Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is the sixth instalment in the series, and as before, it will allow up to four people to play as a band – lead guitar, bass/rhythm guitar, drums and vocals. The problem with a yearly franchise game like this, is trying to keep things fresh each time round.

Neversoft was once again at the development helm, as they have been since Guitar Hero III. This will be the last Guitar Hero title developed by Neversoft – as Vicarious Visions will be taking over.

Vicarious Visions contributed to the development of Warriors of Rock; they were responsible for porting the Wii version which also implements DS functionality. This is done through the ‘Roadie’ game mode. Up to four players, each using a DS, can assist instrument wielding players. The roadies will be able to create set lists through the DS, help their players or distract opponents by using some roadie tricks.

Quest Mode

The primary new game mode in Warriors of Rock is called ‘Quest Mode.’ Gene Simmons of Kiss fame will narrate as players make their way through the quests. The Quest Mode is basically the Career Mode for the game – players will strive to release the ‘Demigod of Rock’ whom is imprisoned by ‘The Beast.’ The story is set to culminate in a section based on the song 2112 by Rush – a 1976 progressive rock epic over 20 minutes long. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush will also be lending their narration to this portion of the game.

A venue based on Rush’s 2112

As players progress they will unlock upgrades for their musicians. Two of the upgrades can be equipped at once and these provide bonuses when playing songs. Through various combinations of these bonuses, players can achieve up to 40 stars per song, instead of standard 5 stars.

Rockers

There will be eight player characters in the game, some of which have appeared in previous Guitar Hero titles. None will bear any resemblance to modern day musicians – presumably Activision is tired of dealing with lawsuits.

The characters are unlocked through the Quest Mode, as are their ‘alter-egos.’ The alter egos are more than just a costume change, as the alternate versions of the characters will also come with some perks. For example, Lars Umlaut will become Warrior Lars, capable of obtaining a 6x score multiplier, instead of the standard 4x.

Lars Umlaut become Warrior Lars

Quickplay+

The Quickplay game mode makes a return as Quickplay+. All the songs from Warriors of Rock are accessible through this mode, and the ‘+’ stands for a nifty new feature – the ability to play any songs from previous DLC. That’s right, and DLC from Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, and Band Hero will work in Warriors of Rock.

Combined with the 93 tracks (http://mygaming.co.za/news/news/7181-Guitar-Hero-Warriors-Rock-tracks-revealed.html) included with Warriors of Rock, this means there will be over 300 tracks available to players as the title launches.

Quickplay+ will also include song challenges, a feature which doesn’t appear in the quest Mode. Each song, both included and from previous DLC, will have up to 13 associated challenges to beat. Players will have to use the unlocked and upgraded characters from Quest Mode in order to beat all the challenges.

Instruments

The guitar controller has been redesigned to incorporate all of the electronics into the ‘fret board’ portion of the device. This allows for a swappable body pieces for the collector types out there. The new guitar will be backwards compatible with previous titles.

The new axe

The  drums haven’t changed much. The kit will be MIDI enabled, allowing it to be plugged into any capable music recording and editing system. The kit also includes a drum brain, which can be used with any other digital drum kit as a substitute input device.

A variant showing how the guitar body is deatchable

Rock on

The Guitar Hero series suffered from poor sales throughout 2009. As a result, Activison has dissolved RedOctane – the guys responsible for developing the instrument controllers – and has also planned to dissolve the Guitar Hero division of Neversoft post Warriors of Rock release.

Brian Bright, Warriors of Rock project lead, has stated in interviews that the poor sales in 2009 stemmed from a loss of focus in Guitar Hero 5, which tried to cover too diverse a musical selection and wound up pleasing no one. In Warriors of Rock, they hope to rectify this mistake by delivering a highly challenging guitar centric game with a clear rock n’ roll mentality.

Let’s hope Neversoft’s Guitar Hero division goes out with a heavy metal blast. Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock is scheduled for release around the world during the last week of September 2010.

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