2009's DJ Hero was perhaps the greatest music game to ever grace this good Earth. Well now just a year later we get a sequel with promise of even more scratching, fading, tapping and freestyling, but can it top the original game?
DJ Hero 2 is an improvement in every sense of the word. Nothing has been made worse or kept at the same standard, only improved. Lets start with the basics though.
The gameplay has been copied an pasted from DJ Hero 1 besides a few new additions and one removal which wont be missed. Gone is the freestyle tap where it would play a voice sound effect to completely ruin the song and in is the ability to freely tap the red button in designated zones to play a specific sound effect that compliments the music; In is the ability to 'freestyle crossfade' in certain sections, allowing you to choose what track is playing at what time and in is held taps to give those longer sound effects more meaning than a simple tap.
Campaign actually has a feeling of progression now thanks to 'Empire' mode, a mode where you must gain reputation by earning stars in order to play at new venues and gain new tracks, yeah that was in DJ Hero but this time round you feel as though you are progressing because of the way its been presented in new cleaner and more slick menu's, gone are the ugly and confusing menu's of DJ Hero 1 and in is a neatly categorised menu system featuring things such as 'Empire', Multiplayer, Options and Extras...its almost like they went back and looked at what made Guitar Hero so easy to use.
The songs have a better difficulty curve this time round, with songs getting gradually harder from the word go with the only minor difference being in person opinion of the final two songs 'Firestarter' by The Prodigy & 'Galvanize' by The Chemical Brothers, both of which will test your DJ'ing potential to the very limit with some of the most difficult note placements since 'Through the Fire and Flames' in Guitar Hero 3. The setlist is also much better with more highly recognised tracks and less of the chaff that seemed to pad out much of DJ Hero's soundtrack, the only disappointment is the lack of major DJ's, with only 1 pro DJ setlist per venue there is significantly less than in DJ Hero 1. That seems to ring true to the whole game too, it feels slimmer. The game doesn’t take as long to complete and besides the final setlist the songs are still to easy, even on the harder difficulties.
The game also looks much better with realist environments throughout and none of that weird half cartoon half real looking thing that DJ Hero 1 had going on. And of course the audio quality is top notch as it should be for a music game.
That is essentially DJ Hero 2...its less of a sequel and more of an expansion that improves in nearly every way. If you can look past the short length (around 8 hours compared to the originals 10) and the lack of pro DJ setlists then you will have a huge amount of fun with DJ Hero 2, a music game that shouldn’t be missed by any music game fan.
DJ Hero 2: 8/10
+Better Soundtrack
+Better Freestyling Abilities
+Better Sense of Progression
-Too Easy
-Too Short
