Rock Band 2

"For those who want to rock…turn on this game!"

Rock Band 2, part two of a franchise that will slowly but surely creep up on Guitar Hero with it's constant DLC content and occasional free songs offering well near 500 songs by years end.

Graphics: These rhythm games are never well known for excellent graphics outside of character creation and even that is not that great, but it does what it needs to do, puts out a chart to play the songs you like while giving you the usual options for character creation. I still kinda like the Guitar Hero charting better, but that's just personal preference.

Sound: The soundtrack for this game in my opinion is excellent this time around for the most part. The first installment had several hit or miss tracks, this one I think can make many more happy this time around, with perhaps the exception of maybe a few tracks that may turn users off due to difficulty alone, but I'll get more into that later. I'm curious to see if Guitar Hero gets the best soundtrack award again, because this time around I find Rock Band 2's track list better than Guitar Hero: World Tour. This and of course weekly DLC will keep the game fresh for a while. Everything sounds like you think it would. If you're a fan of the songs and the game then you know what the game will sound like, enough said.

Story: Since I don't want to leave this completely blank, here it goes. You want to rock out to catchy tunes, and you and a group of friends of yours happen to share the same goal. You all get together one night, grab your plastic instruments, make a band, and go on tour (In case you haven't caught on, yes it's made up and simple because there is no “storyline” for this game).

Gameplay: This is where things get start to get lengthy as far as this review goes. Simply put if you played the first rock band you mostly know what to expect but otherwise, the story section tells what you basically do. There are new features this time around though. You no longer have to create separate characters if you want to play a separate instrument (bout freaking time…). Bass Players, yes you can play solo now and feel special. For vocals the talky parts are now actually possible to hit on the songs that they caused difficulty, the games new vocal system fixes this issue. Band leaders are gone! This was a really dumb feature in the first one that was removed. You may now play your band with or without as many people in it as you want and swap them at any time. No needing to have the band leader in order to do anything in the band. You can even substitute online friends and such at any time.

Tour mode has been expanded. You may now play songs in a given order or mix it up a bit by creating your own set list. Travel the world and play songs at different gigs, accept random challenges the game throws at you involving gaining fans, or more money, or even film a video. This time around you can even unlock staff members to help you gets fans/money quicker. There is also no longer a “lockout” on fan gain if you cannot play harder difficulties. You will get fans less quickly, but still get them. In the first game, if you couldn't go harder you got no fans. The Challenge Mode basically replaces the solo mode in which there are different lists in which you can do alone as with anything in tour mode by yourself. Lists are generated based on DLC (downloadable content) you have from the previous game if you did that, in addition to the lists that already come with the game. This is the best way to go if you don't necessarily care about the tour rather than getting all the songs because unfortunately, you have to unlock the full track list with Rock Band 2 and play the songs or at least see them in tour or on a challenge before you have them. Battle of the Bands will keep bands looking for a challenge very happy. They change every so often and are random challenges put up online which have their own separate leaderboards. Something else added to keep the game fresh. There will always be new thing to do on this every so often whether it's a score battle or who can keep overdrive the longest, whatever it is that is on there. The songs are now sorted the way they were sorted previously on the online store for purchasing DLC. You see the album art and difficulties for each song now, not a big update but it looks much better in my opinion. For those wondering if they threw in new clothes for customizing, yes, I don't think it's much to get excited about, then again the girls clothing choice in this game just like the first one seems to be better once again. Personal opinion, yet again, but main point being, more customization options, I don't think there is enough worth mentioning.

Game Mechanics: So here we go again with lengthiness…but here it is. This obviously is not your typical game in which you worry about if you can control your character or so. You PLAY INSTRUMENTS. Provided you calibrate your TV right it will play fine. There are areas of mention though as far as instruments with the game and such. Before I get into that though I'd like to mention that the one pressing issue as far as hitting notes in particular in regards to guitar/bass, yes, you have to hit notes more accurately than Guitar Hero, the hitbox still requires you being pretty damn close on timing of hitting the notes, and the hammer-ons/pull-offs still suck in this games. If you want to strum once and hit like 20 notes afterwards and expect it to work, play Guitar Hero. Moving on… (This all talks about stock Rock Band 2 equipment, the stuff that comes in the box of the Rock Band 2 Band Kit)

Guitar/Bass: The new guitar for Rock Band 2, sunburst finish…cool, and auto-calibration. Cool right? Yes, but that's it…if you didn't like the Rock Band 1 guitar you won't like this one either. The buttons are “quieter” but not by much. The strum bar is “less squishy” which is not true in my opinion. Still expect to miss fast rapid note passages with this guitar. The whammy bar is just as loose as the first one. If you have access to a guitar hero guitar or even a decent 3rd party one, do yourself a favor and stick with that. Mic: Same stock mic that came with the first game to my knowledge, works fine. Although and USB mic will work, your call. Drums: The only thing worth upgrading if anything at all. The drums deliver as promised. I waited to post this so I could try the kit for myself as I kept hearing mixed reviews about it, when I got to a Best Buy I tested these out first, then the rest of the stuff, which is why I now review them all obviously. Anyway, the drums…are awesome. The pads are quieter indeed and the bounceback on the pads is much better, making drum rolls much easier. The foot pedal appears to be the same stock pedal with a metal plate over it. When I heard this, I wasn't pleased, but from testing it out it works surprisingly well and is comfy. Definitely better than the first games flimsy stock pedal. I personally can't decide when I get these drums if I want to stick with my wooden foot pedal or use the one on here. There are also jacks in the back for cymbol add ons later on. It's clearly a ploy to get you to buy more, yes, but cool regardless. If none of this makes you happy, well there is the ION drum kit which can also work as an electronic drum kit but will run you around $300. As far as I know they are awesome, but pricey.

Overall: This is the entire review in a nutshell, you're gonna love this game, it's fun for everyone. If you're expecting a whole new game though, you're not going to get that. This is more like Rock Band 2.0 instead of full out sequel to the first one. While it has some new modes, it's the the same old rock band. But hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it which is exactly what they are doing and I think it works quite well.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/08

Game Release: Rock Band 2 (US, 10/19/08)