1. Gameplay
    Game modes  Characters  Johnny Napalm  Echo Tesla  Judy Nails  Austin Tejas  Pandora  Lars Ümlaüt  Casey Lynch  Axel Steel  The Demigod of Rock 

2. Development

3. Soundtrack

4. Reception

5. Notes

6. References

7. External links

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (initially referred to as Guitar Hero 6 or Guitar Hero VI) is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was the sixth main entry in the Guitar Hero series and fifteenth overall (twelfth on home consoles), and was released in September 2010 for PlayStation 3, Wii (ported by Vicarious Visions), and Xbox 360. Similar to previous entries in the franchise, it 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.

Warriors of Rock shares core gameplay elements with its predecessors, but introduced a new story mode in which the player must recruit eight characters—each with a unique ability that modifies the mechanics of the game—to help defeat an antagonist known as "The Beast". The storyline also incorporated Rush's seven-part "2112", as well as "Sudden Death", a new song performed by Megadeth to serve as its culmination (the song would later be included in Megadeth's following album, TH1RT3EN). Warriors of Rock carried over core gameplay and multiplayer functionality introduced by Guitar Hero 5, including per-song bonus challenges, and the ability to use power-ups from the story mode in standard gameplay.

Warriors of Rock received mixed reviews from gaming journalists: while critics felt that Warriors of Rock would appeal best to long-time fans of the Guitar Hero franchise, some felt that the overall soundtrack was weaker than that of past installments due to its lack of focus and use of lesser-known songs and artists. The game's "Quest Mode" was met with a similarly mixed reaction, with some critics considering it a notable change over the career modes of previous Guitar Hero games and praising certain highlights, such as the "2112" segment, but criticizing the pacing of the storyline and how its songs were organized.

Sales of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock were weaker than those of Guitar Hero 5, with combined sales of the game and DJ Hero 2 through the end of 2010 being 63% lower than the sales of Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero and Band Hero through the end of 2009.^[1] Initial shipments of Warriors of Rock were also bundled with a copy of Soundgarden's compilation album Telephantasm; based on its distribution with copies of the game, Telephantasm became the first album to receive a Platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America based on distribution alongside a video game. As a result of the underwhelming sales, also credited to the oversaturation of the music game market, the Guitar Hero franchise was ultimately shuttered until the 2015 unveiling of a reboot, Guitar Hero Live.^[1][2][4]

Gameplay

As with previous games in the series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a rhythm game, allowing up to four people play in a band on vocals, lead and bass/rhythm guitar, and drums, to use special instrument controllers to simulate the playing of rock music.^[5][6] In general, the goal for each player is to match scrolling note gems that correspond to that instrument's part in the given song to score points; the guitar and bass player must hold down the appropriate colored buttons on the controller and then use the strum bar as the notes pass over a marked zone; the drummer must strike the matching drum pads on the controller when the notes pass, and the vocalist must match the relative pitch of the song's lyrics as guided by phrase markers. Successfully striking notes earns points and boosts the player's performance meter; missing notes will cause this meter to drop. When playing by one's self, if the performance meter should empty, the song will end and require the player to restart it; when playing in a band, the remaining band members must play well enough for a limited time to "revive" a player that has fallen out due to an empty performance meter, or else the whole band will fail the song. Prior to the start of a song, each player can select one of five difficulty levels: Beginner, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert, with a sixth difficulty of Expert+ available to some songs on the drums which introduces a double bass pedal. Harder difficulties have characters with high note densities and more difficult playing techniques; each player can select their own difficulty to play.

For guitar and bass players, the players are given the opportunity to play single notes or chords, both as single notes or sustained, during which the players must continue to hold down the fret button(s) for the extent of the sustain. Some charts provide the ability to hold down one sustained note via its fret button while strumming additional notes. Warriors of Rock also provides simulated hammer-ons and pull-offs, where, after striking one note, specifically marked notes can be played by fingering the correct buttons but without strumming. There are also note portions of some songs where notes appear semi-transparent relative to normal notes; these notes, introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour, can be played simply by tapping the correct buttons on the controller without strumming or using a touch-sensitive "slider bar" below the fret buttons, if the player is using a World Tour controller. Bass players can play open chords by strumming without holding any fret buttons. Warriors of Rock introduces sustained open chords for bass players, although unlike other sustainable notes, does not require you to hold down the button required to execute the note initially.^[7] Drum players, when using velocity-sensitive drum kits, may be presented with both ghosted notes or notes with a shield icon over them; these represents drum notes that should be struck softer or harder than normal, respectively, to score more points. Drum players can also attach a second bass drum pedal, necessary for certain songs in the "Expert+" difficulty.

