There is one glaring omission in Warriors of Rock, namely, the fact that you are limited to only four players. The Beatles Rock Band, Green Day and the upcoming Rock Band 3 have support for two more vocalists using harmonies. There isn’t even the hint of anything like this in Warriors of Rock, though its been almost a year since this feature was first introduced. Mixing and matching instruments is nice, but having more players would be even nicer. And why exactly can’t we have drop in/drop out and difficulty changing on the fly in Quickplay+ and Quest mode? Surely such user friendly features could have been included somehow.
The new guitar for this version of Guitar Hero has been changed considerably. The electronics of the unit are all in the neck, so the bottom half is swappable. The touch-sensitive pad is gone, oddly, though there are touch pad sequences in the note charts. The guitar feels very much like the stalwart X-plorer from Guitar Hero 2, which was a fine piece of hardware.
Overall, I found Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock to be a mixed bag. Quest mode was mildly entertaining, but full of problems that got in the way of having fun. Quickplay+ is great, and easily the highlight of the package. I found the setlist to be a bit extreme for my tastes, coming from the perspective of a casual fan. Taken on its own, Warriors of Rock is a solid title, but with Rock Band 3’s major innovations just over the horizon, this latest Guitar Hero title seems rather lackluster, despite the large dose of heavy metal swagger.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Play as a band with friends in an all new "Quest mode" or quick play songs in traditional music game fashion. Supports drop-in/drop-out play.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.