Reviewed: July 26, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
RedOctane
Activision

Developer
Harmonix

Released: July 24, 2007
Genre: Music
Players: 1-2

9
8
10
6
8.5

Supported Features:

Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80’s is more of an expansion pack than a standalone title, even though you can play it without owning any of the previous versions. You will have to at least buy your own guitar since Rock the 80’s is being sold sans guitar.

There are 30 music tracks in this expansion, with most tracks being performed by cover bands that can easily be mistaken for the original artist. There are even a few select songs that are actually performed by the original artists. There are two of three possible guitar tracks (Lead, Rhythm, and Bass) for each song, effectively doubling the gameplay right out of the box, although you can only access the non-lead guitar in practice mode or multiplayer.

Cooperative mode is still a blast, at least until you run out of songs then its off to the career mode to unlock the rest of the track list. Don’t worry – it only takes about 3-4 hours to do this, at least on the Medium skill level. If you don’t play well with others you might want to try the Versus mode and choose between Face-off mode where you trade off on parts of the lead track, or Pro Face-off where you each play the full lead track. We tried all these modes but ultimately agreed the cooperative was the most fun and rewarding. There is also some added challenge in co-op play in that you have to work together to build and initiate Star Power by tipping your guitars at the same time.

Practice mode allows you to pick your song, skill level, the guitar track you want to practice, and then go as far as to pick the section of the song (intro, verse, chorus) or just play the whole song. Finally, you get to pick your practice speed, which really saves your bacon when you are trying to learn “Play With Me” on Expert. Choose from Slowest, Slower, Slow, and Full speed as you gradually increase the flow of notes and master the song.

The Career mode is where you will need to spend much of your time, at least until you unlock everything and earn enough cash to buy out the guitar store. Sadly, there aren’t any bonus songs or alternate costumes to purchase in Encore, so all your money can go into classic 80’s guitars and funky skins to customize them with. There are a few unlockable characters including a funky new version of the Grim Reaper in 3D glasses. As always, earning five stars on the encore songs gets you bonus guitars.

The core gameplay is straight from Guitar Hero II. Colored “notes” stream down the neck of the on-screen guitar and you must hold the corresponding fret and strum as these notes pass through the circle. As the difficulty level rises and you go deeper into the career song selection, there are many more notes, often in chords (2-3 buttons at the same time) and they move a lot faster.

The cast of available guitar heroes was surprisingly limited with even fewer characters than Guitar Hero II. Grim is back, once you purchase him, then we have hard rocker, Axel Steel, punk rocker, Johnny Napalm, metal rocker, Izzy Sparks, trendy Pandora, and alternative rocker, Judy Nails. Personally, I don’t care about character selection since I don’t get to pay that much attention to the stage show while playing, but those looking for a bounty of new characters might be disappointed.

You’ll see all your favorite venues totally revamped in classic 80’s themes. Sadly, the tour stops in the U.S. so we never make it to Stonehenge. It’s great fun to start off in the high school gym in a classic Battle of the Bands, then move into a basement club with rats and chicken wire, then to a groovy venue with black lights and funky stage art. There is even fun travel animation as you move around the country in a vehicle that upgrades with your success.

The designers also did a fantastic job of creating a realistic sequence of notes from each piece of music, so you actually feel like you are playing the song regardless of bass, rhythm, or lead variations. This is particularly impressive considering that 80’s music is heavy with synthesizers and non-guitar instruments. Strumming the opening notes to I Ran by Flock of Seagulls is weird but oddly cool. The notes match the beat or tone and move up and down the simulated scale with predictable logic. Some songs have more aggressive bass tracks while other songs have rhythm tracks that dwarf the lead guitar. You never know what you are getting or which guitar is easier or harder until you try them all.

If you like to study stats, you can now view a massively detailed report card of your previous performance that shows your success rate during all parts of the song. This can be a handy tool that shows you which sections of the song you need to work on in Practice mode.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to keep your eyes on the hundreds of notes streaming down the neck of your guitar, but at least you can pick your guitar and even skin it with fresh designs that you can purchase in the store. Sadly, there are no costume changes available for our guitar heroes, so no new leather outfits or spandex jumpsuits.

Progressive scan and widescreen support are both back, which really helps in multiplayer. And in case you are suffering from audio-visual lag when running in hi-def, there is a built-in calibration utility that will smooth things out for you. For some odd reason you still have to toggle progressive scan on each time you restart the game.

Of course what you all really want to know is the song list, so here it is in its entirety, all six sets and 30 songs. The final song in each set is the unlocked encore:

1. Opening Licks