The A.V. Club writes: "Recent Guitar Hero games saw developer Neversoft favoring hardcore note-crunching over party-game simplicity. Guitar Hero 5 reverses that approach. Start the game, a song will cue up, and you'll see an invitation: play. Right from the menu, one to four people can jump into a random song, and can choose whatever instrument they like. Want a traditional band setup? Do it. Want a singer and three guitarists? Got four drum kits? Any setup works. Career mode remains, but all songs are unlocked in quickplay. Career mode offers extra challenges: band members have to hit notes only with upstrokes, or maintain a multiplier for a specified duration. Not interested? Ignore them."
