Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock to include stupid story mode

Warriors of Rock, which Activision officially announced today,will become the 14th Guitar Hero game in five years, and never have we been so tired of rocking. Yes, we're totally biased, but after Guitar Hero 5's back-to-the-basics accessibility, which was great, we're a little disappointed by the decision to flesh out Guitar Hero III's devil battling with a "quest" mode. Remember when that was funny - you know, defeating the devil with the power of rock - remember that? Yeah.

"In Quest Mode, using any combination of instruments, players will embark on a larger-than-life, epic rock journey from the stage of CBGBs, the infamous punk-rock club in New York City, to the molten lava fields of rock treachery as eight Guitar Hero characters transform into rock warriors that must join together to use their unique, game-changing powers to help the Demi-God of Rock take down 'The Beast' and save rock n’ roll."

All the series needs now is an open world to drivea tour bus around in, and it'll have fully realized the Tony Hawk curse. Oh, by the way, the "Demi-God of Rock" is voiced by Gene Simmons, in case you haven't had enough of his family jewels.

To be fair, there's always quickplay, and "Quickplay+" introduces bunches of new challenges (12 per song), though they're unlocked via quest mode. The new challenges which have been announced, if written in the form of a press release, go like this:

"Gamers will complete challenges such as Band Streak, High Score and Power Challenge, which allows players to choose any two warrior powers they have unlocked to try and earn ridiculously high scores, to rank up and unlock more rewards and content than ever before. All-new Challenge Leaderboards have been created in order to capture the outrageous scores that are capable with Quickplay+."

Above: Our buddy graboids from the forums whipped this up last week. It shouldn't need explaining

On the upside, Activision is boasting that Warriors of Rock will contain the largest on-disc set list ever. So far they've announced:

We can't wait to constantlytell our friends to stop picking Bohemian Rhapsody...IT WASFUN THE FIRST TIME,BUTAHGHHHHHHHHH...

Oh,and don't think you'll get away with not buying more plastic:

"To maximise players’ shredability, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock delivers the next evolution in finger-fretting with an all-new, show-stopping guitar controller that was inspired and born from the game’s unique art style and specifically made for shredding."

We're interested to see this new, shredability-improving controller, but we would like it if "shredability" were never written anywhere ever again.

Now let's snarkily temper our discontent...

We do know that our opinion isn't ubiquitous. Activision and Neversoft are trying to distinguish Guitar Hero from Rockband with some theatrics, and there's nothing so wrong with being different. Just because we're jaded doesn't mean everyone is, so here are some dissenting views from Youtube:

"Finally, the guitar hero game I've been waiting for. It's finally back to it's rock roots, unlike the rock band wannabe gh5. Damn, now I'll have to buy both rb3 and gh6." -ChrisPexplosion

"so its gonna be like good old GH3 where you have to deafet an evil power!! YES YES YES!!! this was what i have waitet for :D :D (lets hope its a seller like GH3)" -TheTaylos

"LOL thi game owns rockband. sorry to say but rockband is just a stupid remake of guitar hero. btw THIS GAME IS OOF THE HOOK" - tsjakka7

Oof the hook indeed!

Jun 4, 2010