Rock Band

"The best music game ever made...for those who can afford it."

Got $170 lying around that you need to spend? Okay, probably none of you do, but I suggest you start saving now if you want to own the greatest music game ever made. Harmonix, the original makers of Guitar Hero (Guitar 1,2, and Rocks the 80's) have wasted no time in shattering any preconceived notions that Guitar Hero will be the best music game for years to come. After three successful outings with Guitar Hero, Harmonix was later bought by EA, and put to work trying to out do themselves, and in direct competition with the franchise they helped create, as Guitar Hero 3 was already slated for release. This time being made by Red Octane, the company who, before then, only created the controllers. So now what? How can you beat Guitar Hero? How can you defeat the thing you created? Well, by taking the logical step forward, allowing not just one person to play, but four. Interacting, rocking out, having fun, not as players, but as a band.

Rock Band is finally here, and delivers on all fronts. The special edition bundle, retailing for $169.99, comes with the game, a microphone, guitar, drums, and a 4 way usb hub for the 360. When you think about the price, it is only $70 dollars more than Guitar Hero 3, and in that sense is actually way cheaper than any of the Guitar Hero games. With Guitar Hero, all you got was the guitar game. Where as with Rock Band you get the guitar career, drum career, and vocal career, as well as a 4 player Band World Tour mode, where you and up to 3 other friends form a band, and rock out trying to get into the rock and roll hall of fame. 4 games in 1; not a bad deal.

The first cool thing you'll find about Rock Band is the customization options. You can finally create characters now, and man is it fun. At first this creation mode seems shallow. There are only about half-a-dozen faces to choose from, a few different hair styles, you can choose your stage style, whether it be the silent goth, or the uber-hyper punk. Height and weight is customizable, though weight is a little dissapointing since you can't make a fat guy, it only increases muscle mass. It's not til later when you start playing and going to the shop that you realize how deep it really is. It's here you can get facial hair, many different hair styles, hundreds of clothing options, hundreds of tattoos (not the generic tattoo's, real work done by real tattoo artists.) and much more. You can even customize your guitars with stickers and the like. You can also customize your band with a logo, and a band quote. Needless to say, there is more than enough here to make your very own unique character.

For the sake of this review, I'll split up the different portions of the game into little sections for each career, and rap it up with the band world tour mode.

VOCALS:

Clear your throat, and defeat that unbreakable shyness, because singing takes balls. A lot of balls. Unlike the other instruments, you really have to put yourself out there at the risk of being embarassed. Believe me, if you live in a dorm, or are living with someone else, people will walk into the room to hear what the commotion is. Once you get over the fear of being embarassed, you may actually find vocals to be your favorite part of the game. And hey, think about it, you get to headline the band for all your trouble. Pretty good trade off.

Singing is just like the Karaoke Revolution series. The words appear at the bottom of your section of the screen, scrolling right to left. Above the words are long lines that vary in height. The higher the line, the higher the key is you have to sing in. All you have to do is sing the words in the right key at the right time and your gold. Simple right? Wrong. Easy is a walk in the park. It's literally open mic night in this mode, as it doesn't judge too harshly, and you are allowed to be off much more. This is a good mode if you just want to party without fear of failing. Normal isn't too bad either. You can still fail if you are hamming it up, or really get lost in the song, but very do-able. You'll notice as it gets harder, it judges more cruely, and mic detection becomes more sensitive. You need to be on key much more, and it also detects the syllables of the words, so it can actually tell what you are saying. Moving up to Hard and Expert is a true test, making microphone quite possibly the hardest instrument to use. You really have to put your all into it, otherwise the shame of failure awaits you.

Besides the standard singing sections, there are rapping and talking sections that don't measure pitch, and instead rate you on word accuracy. The best example of this is the song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. It's all rap, and you have to say the words right when they hit in order to get the highest score. The difficulty of these sections varys from person to person. Where as I can do these sections easily, another may struggle, and lose their multiplier to these sections. The only advice I give is to talk fast and accurate, and you'll do fine. There isn't many of these moments in the game, and even "Sabotage" can be passes with minimal effort.

