Rock Band

"The fun of a band. In your living room!"

Harmonix is no newcomer to the music game scene. They, along with RedOctane, made the first three Guitar Hero games (GH1, GH2, and GH80s). After this, the companies split and began working on separate projects. RedOctane teamed up with Neversoft to make Guitar Hero 3, while Harmonix teamed up with MTV Games and EA Games to make Rock Band.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics aren't bad, don't get me wrong. They just are nothing super-special like, say, Uncharted. There are some cool things though. For instance, throughout a song various filters are applied to the screen, so your band's performance looks like some sort of music video. There are some effects that go with the music, but there's not much to say here.

Sound/Music Selection: 9/10
The sound in this game is great. The quality of the music is all very good. My favorite part is the fact that many times, the audience will sing along to certain parts of the song (usually the chorus). It's not the lead singer's voice changed around either; it really sounds like a crowd of people singing along, like you'd hear in concert.

The soundtrack is also quite solid, with lots of variation. You get your punk, your metal, your rock, your country, your pop-rock, even some industrial rock like Nine Inch Nails. I quite frankly prefer the soundtrack of Guitar Hero 3, but to each his own. This is not a knock on the game; the soundtrack is still good and is probably more accessible because of its wide span of genres.

Harmonix also seems to be making far more DLC (Downloadable Content) than they did for their Guitar Hero games. As of writing, you can get a Punk pack, a Police pack, a Metallica pack, and a Black Sabbath pack. You can also buy songs individually. This is all done over the PlayStation Network Store. What's more, is that Harmonix has promised to even release full albums. Metallica fans rejoice: Metallica plans on releasing the first single from their next studio album on Rock Band!

Gameplay: 9/10
This is the meat of the game. There's a reason Rock Band has a steep price: it has four instruments (it comes with 3). You can play as lead guitar, bass guitar, vocals, and drums. I'll do some basic info first, then divvy it up into each instrument.

If you prefer to kick it solo, there's a solo career mode for you (and a quickplay mode). The best part of the game is the Band World Tour. You make a band with your friends, and you each select an instrument to play. You then go around the world at different venues earning fans and money. You can earn fans by playing well in venues, completing challenges such as not getting below a certain rating on a certain set list, or playing charity events which earn you more fans. The only flaws this mode has is: You cannot change the "Leader" of a band. The "Leader" ALWAYS has to play and is locked to a certain instrument. There is also no online Band World Tour, although rumor has it that it may be included in a future update.

Online play is also fun. You can do a band quickplay (where you can invite friends or find players to form a band then play some songs), a tug of war (like Guitar Hero's Face-off mode), and a score duel (similar to Guitar Hero's Pro Face-off).

Guitar/Bass: The Fender Stratocaster is your axe. It's really the only one you can use; as of writing, there is an incompatibility issue with the Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul. Harmonix is trying to work with Activision to resolve this issue, but currently the game only works with the Strat. No big deal; the Strat is a pretty guitar, and it's quite good. The original production ones had some issues, but as of writing they are supposed to be fixed. The Strat has five main fret buttons, and a strum bar. There are also five solo buttons, which you can use during solos without strumming. There is a whammy bar to change the sound of a held note, and to extract Overdrive (Star Power) from held notes. There is also a small toggle switch to change what effect your guitar has when you activate Overdrive.

Gameplay is the same as Guitar Hero. You have up to five rectangular notes scrolling down the board (The first three for Easy, the first four for Medium, and all five for Hard and Expert). These notes pass over note indicators. You hold down the corresponding fret, and strum the strum bar when the note(s) pass over the indicator. Should you time it right, you'll hit the note! There are also hammer-ons and pull-offs. These notes are represented by smaller, more square notes. When you see one, you are able to play the note before it and then press the fret that corresponds the the hammeron/pulloff without strumming.

