Rock Band 2

"Not bad, but it's no Guitar Hero 1."

Let me start by saying, yes it's a nice game but it is in no way more innovative as GH1. Yes they were both done by Harmonix but when GH1 came out, it really opened up the type of game Guitar Freeks started. Sure, there's drums, and singing, but they're really only there because they wanted to expand the game so it would be more fun.

Graphics: They're very nice. Not groundbreaking, but nice. The main part of the visuals should be the notetrack however it is nowhere near as nice to look at as the other versions, or any GH game for that matter, when a note is successfully hit.

Gameplay: It's nice but we've seen it all before. GuitarFreeks, Guitar Hero, Drummania, Singstar. What does RB2 do that's new? Not much.

Hardware: Decent at best. The drums form air bubbles that ruin the pad rendering the kit useless. The guitars are nowhere near as reliable or good to use as GH guitars. The mic is a standard Logitech mic and is actually the best made instrument in the bundle. To get drums that work, GoodWoods with destroyer pedal, over $100 must be spent.

Sound: The highlight of the game, the sound is awesome on most televisions however on some it is rather poor, though that is just the tv's fault.

Online Community: Awful for the most part. If you want an enjoyable online experience, add some people's friend codes and play with them. It's appalling how many people don't know how to keep a combo of more than 3 on Easy mode.

DLC: I was wrong, the highlight of the game is the downloadable content. RB2's store has many songs of every genre. So many in fact that you will certainly find many songs to fit your musical taste. However, with this great downloadable content, there are drawbacks. Let me take you back to the online community portion of this review. Remember how most people on there are really bad? Well, none of them have DLC. Very few of the people who are decent or better (which is an already small number) have DLC. Factor in the different possible tastes in music of the people playing together and DLC is very rare to find in online matches. It's also sad that this is the highlight of the game seeing as many people will never even look at the list of DLC. Also, it took a while to actually get the store up and running with very few songs. Everyone was disappointed by this and nobody would have minded the game being delayed until a functional store was up and running.

By all means get the game, but just know, it's all been done before.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/09

Game Release: Rock Band 2 (US, 12/18/08)