Star Power, renamed Overdrive, does make an appearence for each instrument in the game, and vocals couldn't be simpler to get and activate. Certain sections of the song will be gold in color. Fill up your multiplier meter in these sections and you get a quick shot of overdrive. Fill the overdrive meter half way and your good to go...well, almost. Where as Guitar Hero players will be used to being able to activate this valuable helper at any point in the song, vocals and drums don't have this leisure. At certain points in the song, there will be empty spaces that you can yell anything you want into. Whether it be holding a note longer than normal, or pulling an Ozzy and screaming, "Put your f***ing hands up!" will activate your overdrive. In solo mode, this will double the current multiplyer you have, while in band world tour, it'll add a 2X multiplyer for all your bandmates which you can stack together using the others overdrive, boosting it up to a 8X multiplyer giving you massive points. Also, there are free-form sections in certain songs, where guitar, bass, and drums can just play whatever they want here, so the faster you strum, or hit the pads, the more points you rack up. Vocalist doesn't really get anything too exciting here. Yelling just one thing during these sections is all that is required out of the singer in order to get his bonus points. It's a little dissapointing since all the singer really has to do is cough or sneeze, and boom you have instant points.

The only problems with vocals come in certain songs like "Green Grass and Hightides" and "Won't Get Fooled again," where there are very long portions of the songs with no lyrics to sing, leaving the singer to stand there for awhile. You can still yell into the mic whenever you feel like, but it doesn't give you anything extra. The only thing that helps get you through these parts are "tapping" sections, where small circles appear on the screen. You must tap the mic with your hand when the circle reaches the approprite area, which activates the singers very own tambourine or cowbell. I do like these for smaller sections, like in "Don't Fear the Reaper" as opposed to longer empty sections that have close to 100 taps before you get to sing again. As a whole though, the mic is very fun to pick up and play, and putting it on easy will allow any noob to jump right into the fun without having to learn too much, while higher difficulties will provide those with an itch for a challenge enough to hold them over for a long time.

GUITAR/BASS:

Let's clear up somethings about Guitar/Bass quickly. First, on the 360 version, you CAN use your Guitar Hero guitars for the game, which is good, because from my experience, only 1 out of 4 people like the guitar that comes with the game, not to mention there have been some early problems with it that have caused it to break. Although EA has a good warranty on every product that comes with the game, this presents some problems.

First, only one guitar comes with the game, and currently you can not purchase extra Rock Band guitars, which means if you don't have a Guitar Hero guitar to go with it, someone will be left out. Also, even if you get one of the new and improved Rock Band guitars, there is still the problem of comfort. From my experience, people who have never played Guitar Hero liked the guitar, while those who have spent a long time with the series can't get used to the fret buttons which are closer together, or the clickless strum bar that seems to through vets off their beat a great deal. There are exceptions, as I can play every song in the game with this guitar easily, the vast majority can't get used to it. It has it's pros, the whammy bar is a lot more sensitive than previous 360 iterations, and is longer which can be a pro or con based on preference. There are solo buttons higher on the neck, which are thinner, and don't require strumming, so they are clearly meant for Hammer on's and pull offs, though it can be hard to jump to these, and more often than not, I just use them for the free-form section, since you can rack up points much faster since you don't have to strum. (More on the free form sections later.) If you hated the clicking of the strum bar in previous versions of the guitar, you'll love the new strum bar, since now when you play by yourself, all you hear is music. The Start and Back buttons are larger than the X-Plorer guitar, so if you hated tilting the guitar to activate star power, that won't be a problem here, since you can actually palm the Back button now. Another thing that will be a problem for some is the fact that the guitar is not wirless. Some may flip after playing and experiencing the freedom the Les Paul guitar give you that comes with Guitar Hero 3, while others will be happy that they don't have to buy batteries. The guitar is lighter than any of the 360 guitars, and is about what it was on the Gibson SG for the PS2 iterations.

