Guitar Hero Live Mobile Review – So Much Innovation But iOS GHTV Disappointing & Costly

It’s been five years since the last major release from the Guitar Hero franchise. The series took a five year hiatus and is now back with a new guitar peripheral and presentation style featuring full motion video (FMV). While most fans of the series are playing on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it should interest many to know that Guitar Hero Live (GH Live) is also available for your mobile (iOS) devices. Welcome to Guitar Hero Live Mobile.

This review covers my impressions of the game from playing on the iPhone 5S. The game can also be played on the iPad, iPod Touch and the new Apple TV. In order to play GH Live on your iOS device you will also need a Game Center Login, which is free.

GH Live can be played one of two ways: using the new guitar peripheral or by tapping your screen using your fingers. Of course, using the guitar peripheral is the best way to experience GH Live. The new guitar peripheral is virtually identical to its PlayStation 4 counterpart. The only difference is that the iOS guitar doesn’t require a USB dongle as it connects through Bluetooth.

GH Live is split up into two parts: Live and GHTV. Live is the games offline component that features quick play and the career mode. The new FMV presentation style sees you play the game with real band mates on stage and crowds that react to your playing. The new presentation style is an interesting direction for the game and offers the most realistic experience of what it’s like to be on stage, even if your band mates overact at times. While the new presentation style is a vast improvement over past games in the series, I didn’t feel like I had any connection with my band mates. Since the career mode sees you play across two festivals with a dozen or so different bands playing three song sets, I felt more like a session musician than an actual member of a band. You don’t really come to know who your band members are or what makes them tick.

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“The watered down version of GHTV for the iOS left me feeling empty and bored with the service.”

The career mode plays similar to it’s PlayStation 4 counterpart. The only difference is that the FMV background only takes up the top half of the screen for the iPhone compared to the whole screen for the PlayStation 4. The on disc setlist features over 40 songs with an emphasis on more recent music. Gone are the days of hard rock dominating the Guitar Hero setlist. It’s clear that Activision is trying to attract a new audience for the game. While the soundtrack does have some enjoyable songs from artists including Katy Perry, Green Day and Arctic Monkeys, I was let down by the lack of variety and small song list. The career mode is quite short and can be completed in under 5 hours. Once your done the career mode, there isn’t much reason to go back unless you’re a score chaser. It’s also disappointing that no more songs will be released as DLC for the Live portion of the game as the full emphasis seems to be on GHTV.

GHTV is where the real meat of the game is, at least on the consoles. GHTV allows you play along to two music channels featuring over 200 songs (with more to be added weekly) and an on demand section that lets you play any song from the online library. Sadly GHTV on the iOS is a watered down version of what’s already available on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You cannot level up, use hero powers, earn player cards, play Premium shows or earn play tokens. Instead you can only play the music channels and you are forced to pay real money for the on-demand songs. The console version of the game allows you to use play tokens you earn from levelling up to play on-demand songs so you never technically have to pay out of your pocket if you don’t want to. The iOS version gives you an option of purchasing a 24 hour or 30 minute pass. The watered down version of GHTV for the iOS left me feeling empty and bored with the service. What really drives the addictive nature of GHTV on the consoles is the ability to level up and unlock new items and customize your note highway and player cards.

GH Live’s iOS guitar bundle retails for the same price as its console counterparts ($100 USD). If you don’t want the guitar bundle you can choose to pay $59.99 which lets you play the game using finger tapping. Both options present a steep barrier to entry considering its console counterparts are much better. Do yourself a favour and play GH Live PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, before touching the IOS version.

***A retail iOS bundle was provided by the publisher***