Guitar Hero Live

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 69 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 69
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 69
  3. Negative: 0 out of 69
Buy Now
Buy on
  1. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Dec 15, 2015
    70
    More accessible than Rock Band 4, and there are odd endorphins to be had from actors praising your efforts. It’s the tight-fisted nature of DLC that holds this back from greatness. [January 2015, p71]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. Games.cz
    Nov 19, 2015
    70
    A great innovative guitar is the main advantage of Guitar Hero Live, which shines especially at the moment when played together. However, some elements do not work in real life as well as they should and microtransactions in GHTV mode are downright unpleasant.
  3. Yahoo!
    Nov 18, 2015
    70
    Guitar Hero Live is a classic rock star: talented, interesting, bipolar, and filled with questionable ideas. The new guitar is a hit and the streaming mode is plenty of fun, but the full-motion video fail and annoying song rental model mar what could have been a legendary comeback album.
  5. Push Square
    Oct 26, 2015
    70
    There's no kidding that Guitar Hero Live is a very fun game, it just feels like it cares more about the money than it does about the fans.
  6. GamesRadar+
    Oct 21, 2015
    70
    Tracks are banging, the peripheral's bold and performing feels brilliant, but TV mode is a bust, making you rent songs rather than own them outright.
  7. Gameblog.fr
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    Guitar Hero Live offers great innovations compared to its best enemy Rock Band 4, and this is great, but the microtransactions policy that won't let you permanently buy any song is really frustrating, spoiling the rest of the experience.
  8. The Escapist
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    The changes made to Guitar Hero: Live go a long way in giving the series its own unique identity, but at the cost of making the game less fun to play than its competitors. An innovative post release content delivery system of streaming music elevates what's otherwise an average and expensive rhythm game.
  9. Level7.nu
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    Guitar Hero : Live is a comprehensive title, with several really interesting features. It contains a really entertaining online mode, and a pretty nice new guitar. But at the same time, we learned this concept already several years ago, and despite a long break, it is doubtful that the craving has come back.
  10. Game Revolution
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    Though Guitar Hero Live is rough around the corners and may not convince casual Guitar Hero players to return to their guitar-shredding ways, it sets a new standard in technology for peripherals, presentation, and online connectivity.
  11. Metro GameCentral
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    A spirited attempt to reinvent Guitar Hero and the music game genre, but the freemium approach to additional content has its obvious drawbacks.
  12. Post Arcade (National Post)
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    It’s a breath of fresh air. A true next-generation rhythm game...But it’s not going to be for everyone.
  13. Gameplanet
    Oct 20, 2015
    70
    Guitar Hero Live takes some chances and is a better game for it. The campaign and local multiplayer offerings are pretty weak, but GHTV's rotating channels are addictive. It's a shame the game's extra songs aren't available as DLC.
  14. New York Daily News
    Oct 26, 2015
    60
    The gutsiest Guitar Hero yet, but an imperfect title that you will both love and hate.
  15. CGMagazine
    Oct 26, 2015
    60
    If it wasn’t for some questionable design choices with the game’s most important element, it could have been a flawless experience.
  16. GameSpot
    Oct 20, 2015
    60
    Guitar Hero Live's reinvented mechanics makes music-driven gameplay fresh and fun again, and while that's a truly massive and meaningful change for the genre as a whole, the campaign's off-putting presentation and GHTV's unpleasant microtransactions all sour the experience built up around that gameplay.
This publication does not provide a score for their reviews.
This publication has not posted a final review score yet.
These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation.

In Progress & Unscored

?
  1. Ars Technica
    Dec 9, 2015
    With a cleverly reinvented guitar and whole music video channel of songs backing it up, Guitar Hero Live is the rhythm game for the people who got bored of rhythm games.

Awards & Rankings

62
#62 Best PS4 Game of 2015
60
#60 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2015
40
#40 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2015

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 198 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 100 out of 198
  2. Mixed: 42 out of 198
  3. Negative: 56 out of 198
  1. Half_Beast_333
    Oct 22, 2015
    2
    This is my first time I make a review, and I see this as public service.

    1-This game is a pay to play. 2-The new guitar is great    This is my first time I make a review, and I see this as public service.

    1-This game is a pay to play.

    2-The new guitar is great

    3-The games only comes with 42 songs. Out of those songs, you have to play some Eminem, Skrillex or Rihanna, which leaves you feeling like you are playing the keyboard part with your guitar. In fact, there must be 10 song that actually have an interesting guitar part available.

    4-The other song are available through a a play mode where you actually have to wait for the songs you want to play to come on. The songs are organised by TV shows (The rock show, then the Pop show, then the metal show). So if you want to play the song in an order of your liking, you can't unless you pay. You want to play the metal songs? The metal show is at 8:30 tonight, well tough luck if you don't pay. And even then, you don't chose the songs, they are chosen for you.

