Screenshots & trailers
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (Metacritic) | – | 80 | 20 |
| Creator reviews (3 tracked) | – | 91 | 3 |
| All-time Steam reviews | – | – | 0 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 62 | 107 |
| Backloggd ratings | – | 41 | 545 |
| Xbox store ratings | – | 55 | 750 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | – | – | 0 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 0 reviews sampled · 0 total reviews in window · weighted 0 up / 0 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (68)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 90
“Guitar Hero Live is a bold new step forward for the series, as well as peripheral-based music games overall. While Rock Band 4 stuck more rigidly to tradition and provided a solid party game, Live delivers a more personal game, albeit one with a lot more going on under the hood.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Guitar Hero Live isn't just a remolding of how we think about plastic guitars, but how audiences listen to music.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Even with some omissions in game modes and questionable microtransactions policy, new Guitar Hero is simply a blast to play and brandishes an improved plastic guitar.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Guitar Hero Live is a pop-rock surprise, specially in GHTV mode which contains more than 200 songs and videos, progression system, real time rankings... A truly fresh, innovative take on a genre crying out for something new. We want more channels and tracks, Activision. This game is a hope. ”
read full review ↗ - 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.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Guitar Hero Live represents a re-release of the franchise, bent on bringing innovation and relevance back to a lost genre; its production values are off the charts, but the game leaves behind some essential features such as challenge, social gameplay and content preservation.”
read full review ↗ - 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.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Guitar Hero Live is a great way to revive a dead franchise, adding interesting new elements and twists the original formula. This time both beginner and veteran players will have to learn their way through the new plastic guitar. And that sounds amazing!”
read full review ↗ - 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.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“Guitar Hero Live is exactly what the franchise needed after its five-year hiatus, and I’d go as far to say it’s what the whole genre needed. Although naysayers will lament the lack of more instruments or complain about the non-permanence of extra songs, for many, Live will become the quintessential party game and is already set to be a permanent fixture in my sitting room.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“A spirited attempt to reinvent Guitar Hero and the music game genre, but the freemium approach to additional content has its obvious drawbacks.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“New guitar offers fresh mechanics and combinations. Live-Action style looks pretty (at the same time;so cool!). But the new microtransaction stem can ruin everything.”
read full review ↗
The Jimquisition
Slant Magazine
PLAY Zine
Push Square
LevelUp
The Escapist
Eurogamer
GameSpot
TheSixthAxis
Metro GameCentral…and 56 more tracked reviews.