Rock Band is a multiplatform rhythm game for the Playstation 3, and
Xbox360 (Also soon for the Wii) made by Harmonix (ex Guitar Hero guys).
As stated Rock Band is a rhythm game that has you pressing buttons on
plastic instruments as notes come streaming towards you on the screen.
The game comes with a guitar, drum set, and a microphone (considering
you get the special edition version of the game). The game has a pretty
steep price tag for the whole package but the game is definitely worth
the price. Or now if you don't want every instrument they now sell all
the peripherals separately so you can buy the game and just one
instrument if you want.
Songs are mainly focused for multiplayer gaming but that dose not
mean that playing the single player is any less fun. For single player
you choose your instruments from the ones listed above, create your
character and then you start rocking. The game is played by pressing
coloured buttons on your instrument corresponding with the colours that
flow down the chart. Also via the Guitar Hero series they have the
super power of the game called Overdrive. You get this by hitting a
series of white gems that occasionally scroll down the screen and when
you get your bar half filled you either tilt you guitar or play the
drum fill to activate it. This power gives you double points for notes
and also refills your rock meter at the side faster which will help you
on tough parts of the songs. The main set list contains of 58 songs
with such great songs as Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who,
Foreplay/Longtime by Boston, Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult,
the list goes on. Also Harmonix have put in the famous bonus track list
with bands like Freezepop and Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer
Incentives. These bonus tracks are great additions to the list and go
along well with all the main songs.
The difficulty of Rock Band starts off easy enough for people who
are new to the rhythm genre to be able to play and have fun, but in the
high difficulties it is challenging enough to keep you veterans of the
timed button mashing on your toes. Also the difficulty curve is very
even. There is never a point in the game where you will be playing a
set on medium then the next set on medium will just come out of know
where and kick your ass (*cough* last set on Guitar Hero 3 on expert
*cough*). The hardest of all the instruments though is unsurprisingly
the drums. The kick pedal is a new thing for your brain to get used to
and will be hard at first but as you get later into the game you will
be wondering how you ever had a hard time with it.
The guitar for Rock Band is modeled off the real life guitar, the
Fender Stratocaster and is solidly built and is also wireless.
Unfortunately it dose not connect directly to your systems wireless, it
is wireless because you have to plug in a wireless nub into one of our
systems USB ports. The neck on the guitar is thinner than I would like
it to be since I am used to the Guitar Hero neck thickness but it is
still comfortable none the less. The button set up is your standard
five button set up with your favourite green, red, yellow, blue, and
orange buttons. The one cool new feature on the guitar controller is
the added "Solo Buttons" on the lower neck of the guitar. These buttons
are smaller and closer together. When you get into a solo on the guitar
track (you will know when you are in it when the note path goes all
blue and a percent sign shows up above the path.) you are able to hit
all those notes without strumming which is a great help on the harder
difficulties. Like the insane solo on the song Green Grass and High
Tides by The Outlaws. Also another new feature on the guitar a little
slider on the guitar which changes the sound effect that the guitar
makes when you go into overdrive mode. It is not a big part to the game
but it adds some fun. Also the bass is set up the same way as the
guitar; accept the multiplier can go up to six instead of only the
regular four.
The drums are one of the more interesting instruments to play in
the game. It has four main pads that you hit with the drum sticks and
the bass pedal on the floor. The drum set is wired, but that is good
because you do not want any latency between you hitting the pad and the
notes on the screen. When you first start drums the bass pedal will be
the bane of your existence and you will possibly want to smash it. But
once you get used to it you will be able to alternate between hitting
the pads and the pedal without thinking about it. Some of the song gets
ridiculously hard on the drums. For example Run to the Hills by Iron
Maiden. This song was the last song I beat on the drums and it is noted
as the second hardest song…… The song is just a flurry of red coming at
you all the time for the whole song. The drums are not the sturdiest of
the instruments; in fact I had my bass pedal snap in half on me.
Nothing a little duck tape couldn't fix but that's not the point. The
drums are going to be smashed on they should have made them a little
sturdier.
The last instrument is the microphone. It is a standard
microphone… There is nothing special about it. The game play for
singing is your standard karaoke game the words come across the screen
and you have to sing the word at a certain pitch. One cool thing is
that when like a tambourine or cowbell part comes up in the song these
circles and when they get in the area you hit the microphone against
your hand like a tambourine and it's a really fun addition to the
singing.
Even though the single player game is straight forward complete a
set of songs then move on to the next until you are done. The
multiplayer has a more depth to it then that. In multiplayer you have
your standard quick play option but now you also have Band World Tour.
This mode you and a friend make a character or use previous ones that
you have created and make your own band. You get to make your own band
name, choose where you're from and then you're off. In the start you
play the easier sets getting money and getting fans. The more fans you
have the more venues and song you can play. But also the game forces
you to get better so you can't just cruise all the way through the
world tour mode on easy. Eventually when you get to a certain amount of
fans you will have to move up a difficulty level. The difficulty raise
dose not come too fast that's to the latest patch and the songs do not
repeat too often so you won't be hearing the same song over and over in
the set lists.
The game has been out for a while and with that a ton of
downloadable content has come along with it. Rock Band has been coming
out with a minimum of three songs a week since it came out. Since then
they have also released two albums. They have released Judas Priest
album Screaming for Justice and The Cars self titled album. All the
songs are priced at $1.99 unless otherwise posted like on whole albums
or song packs.
The game overall rocks (pun intended). You have a great 58 song
list before any type of DLC and with the DLC the list climbs to 100+.
Great peripherals to rock on, amazing note charts, and a whole bag o
fun in multiplayer Rock Band is game that you have to add to your
collection. Between rocking out with your friends and three new songs
coming out every week Rock Band will have you playing for a long time
to come.
Pros: Great rhythm game, good graphics, great song list, superb note charts, there's an instrument for everyone.
Cons: Instruments are a little fragile, single player mode dose not stack up to the fun of multiplayer.