    I used to play all song at expert in the old Guitar Hero. Me and my brother would grind Hangar 18 or free
    bird until we were beast at it. We would compare our score and practice. Now, it's not possible, it's not meant to be played that way unless you pay 5,99$ to unlock the right to chose your song for 24h.

    This is a steal, the game store won't buy my game back and I have to sell it on ebay myself.

    So in the end, if you only like 20% of the song list, don't buy, cause you'll have to pay every time you want to play your favorite song or wait for them to come up by looking at the tv show schedule.    … Full Review »
  2. Euknowia
    Oct 20, 2015
    5
    In all installments of Guitar Hero, the music set list has always baffled me to some extent, though with Guitar Hero Live I’m undoubtedlyIn all installments of Guitar Hero, the music set list has always baffled me to some extent, though with Guitar Hero Live I’m undoubtedly feeling mocked (as if a plastic toy guitar wasn’t goofy enough). Skrillexs’ “Bangarang” and Eminem’s “Berzerk?” Relative to all other possible songs, why choose an outlier so dissimilar and distinct from those that offer a more “relevant” Guitar Hero experience? Perhaps still unused but classic, guitar focused songs are intentionally left out for micro-transaction purposes, or maybe these were selected based off a misconception of consumer taste (or what I hope is a misconception). I understand that something as subjective as music taste will inevitably raise my brow for some song choices, but does that ambiguity really mean there isn’t some pragmatic line to be drawn, especially given the near unfathomably large(and yet still growing) pool of music that illustrate the guitar much more prominently?

    There are certainly some calibration issues. I eventually became acclimated to the delay, but the system that “automatically corrects” latency and the like created more of a headache than help.

    The “Play” micro-transaction system is, well, concerning to say the least. You no longer permanently unlock DLC songs, you use a type of currency (which you can get more of by grinding or using real $$) to “play” them a select amount of times. Wondering whether a “Play” of a song is worth grind time felt revolting. Some may feel indifferent, but I hated it. Compared to how Rock Band 4 implemented their past DLC and, well, yeah… this method seems much worse. In the past, I often perceived DLC songs to be a bit overpriced, though it always seemed like a vague evaluation—but I certainly don’t have the faintest of ideas as to properly valuing a singular “Play” of a song. Also, pre-order song bonuses is, and will continue to be, disgusting.

    No real practice mode. Not a huge detriment since I usually played by trial and error, but still absent.

    GHTV 24/7 music playlist is neat. Channels play a variety of different music (including several familiar GH tracks) non-stop and allow you to jump in at your discretion. It desperately needs more music and channels, but it’s an interesting idea.

    The whole “Live” background thing was cringe, awkwardly disingenuous, and unnecessary. That said, I thought it was sort of hilarious and I kind of liked it for that reason. I don’t necessarily prefer it, but at least it was refreshingly different.

    New guitar was “Meh.” Not all that bad, but certainly not all that innovative. Re-instilled some difficulty which curtailed some interest, but only briefly. I would have been just as content with the old guitar to be honest. If you played on expert in the previous GH games like I have, I’m inclined to think you will be also be able to start on the highest difficulty and do fine (with some learning of new chords).

    Online multiplayer is score only (real-time and leaderboards). Not so different, but I appreciated the older matchmaking a bit better.

    Overall, GH Live is a presently mediocre game which has the potential to get better (increased GHTV channels and library), but not currently worth its price. Simply “throw away” any ideas of purchasing this game, as Activision Jackson so keenly recognizes as part of our modern societal nature- or at least until the growing pains have finished. Unless you actually like the music set list!! Then go get your ears checked...    … Full Review »
  3. prinny
    Oct 21, 2015
    5
    The big thing is the controller change - and I can't really find a way to put it as a pro or a con. It's different, and presents a newThe big thing is the controller change - and I can't really find a way to put it as a pro or a con. It's different, and presents a new challenge; however the way you play now feels disjointed. I'm not sure whether to completely blame the syncronisation issues for this, but I believe the new row of buttons as well as the confusing highway UI have a lot to do with it. I really don't see the point of the new style guitar overall, but glad it was only $109 AUD for the pack.

    Pros: Pretty good setlist. I like the idea of the GH online and so far haven't found it too grindy.
    Cons: Same as its competitor, it doesn't look like you can play head to head against a friend - extremely disappointing. Syncronisation for video and audio isn't separate - so while my audio is synced, the notes are out of sync. Feels more "jaggedy" than the smooth GH games of old, despite being on new hardware. Still requires a usb dongle.    … Full Review »
See all user reviews »