If the player successfully matches a number of consecutive notes correctly, they boost their individual scoring multiplier up to a maximum 4x value; missing a note will reset to the multiplier back to 1x. Throughout each song's respective charts for the instruments are special highlighted phrases; completing all the notes in this phrase, and for guitar/bass players, using the whammy bar on marked sustained notes, fills part of a Star Power meter. When this meter is at least half full, the player can activate Star Power by performing special actions on their controllers: either tilting the guitar controller upward briefly or pressing the Star Power activation button for guitar and bass; striking two pads simultaneously on the drums; and either double tapping the microphone or pressing one of the buttons on the game console's regular controllers for vocals. When Star Power is activated, the overall band scoring multiplier is increased for a limited time until the Star Power meter is drained. After completing a song, the band is awarded a number of stars based on the overall score; in normal modes for Warriors of Rock, up to six stars can be earned; the final being achievable only through zero misses and zero extra strums.

A major addition in Warriors of Rock is the use of special powers that come from special "warrior" forms of pre-defined characters that are unlocked through the game's Quest mode. These powers alter certain aspects of the core gameplay; one character allows for the Star Power multiplier to boost up to six times instead of just double, while another earns the player a star for maintaining a scoring multiplier above a certain target for a length of time. When these powers are active, the players can earn well beyond five stars on a score either due to higher scoring opportunities or stars rewarded by the power, with a maximum of 40 stars available for each song.^[8]

Game modes

As with previous iterations of Guitar Hero, Warriors of Rock provides a career mode called "Quest Mode" that progresses through each of the on-disc songs. Quest Mode is centered on a story-telling element narrated by Gene Simmons, where the player must help save the Demigod of Rock from a mechanized creature called the Beast.^[3] To do this, the player must recruit eight characters for the battle against the Beast, each of whom have a unique power that affects gameplay. To recruit a character, the player must perform a number of songs that represent that character's musical genre within a stylistic venue; for example, the first character, the mohawk-wearing Johnny Napalm, has a number of punk songs available, and uses the now-defunct CBGB Club in New York City as his venue.^[4][11] After the player earns a minimum number of stars for that character, that character is transformed into a "warrior", boosting their unique power, and is recruited into the player's band.

Midway through the Quest, the players will encounter the legendary ax-guitar that belongs to the Demigod; this section is highlighted by playing through the full seven-part "2112" by Rush. Rush's members, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, and Alex Lifeson, narrate this section based on the story outlined in the liner notes of the 2112 album. The "2112" section also takes place in special venues inspired by the "2112" song, including the cave where the ax-guitar is found, and one highlighting the iconic Starman image.^[5][6] After recruiting all eight characters, the player must divide the characters into two bands to "fight" against the Beast as to earn a maximum number of stars from each band's combined powers in order to power the ax-guitar and allow the Demigod to finish the Beast himself. This last battle is set to a new song, "Sudden Death" by Megadeth (which would later appear in their album Thirteen, released the following year) and written by their front-man Dave Mustaine specifically for the conclusion of the game,^[7] and contains portions that he believed were "the most difficult parts" he has written in his life.^[8] When the player has completed the battle with the Beast, they have the opportunity to return to the previous venues, now with all eight powers active simultaneously, and attempt to achieve 40-star performances for each song in the game, as well as a comparatively difficult set of songs with the Demigod himself.

