" - Suicidal Tendencies
"Misirlou" - Dick Dale
"Hangar 18" - Megadeth
"Free Bird" - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Now go buy your sweet plastic axe and Rock Out!