Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock VS Rock Band 3!

This may be late, but playing through both of these games got me thinking and then thought about how we haven’t got review from both WOR and RB3. Well here we have a comparison for the two!

Harmonix used to be a part of Guitar Hero. They helped create the first two Guitar Hero games until they wanted different things within the games. This then lead Harmonix to leave the Guitar Hero team and move along to create what we know as Rock Band. Now many people prefer one or the other and many would probably think that Guitar Hero would be the better option as they have never played any game from the Rock Band series. I have myself have encountered this in a few cases with people and it agitates me. Rock Band has aspects within the game that are better than Guitar Hero and admittedly; Guitar Hero has those that are better than Rock Band.

The latest offerings from both of theses makers are Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Rock Band 3. In these games they have taken steps further and a few steps back. Guitar Hero has moved back with the storyline; in the sense of their own characters taking over the storyline. It still has that feel that there is a God of Rock or in this case the ‘Demi-God’. All of the characters have their own special ability, which helps them gain more stars and the final missions. In comparison, Rock Band 3 has that same feel when accomplishing their Storyline’s. In fact when you look at it, they do not really have storylines, they are more in fact challenges for you to gain more fans and then get access into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame etc. This pretty much feels the same as the previous two games, with the exception of collecting spades for performing a specific requirement whiles playing through a set of chosen or random songs.

The gameplay is pretty much the same with both versions of the games. You have to hit a note that comes scrolling down on your fret board (strum if you on guitar, hit for drums and sing on the microphone with the right note and pitch). However Warriors of Rock does have the upper hand when it comes to playing Bass. They incorporated the ‘open note’, where you strum without holding any of the frets. This was used in previous games of Guitar Hero and it has surprised me that they have not used this yet in Rock Band 3; it would make songs a lot more challenging on that game. WOR also has the parts where you play one sustained note and then hit other notes while holding the sustained note down. I fell this brings more originality into the songs as it feels like you are strumming down on a real guitar. On the other hand Rock Band 3 has the new instrument, the keyboard, which asks you to hit notes with the keys on your keyboard or guitar if you have unlocked the keyboard mode on that. Rock Band 3 also has the Pro mode, which I will be talking about in the next paragraph.

When it comes to the instruments with the games, it seems like Guitar Hero didn’t want to add anything new. They have the songs and the instruments already made and it seems like they believed that this was good enough. I believe that this was the downfall for them when in comparison to Rock Band 3. RB3 brings in a few new instruments and modes. First off you have the keyboard, which finally allows players to play those long beginnings that the guitar or bass did not play. The only problem with this is that the keyboard only plays the ‘Keyboard’ mode with songs on RB3. There are songs on other games, which the keyboard would have been very useful on such as Boston’s ‘Foreplay/Long Time’ and Green Day’s ‘Viva La Gloria’.

Moving on from the keyboard you will notice the biggest change in the music game industry. The ‘Pro Mode’ allows players to play real notes that are played within a song such as on Pro Keyboard, which uses every note that the controller offers us instead of the standard five notes that players would have to usually hit. They also released a pro guitar with the game, which was and still is a bit pricey. This allows players to play the guitar and bass to any song, which incorporated the pro modes, and allowed them to play the song in to its full extent. There are also training modes for these, which allow the players to learn how to play a specific instrument, which helps if you are a beginner to any of the instruments mentioned before. I guess you could say it’s cheaper to buy and learn from this than getting lessons at a school! The drums have a small addition to them, which makes a slight difference to the set that Guitar Hero offer, which in this case is an extra symbol, which makes three symbols on the drums. These can only be used during the pro drums mode and gives a more professional and realistic feel to playing the instrument, as does the other pro instruments.

The song selections for both of these games both have their ups and downs. Of course, there would be no Guitar Hero or Rock Band without the metal selection, but there are a bit too much on the guitar hero side, which makes it tougher for those who want to at least try and be good at this game. Nonetheless it does bring a great challenge to the hardcore fans of the series. RB3 has wider variety of songs, ranging from Elton John to Avenged Sevenfold. The set list that they have chosen for this game seems to have accompanied the keyboard, with a few songs that do not hold the keyboard within the song. Both of these games are able to take in songs exported from the previous games, with a few songs not being allowed to accompany them, as they have not got the permission to do so. This being the case, Rock Band offers more songs to be exported than Guitar Hero does and it also allows players to download more songs for their library, as they have just recently passed the 3000-song mark, which is a very large sum.

Both games have the means of creating songs. However on Rock Band you cannot just create a song and then put it through to download. You must have the copyright to the song, and this means you can make songs that have lyrics in them. The downside to this, as already stated, is that you need the copyright to make the songs and it would seem that you would need the Rock Band team to already have the copyright before even venturing to create the tracks. I am not entirely sure on this situation as I have not made any or bought the software to do so. With the upper hand in this matter, WOR offers players to create any song they wish to, with the subtraction of vocals. This is due to copyright over lyrics and this would then cause a lot of chaos in the music industry. You can create you own tracks and submit them or people to download; who will then rate the song once they have finished. There are a few out there who are magnificent with what they have achieved on the Guitar Hero Track Maker and I would urge people to take a look at some of the tracks that have been made (Nyaan Cat is one of them!)

Overall both Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Rock Band 3 have their ups and their downs and each with their own loyal fans. I have played both obviously and have my own favourite, but I believe that you would not want to know this! In the end WOR offers their old school fans the opportunity to play through a story with their characters such as Judy Nails and RB3 offers a wider choice with challenges and wider library. It’s up to you to decide which is the best!