Overdrive is the equivalent of Guitar Hero's starpower, with some twists. If you play a string of notes that glow white correctly, you receive Overdrive. When in band mode, it can be used to rescue a band member that has failed out of a song. Be quick; if a band member stays failed out for too long, you all fail the song. When activated, Overdrive doubles your score and will boost your rock meter when you hit notes (so if you're hitting tricky sections and risking failure, activating Overdrive could save you). Another difference is that when Overdrive is activated, you can still hit Overdrive notes. Done correctly, you can sustain your Overdrive for a long time. Overdrive is activated by tilting the guitar.

The songs for the most part are moderate in difficulty, at least on the Hard / Expert settings. Some of the later songs can give players trouble, but veterans of Guitar Hero's Hard and Expert modes should have no trouble with the guitar and bass in Rock Band.

Vocals: I admit I have not played around with the vocals, mainly because I am not a good singer! My sister on the other hand is quite good at the vocals. For vocals to work, you simply use the provided microphone (or any microphone really, just has to be USB) and use a Playstation controller to navigate the menus. The vocals are essentially karaoke. The words scroll across the screen. In addition, you also see a line which shows the pitch. When you sing, the microphone picks up your voice. You must sing according to pitch, which is indicated by an arrow. The closer and straighter the arrow is to the line, the better you're hitting the notes. Just so you know, you don't have to sound EXACTLY the same. Deep-voiced and high-voiced singers can do any song; as long as you hit the right pitch, you can be four octaves lower and not screw up. You also do not have to say the right words; there is no speech detection. There are also sections (or whole songs) where there is no real singing; just saying words to a certain beat.

Overdrive with the vocals works by hitting the notes correctly in a marked Overdrive section. Then, in another marked section, the singer just says something (a yell like "Ow!" or whatever works) to activate starpower. This makes it harder for singers to rescue fallen band members, because unlike guitarists they cannot activate Overdrive at will.

The vocals appear to be pretty fun if you're a good singer. I haven't given them a go, but I admit that there are songs on the soundtrack that I enjoy singing to in the shower.

Drums: My favorite. You get four drum pads, which are raised up in the air. You also get a bass pedal. You use two drum sticks. Of all the instruments in the game, vocals and drums are the closest to real life.

The drums work a bit differently from guitar (asides from the obvious!). Your note screen only shows 4 note indicators. The four drum pads are colored red, blue, green, and yellow. The bass pedal is the orange note. The drum pads are represented by the same rectangular notes. The bass pedal is represented by an orange line that spans the entire noteboard. When a note passes over the note indicator, you hit the corresponding drum pad (and/or push the bass pedal). After a few tries, any newbie to the drums will be able to get through songs just fine.

By far, the hardest part of the drums is getting your arms and foot to think independently. That bass pedal will also quickly wear out any feet that aren't trained to constantly push a big mallet into a bigger bass drum. Regardless, the drums are incredibly fun.

Overdrive is achieved the same way as guitar: hit the white notes, get Overdrive power. However, it is activated only in certain parts of a song. You will see four big black rectangles surrounded by a color (the same as the drum pads) come down the note screen. During that sequence you can hit whatever pads you want. At the end of the sequence, you must hit the green drum pad when this big, fat note passes over it. If you hit it, your Overdrive is activated.

The drums are probably the center of attention at any Rock Band party, so call dibs on it fast!

Conclusion
Rock Band is an innovative game that will undoubtedly attract anyone that likes music. It is well worth the money for all that you get. Replayability is no problem; even if you can't sing, guitar and drums alone make the experience fun. With all of the DLC packs, there is bound to be a continuous stream of music.

The 8/10 comes from the issues that players have had with their guitars and bass pedals (both of which have supposedly been addressed), the lack of online Band World Tour, and the "Leader" issue with Band World Tour. And the GH3 Les Paul issue. Other than that, Harmonix has done it again: released a game that is entertaining, has good music, and is sure to please any music fan.

If you're bored with Guitar Hero and want a new music game experience, I highly recommend Rock Band.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/07

Game Release: Rock Band (US, 11/20/07)