Video game journalists have noted thematic similarities between the story details of Warriors of Rock and Brütal Legend, an action video game with a world based on heavy metal, developed by Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions which Activision, at one point, would have published but later dropped the rights.^{[8][9][10][11]} Project lead Brian Bright commented that their inspiration for the game's story was the covers of metal albums, the same material that led to the world of Brütal Legend.^[12]

In the game's Quickplay+ mode, players can play any song on-disc or from their downloadable content library. Each song has 13 different achievements to be completed. Twelve are similar to the Challenges introduced in Guitar Hero 5, such as getting a high score, maintain a long note streak, or accumulating an amount of Star Power, and each has 3 levels (gold, platinum, and diamond) that translate to 1 to 3 additional stars once reached. If the player has unlocked the Warrior character powers in the Quest mode, they can enable these powers to try to get up to a maximum of 20 stars (21 for successfully completing the song without missing a note or hitting notes that aren't there) on each song for the thirteenth challenge.^[13] As the player earns stars in this mode, they will advance in rank and gain additional unlockable features such as alternate outfits or guitars and additional venue selections.^[14] Party mode introduced in Guitar Hero 5 is also available, where the game will automatically play songs like a jukebox, and allow for players to drop-in or drop-out at any time.^[3] The competitive modes introduced in Guitar Hero 5 are also carried over into Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and are expanded to include band-vs-band variants.^[4][11]

The Wii version improves the "Roadie" game version introduced in Guitar Hero 5. In this mode, up to four additional players with their own Nintendo DS wirelessly connected to the Wii (the "Roadies") can assist the other players using instrument controllers. The Roadies can create setlists from the DS, or engage in gameplay through "spells" that improve the performance of the player they are assigned to. Alternatively, in Roadie Battle mode, the Roadies can attempt to distract another player while at the same time removing the distractions placed on their player by another Roadie.^[3] Warriors of Rock includes an improved version of a song creation tool, allowing players to share their songs using the online "GHTunes" services. Improvements include the ability to lay down note tracks directly while playing one of the instrument controllers and a larger number of guitar, bass, and drum samples to use.^[11] The player can use the built-on GH Studio to create their own music, save for vocals, to share with others on the GH Tracks service, either by laying down tracks one note at a time, or by jamming along to a pre-defined beat. Players can create their own customized rocker to use in Quickplay+ or online modes through the character creator, or use either the regular form or the Warrior version of the eight on-disc characters.

Characters

There are no caricatures of real-life musicians in the game due to ongoing legal issues with the likenesses of musician celebrities in Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero.^[5] As such, only eight fictional guitarists are initially featured in the game, two of them being entirely new characters. Each one has a special power that helps the player improve their score. In Quest Mode, the characters must obtain a certain number of "power stars" in order to transform into their warrior state, whereupon their power is upgraded into a "+" state which either boosts the effect or adds bonus effects. Collecting stars will also unlock additional characters for Quickplay mode, ranging from other past characters to Arthas Menethil from the Warcraft franchise.

Johnny Napalm

Johnny Napalm's power is called "Speed Freak." The effects of this power keep the multiplier at a minimum of double points. Additionally, maintaining a multiplier of triple points or higher will earn the player up to 2 power stars. Once Johnny has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into his warrior form, a hobgoblin, his power is upgraded to "Speed Freak +." With this upgrade, the multiplier increases after hitting 5 notes in a row rather than 10. Additionally, the amount of power stars that the player can earn by maintaining a multiplier of triple points or higher is increased to 5.

Echo Tesla

Echo Tesla's power is called "Star Power Generator." The effects of this power fill the star power gauge by 5% after hitting 10 notes in a row. Once Echo has obtained the necessary amount of power stars and has transformed into her warrior form, a cyborg, her power is upgraded to "Star Power Generator +." With this upgrade, hitting 10 notes in a row fills the star power gauge by 10% rather than 5%.

Judy Nails

Judy Nails' power is called "Crowd Hyper." With it, the rock meter starts in the green section rather than the yellow section. Also, hitting notes while the rock meter is at the maximum, or "overflowing" the rock meter, will grant the player up to 2 power stars. Once Judy has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into her warrior form, a demon, her power is upgraded to "Crowd Hyper +." With this upgrade, the rock meter starts at the maximum, and overflowing the rock meter now grants up to 5 power stars.

Austin Tejas

Austin Tejas' power is called "Star Power Amplifier." With it, successfully completing a star power sequence fills the star power gauge by 50% rather than 25%, allowing the player to use star power instantly. Once Austin has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into his warrior form, a headless horseman, his power is upgraded to "Star Power Amplifier +." With this upgrade, successfully completing a star power sequence fills the star power gauge to the maximum.

