Gameplay in
Guitar Hero 5 is similar to previous games in the series. Using a special
game controller, players attempt to match scrolling notes as they appear on screen along a note track to mimic the playing of
rock music and other songs. Hitting correct notes in time with the music increases the player's score and builds up the performance meter, while missing notes will cause the meter to drop. Should the meter fall below a certain threshold, the song will end prematurely with the player booed off the stage by a virtual audience. Correctly hitting ten consecutive notes will add to the player's score multiplier by one, up to a maximum of four times the original multiplier. Specially marked sections of the song, if completed correctly, help to build up Star Power, which can then be activated through an action with the controller to further double the current multiplier (up to 8x). As with
Guitar Hero World Tour,
Guitar Hero 5 supports the playing of
lead and
bass guitar through guitar controllers,
drums through a drum controller, and vocals through a microphone. Players can also play in groups of up to four local or remote players to form a band, co-operatively playing through a song. Whereas in
World Tour, a band could only have one of each instrument,
Guitar Hero 5 allows players to arrange for any combination of instruments, including all four players on the same instrument if they so choose. A new play mechanic called "Band Moments" will require all members of the band to play sections of a song successfully to gain rewards, both in a temporary scoring multiplier and visual effects on screen. The RockFest submodes include: • "Momentum": Starting at Medium difficulty, players can increase their difficulty and score more points by hitting twenty consecutive notes, but will fall back in difficulty if they miss three notes in a row. • "Streakers": Points are awarded for making "streaks" a series of consecutive notes, with the value further increasing for longer streaks. • "Perfectionist": For each section of a song, players are ranked by the percentage of correct notes hit, with the top player getting the most points. • "Do or Die": A player is forced to wait out until the next section if they miss three notes in the current section of the song. • "Elimination": After each section of a song, the lowest scoring player is eliminated. However, if the scoring player decided to stay in, they may do so. • "Pro Face-Off": A standard
score attack mode, with the highest score winning points.
Career mode and Challenges Guitar Hero 5 features a combined single- and multi-player (both off- and on-line) Career mode similar to
Guitar Hero: Metallica. Songs in the game are distributed across 13 venues, with all but the first locked at the start. Each venue contains 5 or more specific songs and 1 or more special sponsored gigs, each with Challenges that can be completed along with playing through the song. To unlock the other venues, the players must collect a number of stars based on their performance playing individual songs, with each song offering up to 9 stars: up to 5 for the general scoring performance, an additional star for a perfect performance, and up to 3 for completing the song's Challenge. Players share the benefits of earning stars for their own respective profiles, thus, a player that may have difficulty completing one song on their own could join with a band that is able to complete it, benefiting from the gain in stars should they then play by themselves or with another group. by
Beck.
Guitar Hero 5 introduces Career mode Challenges, that are either tied to specific songs, or allow players to select a song to meet the Challenge requirement in "open gigs". Each Challenge features three possible completion levels—Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, mimicking the
music recording sales certification levels—with Diamond being the most difficult to complete. The song-specific challenges include both instrument-specific challenges, such as correctly vocalizing the repeated "Fame" lyric at the end of
David Bowie's "
Fame" as it moves down in
pitch, and more general scoring or performance challenges on either specific instruments or for the whole band. Open gig Challenges are presented by sponsors within the game, and are based on performance aspects such as scoring a certain number of points using Star Power or using the guitar controller's
whammy bar continuously for a length of time. These allow the player to select any song to complete, with some songs potentially being better suited for completing that challenge. The progress towards these Challenges is shown in-game by a record meter that appears when the challenge is active, and fills up similarly to the overall scoring meter as the player successfully completes towards the challenge. Higher completion levels, particularly Diamond, may only be possible by playing the Expert difficulty of a song, but players can take advantage of the mid-song difficulty adjustment feature to complete these if needed. All players are awarded for completing a challenge if one of the members is able to do so, and will be reflected in the individual players' career progress. in addition, players can unlock new
avatars, outfits, and other content by completing challenges. The rewards of the challenges are used to replace the previous in-game money reward in previous
Guitar Hero games.
