Guitar Hero 5 (2009)

3.36 from 371 ratings

748 members have it in their collection · 13 playing now · 66 backlogged · 55 wish listed

How long? Main story 18h (from 3 logged playthroughs)

Guitar Hero 5 (initially referred to as Guitar Hero V) is a music rhythm game and the fifth main entry in the Guitar Hero series. The game was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, and released internationally in September 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, 3 and Wii consoles. Similar to the preceding title, Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5 is geared towards playing in a four-person band experience, including lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. The game is available as a standalone title, allowing players to use existing compatible instrument controllers, and as a bundle that provides these controllers. Guitar Hero 5 adds several new features, such as drop-in/drop-out play, bands composed of any combination of available instruments, a Rockfest competitive mode consisting of several various scoring mechanisms, and both song-specific and general Challenges to unlock new avatars, clothing, and other extras in the game. Many of these changes were added to make the game a more social experience, allowing players across a range of skill levels to be able to play cooperatively and competitively against each other both locally and online. Guitar Hero 5's track list contains 85 songs by 83 separate artists, and like previous Guitar Hero games, several musicians with works in the game have been modeled through motion capture for playable characters in the game, including Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Shirley Manson, Matthew Bellamy, and Kurt Cobain. Players can also create their own character and instrument to play with. The game continues to support the user-created music studio introduced in World Tour through GHTunes, and additional downloadable content for the game was also made available. A majority of existing downloadable tracks from World Tour are forward-compatible with Guitar Hero 5, along with selected on-disc tracks from World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits, and songs from the game could also be exported for a fee to play in its sequel, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and spin-off game Band Hero. The game was well received by reviewers, who appreciated the improvements in the accessibility of the game, allowing players to immediately jump in and play without spending excessive time in the game's menus. The game also sold well, however, it sold about less than 50 percent of Guitar Hero: World Tour's sales, specifically selling 1.2 million copies across all platforms. Improvements to both the Career and competitive multiplayer modes were also highlights of the game. However, the game's track list was considered to be too broad, and controversy arose over the ability to use the avatar of Kurt Cobain to perform in any other song within the game. Read less

Details

Developers: Neversoft Entertainment
Publishers: Activision
Genres: Music
Themes: Party
Series: Guitar Hero

Release dates

Sep 01, 2009 (North_America) PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
Sep 11, 2009 (Europe) PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
Sep 16, 2009 (Australia) PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360

Rating distribution

5 stars

4 stars

125

3 stars

158

2 stars

1 star

Community All Reviews Statuses

Review AxillarySloth53 2/5 · May 20, 2020

Return to Guitar Hero - Weakest of the X360 run

So with lockdown meaning I'm having lots of time on my hands I decided to replay all the old Xbox 360 Guitar Hero games. I used to love these back in the day and I still do. Albeit I'm a little rusty and not as fast as I once was. Still, that doesn't stop my enjoyment of the games. I started with GH3 Legends of Rock (couldn't find GH2) and I'm working my way up all the way through to Warriors of Rock (also skipping Smash Hits as I couldn't find that one either). So far I've enjoyed everyone one. Metallica is my favourite by far. All of have been enjoyable except one.... Guitar Hero 5. This was one that I only ever played round a friends' house as I didn't like it. Young me was right. Its by far the weakest of the Xbox 360 and if Live wasn't so spectacularly abysmal it would be, in my opinion the worst Guitar Hero game ever made.

There's very little pros. I actually can't think of anything that I prefer in this game over World Tour. I like the ability to change the band AI, but to be honest you may have been able to do this in other games too.

Onto the cons:

Fretboard display is made so the notes are shinier and glossier. Seems like they have changed in size too. Its threw me off. I was missing notes on easier songs whereas I could FC harder songs in World Tour.
Setlist is atrocious. Worst setlist I've seen. Its not all bad though there are a few songs on there that I do like such as Du Hast, Saturday's All right (for fighting), A Punk but around 70-75% of the setlist is very weak. Many of the songs too, have a lack of guitar. You play notes that are of a different instrument. This is a guitar hero game... I don't want to play notes for the piano. Honestly if they re branded this game as a Band Hero entry it might have been perceived better.
The vast majority of this game is incredibly easy and you can 5 star almost all songs without breaking a sweat but that all changes in the final few songs. They go from Def con 4 to Def Con 1. They are insane. They make Through the Fire and Flames look tame. There is virtually no gradual build up in difficulty so you're faced with something that is obnoxiously tough. Screw you scatterbrain. I do not understand the reasoning for this. It almost feels trollish, obnoxious and downright nasty. These songs are so hard, they greatly lowered the criteria for 5 stars on these songs.
Not a fan of the bonus stars. I don't like that you get a 6th star for hitting = 100% notes in a song. And the bonus challenges such as band star power, band score etc are just obtainable if you're not playing in a band. Some of the challenges that you can do solo are not great either. Stuff like note streaks seem ok but when its on a song with an insane solo or awkward note patterns it becomes very frustrating.

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0 Comment

Review Scott_6464 3/5 · Aug 28, 2016

PROS

* The core mechanics are still fun

* A few good new tracks

* Plenty of content, as always

CONS

* The worst tracklist in Guitar hero history

* Some tracks don't even have guitars for the most part so why are they here!?

* Adds next to nothing new to the series

* From the presentation to the …

1 Comment