Analysis: Guitar Hero 5

The Guitar Hero series has given life to the rock star in each of us. I’ve never felt more alive playing a game than I did the first time I played Raining Blood. Activision has refined the musical game genre in their own way which culminated in their release of Guitar Hero 5. Proposed to be the ‘best’ Guitar Hero game to date, Guitar Hero 5 employs many of the familiar game mechanics from previous versions while implementing some cool new ones.

Its hard for me to evaluate this game on a marketable level. For me, the best Guitar Hero ever made was 3. Why? It had the hardest songs, and focused on my favorite instrument. I can still remember hearing the buzz after the game had been out for a while. Most people were complaining about how ‘difficult’ the gamewas, and how a better difficulty ramp would make the game more enjoyable.

I don’t think this sentiment was isolated, as Activision’s next installment of the series featured a much easier track set, and incorporated a new difficulty for those who simply wouldn’t pick up the guitar at all: Beginner. This was a good move, as it made the game accessible to anybody. My 5 year old son could now play songs, and beat them.

Ever since Guitar Hero 3, and Dragon Force, Activision has been steadily transitioning from the fan boys to the ‘rest of us.’ With their latest release they produced a game that is fun for anybody who picks it up and plays. The mechanics provide challenge, reward, variety, and re-playability. In this paper I will focus on the reward and challenge aspects of the game mechanics.

Challenge

 

One of the most compelling features of the Guitar Hero series and, indeed, most other games in the music genre is the challenge. Whether it’s using your fingers, your arms, your feet(DDR), or your voice you must employ control, speed, and accuracy to achieve the best score possible while at the same time avoiding mistakes which will cause failure.

The basest mechanic to GH5 is the notes. Each song is comprised of a set of notes which the player must use some type of controller interaction in order to ‘hit.’ So it can be said that the base challenge of GH5 is ‘hitting notes.’ Of course, there are challenges layered on top of this base which give the game variety and increase the challenge but, in order to win, the player must unavoidably learn how to hit the notes.

This base mechanic provides the core challenges to the player. In order to hit the notes the player must master the controller he is using. Hitting notes challenges his timing by forcing him to ‘hit’ the note as it crosses the threshold. This raises yet another base mechanic of the game: All notes approach the player in a specific pattern which the player must react to before they reach the threshold. This puts GH on par, mechanically, with games like Space Invaders, and Zoop.

Note patterns

GH5 is a musical game and, as such, uses conventions common to musical instruments. In order to simulate the true experience of playing a musical instrument, like a guitar, the designers arranged the notes of the song into patterns. The patterns not only help the player feel like he is actually playing the song but it provides the player opportunities to learn and get better at songs. For example, there are times when I come across a new riff in a song. I may fail it horribly the first time around, but when it comes again I’m ready for it. These kinds of patterns are present in music as well as other games and help players to progress.

As a side note: it’s important in skill related games like GH5 or DDR to provide the player with enough help that he will get better and, ultimately, master the game. But, on the other side of the coin, if the game is too easy it gets boring quickly. There is a fine balance between too much, and not enough help. Activision designers provided adequate help in the design of their songs through note placement and punishment for missed notes. In other words, the challenge feels right, as you play the game.

In a game like GH 5 the sky is the limit when it comes to challenging the player. Initially, it’s enough simply to learn the different instruments. But, after the player can hold his own he will seek new challenges. The game provides the player with a score based on how well he did in a song. This mechanic allows the player to test himself against previous accomplishments as well as the skill of other players. So, driving his score higher, the player is virtually never left without a challenge.

In order to add a layer of challenge on top of simply hitting notes and getting the highest score possible, the game employs the multiplier mechanic. The more notes you hit in a row, the higher your score multiplier goes. This gives the player even greater incentive to play well as his score will grow faster as he plays perfectly. The note multiplier is largely a passive challenge. Playing through the game on expert, the player can usually 5 star each song without maintaining a 4x multiplier most of the time.

However, there are times when the multiplier is your only way to get 5 stars on a song(5 stars being a good base rubric for determining success in the game). For example, the songs which have very difficult solos near the middle or end of the song. I cite an example from GH3: Cult of Personality.  Playing most of CoP is fairly easy. But, as you get about 65% through the song, you hit the solo(anybody who’s played the song knows what I mean). For me, it’s a challenge to get through the solo without using Star Power. If my performance during the solo were used to give me a star, I would probably end up with 3 stars every time. But, since I can maintain a 4x multiplier through most of the song I can consistently get 5 stars on the song.

This also illustrates how Activision has set the bar for its difficulty. Even in songs where there are incredibly difficult sections, most players can make it through if they manage their resources efficiently. That is, learn to play the easy parts well, and save star power for the difficult parts. Its simply a question of balance, if the designers had given star power a smaller duration, or made the base score for 5 stars higher, fewer players would succeed in the song, and vice versa.