Characters and customization is a playable character in
Guitar Hero 5. Avatars of famous musicians are part of the game, performing for songs by that artist and available as
unlockable characters. Notably,
Kurt Cobain of
Nirvana is a playable avatar; Activision had sought to gain permission to use Cobain's image for the game for three years, including obtaining the necessary agreements with
Courtney Love, who controls Cobain's estate, and
Dave Grohl and
Universal Publishing, who control Nirvana's catalog. Cobain's avatar was designed with input from Love, who provided photos and videos for the design team to use, and emphasized how she would like Cobain to appear, starting from his appearance in "
Smells Like Teen Spirit" and modifying it from there.
Johnny Cash is also a playable character, with tribute artist Terry Lee Goffee helping to provide motion capture for his character.
Carlos Santana,
Shirley Manson (of
Garbage), and
Matthew Bellamy (of
Muse) are also playable avatars, all of whom performed motion capture for their own avatars. There are also unlockable fictional characters like Skeleton, Golden God, Shadow, Frankenrocker, and Gerald Contest Winner. Though Activision approached
Jon Bon Jovi to appear in the game, Bon Jovi turned down the offer. While the standard character creator is available for all versions of the game, the Xbox 360 version allows players to import their Xbox Live Avatar into the game, while the Freestyle mode on the Wii version of the game allows use of the players' Miis in the game. Nine of the characters from previous installments return in this game. They all have a costume that they start with and 3 more can be unlocked by completing challenges. Doing this will unlock also new pieces of clothing for the costume to use for user generated rockers. Also, while
Gibson no longer sponsors the game, other guitar manufacturers, like
Ibanez,
ESP,
Paul Reed Smith and
Schecter, lent the likenesses of their instruments, allowing for new combinations on assembling custom guitars and basses. For the first time, also, sponsored clothing pieces can be used in customization (these being shoes from
Vans,
Dr. Martens and
Converse) There is no money in the game leaving everything available to use, including unlockables. Instruments can also be unlocked to use. Also some clothing now can be changed in style. There are four styles for each; the one shown, two others that were separate items in previous games (with exceptions), and one new one (with exceptions). Pregenerated characters outfits can only be changed and users can only decide which outfit they wear. However they can still edit their instruments. Virtual avatars of the real life rockers can also not be changed in any way, including instruments.
Console-specific variations The Wii version of the game, developed by
Vicarious Visions, is "full feature parity" with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, including support for up to eight players online, each possibly on their own console.
Guitar Hero 5 is the first Wii game to support high capacity
SD cards, allowing up to about 800 songs to be stored on a 32 GB card. While existing Wii
Guitar Hero games allow players to purchase downloadable content one song at a time,
Guitar Hero 5 includes the ability to download complete albums and song packs. Players are also able to manage the content of their Wii memory cards through the game's interface. The game does not require players to enter game-specific Friends Codes, but instead uses the global Wii address book to locate friends. The "Mii Freestyle" mode, introduced in
World Tour, is also present, and with changes to address some of the issues with less-skilled players trying to play well together. A "Guitar Hero Nintendo Ecosystem" is introduced in
Guitar Hero 5, letting the Wii version communicate with the
Nintendo DS, including a stage manager/video editor DS controller feature in conjunction with the Mii Freestyle mode, and a new game mode called "Roadie Battle". In Roadie Battle, four players play as two teams; each team has one player performing on an instrument through the Wii, while the other player uses a DS to connect to the Wii and act as the
roadie. During play, the roadie players attempt to sabotage the other team by completing
mini-games on the DS that affect the other team's music performance in a manner similar to
Guitar Hero III's Battle Mode. These can only be cleared by the other DS player performing another mini-game. The PlayStation 2 version of the game, developed by
Budcat Creations, features less functionality in comparison to other versions, as it uses the same engine from
Guitar Hero: World Tour, with the same HUD style as
Guitar Hero: Metallica. Besides lacking online play or downloadable content, the game does not include drop-in/drop-out play, multiplayer "RockFest", nor song challenges. A
multitap cannot be used to expand the number of controller ports, limiting the game to two guitars, one drum set and one microphone, although the game does support both USB and controller-port guitars. == Development ==