Pretty much what I'm trying to say, is that it will all come down to preference. I have 3 friends, and myself, who all play Guitar Hero regulary, and we all have different ideas on what the best controller has been. One may like the wirless of the Les Paul, where as I don't like it as much do to the unresponsive Fret Buttons.

Another thing I must cover is the note charts for guitar. Yes, Rock Bands guitar is easier than Guitar Hero 3's, but is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm of the opinion that this is a good thing. Harmonix has a had a lot of experience with creating the note charts, and it is evident here. If you are of the opinion that Guitar Hero 3's note charts where "artificialy made difficult" by adding more notes than there should be, and not putting hammer on's and pull off's in the correct positions, then you'll breathe a sigh of relief when you play guitar here. However, if all you care about is difficulty, this is not it. Rock Band is not Guitar Hero, and once you make that distinction, the game becomes amazingly fun. It's not about an individual, it's about the band, about having fun. The solo career still has it's highlights, like "Highway Star" "Enter Sandman" "Green Grass and Hightides" (In fact, my band still hasn't beaten Green Grass and Hightides, because our guitarists can't get through the solos) but these aren't until towards the end of the career. However, everyone I have spoken to so far has come to the conclusion that the guitar portions of Rock Band are generally just more fun to play than those of Guitar Hero 3. Yes it's nice to have a challenge, but sometimes, you just want to play the song, and Rock Band gives this to you. You also need to relize, that not every song in the game is focused on guitar. Not every song has finger flying solos, in fact, you'll often find yourself just strumming through simple note strings, while the drummer is freaking out on drums, or the singer is getting down with "Tom Sawyer." This is ultimatly Rock Bands major hurdle, trying to out do the monster that they have created.

If you haven't played any of the Guitar Hero games yet, this is a great chance to get started since you don't have any notions of what guitar "should be." On the whole though, I can't really recommend the game if all your going to do is play guitar. You need to either A) Have some friends to play with, or B) Be willing to learn some new instruments. As a whole though, guitar is just pure fun.

DRUMS:

Drums are the newest and most unique thing added to Rock Band. You can trace the guitar back to Guitar Hero, and vocals back to Karaoke Revolution (both games which were made by Harmonix) where as with drums there is really nothing else like it. There is Taiko Drum master, and Donkey Konga, but these are on a much smaller scale, and after spending time with the drums on Rock Band, I can also tell you they aren't even close to the difficulty and fun that Rock Band's drums provide.

If there is one instrument that is worth buying Rock Band for, drums would be it. I'd even go on record as saying that drums are more difficult on Expert than any of the Guitar Hero games on Expert (not including "Through the Fire and Flames). Where as with the guitar, you can activate overdrive anytime, so you can use it mid solo when you slip up, drums you have to use at specific points in the song, by doing a slight drum fill to fill up the green pad which represents the cymbal. Once it fills, smack the pad and bam, you have overdrive. Also compared to guitar where you could often get through certain crazy solos by just strumming up and down with out really knowing what your hitting, drums require you to be much more accurate and fluid. Trying to get down both hands along with your foot which uses the foot pedal to activate bass drum, you can see how drums become very difficult. The jump to expert is insane, and you have to make sure you are comfortable with the set, otherwise be prepared to fail again and again.

The set itself is a perfect size, and easy to assemple. Consisting of only four pipes, two plastic feet, the pads themselves, and the footpedal. It's easy to assemble and dis-assemble, and you can actually plug the pads directly into the feet so you can place them on your lap or a table to save room, though I have yet to try this feature. The drums are very responsive, and can take quite a beating, which is good since you're going to be whacking them quite a bit.

There was some early fear that the foot pedal could break, but the one I received is very sturdy, and has been stomped on probably much harder than it should be. In reality it's best to just use your ankle and tap it, but early on when your learning you'll more likely pound it harder than you should.

