I’ve recently had the opportunity to spend some time with the new “Freedom V” Wireless Guitar Hero controller, courtesy of “The Ant Commandos” (TAC). These are the same folks who brought us the “Shredder” guitar controller earlier this year, which I also recently reviewed. Luckily it looks like TAC’s really made some headway with their newer guitar, and Guitar Hero fans are in for a treat. We’ll follow the same format as the former review here, judging each aspect of the Freedom V on a scale from 1-5. Let’s take a look at the various categories vying for our loving attention today!
Style:
The Freedom V catches your attention immediately with its very sexy design, metallic paint and chrome details. The Fret buttons are nice and glossy in color with a very smooth sense to the touch, and the Strum bar is a polished chrome color that immediately draws your eye. The Start and Select buttons also carry a nice chrome veneer, easily grabbing your attention like
the strum bar does. Last but not least is the Whammy Bar, which is also chrome
and carries a firm rubber tip that should help to ensure that even the most
enthusiastic players don’t mar the fantastic paint job this guitar comes with.
Our review unit, graciously provided by TAC, is a dead-sexy Candy-Apple red with metallic highlights. The guitar is also available in a striking metallic blue (which I saw at Best Buy and is quite the attractive unit as well), which we hope we’ll get the next time we review one of TAC’s guitars. Hopefully that will be when the inevitable Xbox 360 variant becomes available).
The guitar also comes with a sheet of hot and fancy stickers that many will undoubtedly love, but to be honest I couldn’t bring myself to cover the beautiful red paint job by applying any. Maybe I’ll put them on the Shredder instead.
Score: 5
Performance:
So, how does it perform, you ask? Let’s start with the good news: The Freedom V is superior to the Shredder in every regard, with the one possible caveat being that some people might prefer the style of the Shredder
(or for that matter, the Gibson SG from Red Octane) to the Flying V style. These are issues of mere aesthetic preference, however, and let’s face it, there’s no pleasing everyone.
Right off the bat you’ll notice that the Freedom V feels good in your hands, and the buttons feel easy and sensitive to the touch. The Fret buttons in particular are soft and easy to manipulate, surpassing even the
original GH controller’s sensitivity. Early on this additional sensitivity can take a little getting used to for fans who’ve played extensively with the SG controller that comes with the game, but you’ll notice in short order that the more sensitive buttons provide for a more pleasurable experience that won’t leave your fingers in as much pain as the original. While not completely alleviating the discomfort that some will experience, if you find yourself particularly bothered by the SG (or for that matter, the Shredder) but you still want to rock the house in GH, you will certainly want to give the Freedom V a try.
It’s worth noting that unlike TAC’s “Shredder” guitar, the fret buttons on the Freedom V are oriented correctly (i.e., they’re the same as on the original Red Octane controller), so those put-off by that design
idiosyncrasy will not need to worry about it on the Freedom V.
The Strum Bar feels as you’d expect—it produces a solid “click” sound when flicked, and it does so easily and without too much thumb strength required. Truth be told, neither myself nor my esteemed
Editor-in-Chief (or whatever) were able to discern a difference between it and the original. The chrome plating used is a bit more slick than the naked plastic of the original SG controller, but this neither hinders performance nor is particularly noticeable beyond the initial contact.
The Whammy bar feels very solid and, unlike the annoying SG or the Shredder, it doesn’t exhibit the tendency to fall down out of reach during normal gameplay. The one major gripe I always had about the SG, which the Shredder duplicates in top form, is that the whammy bar would disappear from my normal reach during extended periods where it’s not used. The Freedom
V’s, meanwhile, is rock solid and maintains itself in whatever position I leave it in. This is excellent especially for those of us with smaller hands that might not easily recover well on the harder modes of the game, though in fairness it could potentially get in the way of people who prefer it to disappear when not in use as it does on the SG and Shredder. I happen to find it a major improvement.