At the core of challenge in GH5 is the difficulty you play on. Each difficulty has unique traits and conventions tailored to the players of the game. Activision did well in designing each difficulty to target a specific group of people as well as linking these difficulty in a  way that promotes advancement. In other words, moving from easy to medium, and medium to hard flows naturally with adequate challenge.

Perhaps the best invention Activision added to their GH series from GH3 was the beginner difficulty. This provides a means for children to play as well as that girl at the party who simply wont play because she always fails. Its no secret that the GH series has gotten easier with each new release. This move broadened the fan base of the game significantly which, in economic terms, is never a bad thing.

As for the other difficulties, the time tested mechanics are still successful. Limiting the number of frets the player has to deal with teaches them the basics of hitting notes, timing, and common game mechanics. Moving up the difficulty ladder introduces more advanced mechanics, like hammer ons and pull offs which give the player the ability to play very fast sections of notes. Overall the progression of difficulty is designed well.

An interesting new addition to the mechanics of the GH series was the song challenges. Each song is associated with a instrument specific challenge or a band challenge. In order to complete all 3 levels of the challenge the player must perform a specific task such as maintaining a multiplier or using the wammy bar for so much time during the song. This extra layer of player challenge adds to the array of activities a player can participate in while playing the game. It also gives seasoned GH players like myself something to tide us over during the first part of the career when the songs are fairly easy.

Rewards

 

Because the story line of the game is fairly weak, the game must give the player some other reward than simply beating the game. The designers incorporated a vast myriad of rewards to the player based on their performance. The player receives these rewards both in real time, as he is playing, and after the song is finished. Rewards scale based on the players performance during the songs thus giving him incentive to play better.

One of the most important reward mechanisms in the game is the crowd. The crowd provides real time feed-back on the  player’s performance, cheering when the player is doing well, and booing when the player plays badly. Not only is this instant reward a good motivator during difficult parts, but it simulates the actual experience, to a degree, of playing live music. That simulation, combined with the stunning concert visuals played behind the notes produces the main ambiance of the game play itself. Also, the digital crowd and concert helps get the other people in the room involved in the game as well which is a great indirect game mechanic for parties.

The primary reward with reference to story mode progression is the acquisition of stars. The base method for obtaining stars is playing the songs well. A player may earn up to a base score of 5 stars for any given song if he plays well, and 6 stars if he plays perfectly. Playing the songs well enough to earn 5 stars consistently will advance the player through venues at about 4 songs a venue. However, on top of the base star earnings from a player’s final score of a song, the player may earn up to 3 extra stars per song if he fulfills the challenge for that song(mentioned earlier.)

Giving the player this added dimension of play enables the player to move through the career faster(which is in itself a reward) but it also enables the player to set his score apart from others based on extra effort. This provides the all-important-to-skill-based-games reward, bragging rights.

On top of scoring, and earning stars, a player earns money as he plays songs. This mechanic provides a means of economy to the game. The player may take the money he earns and spend it on new guitars, characters,songs,etc… These rewards add re-playability to the game by increasing its content laterally. Also, the money helps the player feel more immersed in the ‘gig’.

Near the top of the importance list of instant rewards are the visuals the player earns as he progresses. There are the cut-scenes the player can watch, as well as the final movie. It seems the importance of these elements has waned over the evolution of the GH series, peaking with GH 3. Other visual rewards help motivate the player as well.

During actual game-play, the player is practically bombarded with visual rewards. The most basic and common of these rewards(and perhaps the least noticed) is the cool flame that jumps out of the cylinders on the fret board as the player hits notes. This small visual reward helps reinforce the reward of hitting each note, as well as making the player feel cool, like Jimi Hendrix.

There has been quite a bit of controversy about the visual rewards of the game, at least in my circles. Some enjoy the note streak notifications, for example, and some find them to be annoying. In my experience, the more skilled a player is, the more he sees the notifications, and the less he is bothered by them. That being said, from a design standpoint, the rewards are an excellent motivation. I often find myself in anticipation of the next streak notification which causes my adrenaline to increase. If anything I would suggest some delineation in the style of the notifications. For example, every 200 notes the notification could vary, and possibly at 1000 notes.

Who can forget what the game is all about? The most rewarding experience for me, while playing GH games, is jamming along to my favorite songs, and feeling like a rock star while I do. The reward of playing well to the songs that you used to sing to on the radio gives the player a rush, and sense of familiarity which boosts his enthusiasm. These motivations are so powerful because they are the hardest, at times, to invoke in youth. That is why these types of games will always have success, even after they boom, and fade in popularity. Hey, playing Guitar Hero well sure beats singing karaoke badly.