Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Review

Guitar Hero 6

Further updates include the introduction of new note-types and power-ups, plus the ability to select certain perks for your band to use based on who you’ve recruited into your band, but it’s all much of a muchness in all honesty. Focusing on the particular new additions would be like trying to judge an FPS just be looking at the weapons; it may be good that you’ve got two types of shotgun to choose from, but it doesn’t radically affect the entire experience.

What does affect the game as a whole is the tracklist, which is as middling as we’ve come to expect and highly dependant on individual tastes. Personally we like the inclusion of Blue Oyster Cult’s Burning for You, while loathing the entire of Rush’s 2112 album (which comprises a majority of the campaign mode).


One thing that did strike us though was that some songs had clearly been chosen based on reputation or image more than actual gameplay. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody makes an appearance, but is actually quite a dull level to play – you spend most of the time strumming bits that are meant to be played on a piano. The same is true with Muse’s Uprising, which is spectacularly dull. These songs are only included because that’s what people think guitar rock is.

Truth be told, it’s the less reputable songs which we found really made for the best levels – Third Eye Blind’s Graduate and REM’s Losing My Religion were early favourites, for example.

As is always the problem with the main Guitar Hero games, the tracklist is sadly schizophrenic. In attempting to appeal to rockers of all ages Warriors of Rock ends up only half-appealing to anyone. Linkin Park sits alongside Twisted Sister while Neil Young and Tom Petty are flanked by Dethklok and Slipknot. Worst of all, Nickleback shows up too.


There are plenty of classics though; Fascination Street by The Cure and Free Ride by Edgar Winter, for example. While the range of bands is somewhat unfocused, the tunes each one offers tend to be pretty good and there are only a handful of bands performing lesser-known hits.

Overall though, it’s hard to get too excited about Warriors of Rock because, as we said at the start, it’s exactly what you’d expect of a Guitar Hero game. It’s got a bunch of new features, but most of them are so miniscule so as to not be worth mentioning. It’s got new songs, but the selection is still as hit and miss as ever. The big focus for Activision this time has been building a solid campaign, but it’s really not all that exciting.

In the end, Warriors of Rock will have the same fate as every other game in the series – it will be played intensely for a week or two, then it’ll get pulled out only for parties and when you download a new pack of songs. It’ll be fun while it lasts, but don’t expect it to last longer than any of the other games in the series.

Score Guide