One of the most criticized features of the Shredder guitar has been that, unlike the SG, tilting the guitar upward to activate Star Power is iffy at best. Honestly, coming into this review I was expecting the same
trouble from the Freedom V, but to my surprise I have no complaints. If anything, it’s a bit more sensitive than the SG, meaning I don’t have to tilt it quite as far to get my star power action going. Anything that makes my life easier when rocking out to some of my favorite tunes, I’m all for! In that vein, it’s only proper that I follow the Star Power and talk about the Freedom V’s oh-so-nicely raised Select button.
Like the Shredder (and unlike the SG), the Freedom V’s Select button is elevated above the surface of the guitar to allow easier access for players who’d really rather not tilt the guitar upward to activate their Star Power. Unlike the Shredder, the Freedom V’s Select button is actually located in a place where it’s easy to simply “palm” without significant movement of your hand, thus reducing the possibility that you’ll actually miss an upcoming note. As avid players of Guitar Hero can tell you, this can be particularly important in some of the tougher songs and harder difficulty levels of the game.
Score: 5
Wireless
Functionality:
OK, let’s face it, you’ve been waiting for this part of the review since the beginning. It’s good that all the regular functions of the guitar work as well as they should, but the main point of buying a $59 wireless
guitar is, after all, the wireless functionality. You want to jump around while you rock, after all! You want to fall down and play with your knees bent, your ass on the floor and the frets reaching to the sky, all without getting tangled in the wire and sending your PS2 tumbling to the ground, right? Damn straight!
The wireless functionality of the Freedom V guitar is nearly flawless. Plug in the dongle, fire up the controller and your PS2, and in a couple of minutes you’ll be burning up the tunes just like with your wired controller. Perhaps the sole complaint here is that sometimes it takes a few seconds for the guitar to connect with the PS2. We’re not talking a long time here, maybe 5-10 seconds, but it’s enough to make you wonder if it’s working or not. This can be particularly troublesome if you’re not using fresh batteries (at first, we weren’t). So far we’ve logged several hours with a nice, new set and they seem to be going strong, so we think you can expect to get some good times out of a set of 4 AA’s, though we can’t tell you exactly how long.
What we don’t know yet is how well the guitar will work with Guitar Hero 2, due out this week. There are rumors on the web that there are problems with this guitar in GH2, but until we get our copy we can’t verify
that, so take it with a grain of salt. I’ll update this review as soon as I’ve tested, but I don’t see any reason to suspect there’s any truth to the rumor whatsoever.
EDIT: We’ve just confirmed via a representative from TAC that all currently shipping TAC guitars, from October 1st onward, are fully compatible with Guitar Hero II. For the earlier models an adapter has been made available by TAC for around $6–basically their cost–that will enable your older model controllers to work flawlessly with GHII.
Score: 4.5
Conclusion:
Overall, the TAC Wireless Freedom V Guitar Hero controller is an excellent accessory for those who enjoy the popular Guitar Hero game and would like to get a little more mileage out of the game with some wireless fun. It’s also highly recommended for those with large TV’s (50”+) for whom the typically 6’ cords on these peripherals leave you standing much too close to the TV. TAC’s solution will get you back to a more respectable distance with no worries about connectivity or getting tangled in wires that threaten to doom
your PS2, and it will do with great style and flair. The TAC Freedom V is available in both metallic red and metallic blue and has a variety of skins available to make your guitar more sexy (though honestly, the metallic red is already pretty damn hot, and we suspect the blue will be equally cool for an appropriate metaphor).
As a last note, I’d like to say that I’m very, very stoked about the forthcoming release of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360, and I like this guitar so much that I’d love to see TAC release, if possible, a USB dongle that could make this guitar work for that version. I realize it’s too late in the design stages to make the built-in transmitter work with 360, but even an unsightly USB attachment would be highly welcomed if I could get this beauty on that new system with what will undoubtedly be the definitive Guitar Hero experience.
Overall Score:
4.75