Pandora

Pandora's power is called "Star Power Nova." With it, star power triples the player's multiplier rather than doubling it. Once Pandora has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into her warrior form, an elf, her power is upgraded to "Star Power Nova +." With this upgrade, star power now sextuples the player's multiplier.

Lars Ümlaüt

Lars Ümlaüt's power is called "Multiplier Extender." The effects of this power increase the multiplier's maximum from quadruple points to quintuple points. Once Lars has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into his warrior form, a half human, half boar hybrid, his power is upgraded to "Multiplier Extender +." With this upgrade, the multiplier's maximum increases from quintuple points to sextuple points.

Casey Lynch

Casey Lynch's power is called "Streak Guardian." With this power, the player's note streak is protected by a shield that keeps the player's note streak from resetting should they miss a note; the shield refills quickly. Additionally, maintaining high note streaks will grant the player up to 2 power stars. Once Casey has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into her warrior form, a half human, half snake hybrid, her power is upgraded to "Streak Guardian +." With this upgrade, the player is given 2 shields rather than 1, and maintaining high note streaks grants up to 5 power stars.

Axel Steel

Axel Steel's power is called "Resurrector." With this power, the player can earn up to 2 ankhs that will revive the player with the rock meter in the yellow section should they fail the song. Additionally, any ankhs left over after the song is complete are converted into 1 power star each. Once Axel has obtained enough power stars and has transformed into his warrior form, a mummy, his power is upgraded to "Resurrector +." With this upgrade, the maximum number of ankhs the player can earn is increased to 5.

The Demigod of Rock

Once the player has defeated "the Beast," the player unlocks the Demigod of Rock as a playable character. The Demigod of Rock's power is called "All Powerful." This power uses all 8 of the warriors' powers at once.

Development

After weak sales in 2009 of several titles in the Guitar Hero series, Activision proceeded to make several changes with their internal development teams. The company dissolved RedOctane, bringing in some of the staff directly into Activision.^[15] Activision further shuttered Neversoft's Guitar Hero division, pending the completion of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, with further development in the series to be created by some former Neversoft members and Vicarious Visions.^[16] Brian Bright, former Neversoft member and current project lead, noted that part of the poor sales of Guitar Hero in 2009 was a result of a loss of focus with Guitar Hero 5, stating that "we were trying to please everyone out there and I think in the end you end up not pleasing any one person a lot".^[17] With Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Bright wanted to bring the game back to please the fans of the earlier Guitar Hero games, specifically the highly successful Legends of Rock.^[17] To that end, the team developed a soundtrack "more focused on rock 'n' roll" than the variety of genres within Guitar Hero 5.^[4] The songs are more guitar-centric, as proven to be the most popular instrument choice based on Guitar Hero 5.^[3] Bright noted they used player statistics from previous games to shape Warriors of Rock; for example, according to Bright, within a month of release, 40% of the players of Guitar Hero 5 were playing on Expert mode, and felt this was the audience they needed to cater to.^[18] Bright also stated that the aim of Warriors of Rock was to create a game with "its own identity" from both previous Guitar Hero titles and other rhythm games; "Rather than go head-to-head with our own games and our competitors, we decided we wanted to make something different."^[18]

Part of creating the new identity for Warriors of Rock was by creating the game's Quest mode. Activision contacted Gene Simmons, who initially thought the company was asking for a KISS song to be included in the game. Instead, when Simmons learned they wanted him to be the narrator and the voice of the Demigod, he became very interested in the project feeling that the Demigod character had elements of his own stage personality in it.^[19] Activision also approached the members of Rush for inclusion of "2112", and the group provided inspiration and feedback on the Rush-themed venues that "2112" is played in within the game.^[38] The developers also approached Dave Mustaine of Megadeth to write the music for the game's final boss battle.^[20] The Quest mode also gave Activision the opportunity to explore the characters that have been in the series since its inception but otherwise only used as player avatar. The developers were able to expand on these existing designs and gave each one a unique venue and setlist throughout the campaign.^[11]