Without a doubt, what players are looking for most from Guitar Hero II is the new songs, so without further ado, here's what we've learned thus far. Black Sabbath returns with another classic track to go alongside fan favorite Iron Man with War Pigs. Other songs include Butthole Surfers - Who Was In My Room Last Night, Rush - YYZ, Van Halen's version of the Kinks' You Really Got Me, Reverend Horton Heat - Psychobilly Freakout, and KISS - Strutter. Hard rock band Drist, who had a song in the original Guitar Hero, will also have an exclusive track in Guitar Hero II, Arterial Black. Drist's Marcus Henderson is the guitarist behind recording many of the guitar tracks in the original Guitar Hero as well as Guitar Hero II. There's one other track that was unveiled, but I'll get to that soon enough.
In the multiplayer mode, Player 1's lead guitarist no longer splits up his playable track when joined by a friend, and is instead accompanied by a second audio channel performed by Player 2. Depending on the song, this track can either be the bass, or a second guitar handling rhythm. Don't be fooled into thinking that the lead guitar will always be the star of the show, though. On the last of the unveiled tracks, Primus' John the Fisherman, Les Claypool's bass lines take center stage, both in terms of challenge and their contribution to the overall sound. It's also interesting to note that this song is the first Guitar Hero track to be an original master -- this isn't a cover, but Primus' actual studio recording. This could possibly pave the way for additional actual studio recordings making it into Guitar Hero II.
Playing bass worked very much like how playing lead guitar is handled, except you have to have a strong ear for the subtleties of the generally behind-the-scenes rhythm instrument, as opposed to the in-your-face wailing you were used to in Guitar Hero. The two-player action is relentless this time around, and you'll be playing non-stop throughout a track when matched up with a friend, instead of the back and forth "Dueling Banjos" style of gameplay from the original. From strictly a gameplay perspective, not much has changed in the essential Guitar Hero gameplay, although we did notice that there are now three-finger chords in the mix, ramping up the game difficulty to some extent.
