FreeStyleGames have reinvented the legendary Guitar Hero franchise, with two innovative new gameplay modes and an all-new guitar controller. Guitar Hero Live can also be played by two players, both playing on separate guitar controllers with split-screen separate note highways, competing for the better score.

Hero Power, replacing Star Power from previous Guitar Hero games, is collected by correctly playing marked series of notes on the track; Hero Power can be accumulated, marked as on-screen guitar picks next to the track, to be used at later times.The live TV and online parts add to the game play, making it a fun experience for both beginners and experienced players. On 14 April 2015, Activision officially announced a reboot of the Guitar Hero franchise, Guitar Hero Live, with development by FreeStyleGames. Access to Premium Shows could be purchased with Hero Cash, or by completing several specific songs in either on-demand or on rotation play. Hirshberg had encouraged the team to reconsider Guitar Hero, noting the fan dedication to the series, but noted that the game needed innovation to be successful. It's actually real people in the crowd, backstage and playing in the band with you which makes it feel like your important and motivated to play well.

GH Live [ edit ] Guitar Hero Live utilizes a new presentation style incorporating live-action footage from the perspective of the guitarist, rather than 3D stages and characters. The only slight niggle I can make is that it doesn't go out all the way, there is a line in the crowd where the people turn into computer generated characters, but it's hardly noticeable and I'm sure would have cost a lot for something which probably wouldn't add much benefit to the effect. When in touch mode, the note display geared towards the 6-button controller is replaced with four touch-screen buttons but otherwise retains the same gameplay; with the controller, the game otherwise plays the same. You also get a multiplier up to 4x (8x with star power), but for some reason they removed all this for 'story mode'? I did feel although there is a lot I liked about this part of the game, it felt too simple, was over too quickly as there is only two main venues, and it felt like it wasn't the main part of the game.It was also nominated for "Excellence in Convergence" for the 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards, [77] and for the "Family" award at the 2016 British Academy Games Awards.

The final design of the controller for Live utilizes a new design with six buttons arranged into two rows of three frets, designated by black and white-colored notes in-game, instead of using the traditional row of five colored frets used by previous Guitar Hero games.

Further, with a limited budget, the song selection was limited to "low-budget" hits of the 1990s, or at times reusing songs that had previously been included in Guitar Hero games. McElroy found most of the songs were from 2000 or later, forgoing classic rock songs, and considered the soundtrack to be the "biggest disappointment" of GH Live.