The drums sticks that come with the game are real wooden sticks, which better serve to further absorb you into the game. Harmonix has also made the bold claim that if you play drums on expert that you are playing real drums passages, thus you are actually learning how to play drums. I'm not sure if I completly buy into this, but at the very least I can say, when you are drumming along to the beat of "Run to Hills" you'll be hard pressed not to feel like you are doing the real thing.

BAND WORLD TOUR:

Though each instrument provides a great amount of enjoyment by themselves, it's when you join together when the real fun begins. When you think about it, wouldn't it suck if just one band mate failed, the whole band failed with him? That's not the case here. Instead, depending on how well everyone else has been playing, a meter will fill part of the rock meter, and start to drain slowly. Once this reaches the bottom, everyone fails. To prevent this, someone can activate overdrive and bring the person who failed back in. Another nice touch, is that you can't bring back the failing party as many times as you want. You can only be brought back twice, and if you fail three times, you better hope you're close enough to the end of the song, otherwise prepare for some nasty stares from your band mates.

Every instrument fits neatly on screen, while still providing a good look at the action. It's really cool to see your character interact with each other. Sometimes one of the guitarists will wonder over and start singing into the mic with the lead singer. Other times the camera zooms in on the drummer, showing realisticly the drums he/she's hitting. The best moment is during the rock fill at the end of a few songs, where everyone can play whatever they want to rack up points. Sometimes on the last note, the members of your band all jump at the same time, landing on an amp exploding crash of strings, drums, and yells. It's these types of moments where the game truly shines, where after a song you just yell and high five each other in a moment of joy.

My one recommendation is to spend some time, and have someone go through and play through one of the solo careers first. A lot of the setlists are randomized, based on what you have unlocked. There is only about ten songs that start off unlocked, so unless you want to play the same few songs again and again for a couple hours, prepare to spend the first couple hours rocking by yourself.

If you like competing, if you are connected to X-Box live, there is a leaderboard, which shows the best bands for each individual song, so there is always the chance to improve. My biggest complaint is there is no band world tour online, something Harmonix is promising to fix in the future.

Harmonix is very insistant that this is not a game, but a new platform and a new way to experience music. They have a very grand downloadable dream set up, promising to have new songs for download every week, and so far they have kept their promise. There is quite a few songs up for download already, more than all the downloads for Guitar Hero 2 and 3 combined thus far. There are truly some great songs already, including a Metallica 3 song pack, Police 3 song pack (Roxeanne, Synchronicity II, to name some), a Black Sabbath 3 song pack (N.I.B., War Pigs, Sweet Leaf) and a few individual songs including "Fortunate Son" by CCR, and "Jukebox Hero" by Foreigner. Sometime in the near future they will also release full 14 song albums, they already have the Who, and Nirvana lined up. The price is pretty good to, 3 song packs are 440 points as opposed to Guitar Hero 3's 3 packs for 500. Not only that, but if you only want one song in a pack, you can download them speratley for 160 points. This grand DLC scheme will insure that the game stays fresh for years.

Despite everything that is great about Rock Band, it's the $169.99 price point that people will notice. It's like the flourescent light bulb of the game world. Slightly more expensive than their incandescent counter-part, but will save you money down the line, and is more efficient. It'll take some time before we know how well it will sell, but early indication is it's doing very well.

All I can say is, if you can only afford one out of Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band, I can tell you with out a doubt, get Rock Band. Don't be fooled into thinking you can't play it alone, because that simply isn't true. And it's a very good price considering what you get with it. However, if challenge is what you want, then look no further than Guitar Hero 3. Although now that I think about it, Rock Band does have the "Never Ending setlist" where you must play 56 songs in a row in order to pass...awesome. If you just want plain fun for a great price, this is your band.

GRAPHICS: 8/10- The character models aren't the greatest, but are very passable, considering you get to create them. The facial expressions are very realistic, and the lead singers lips actually sync with yours. In a nice little touch, your created players actually appear in loading screen while you're waiting to rock.

SOUND: 9:10- A great set list that continues to expand every week. There are a few blemishes though. For example, why is Coheed and Cambria on here? It pains me when I have to sing this song.

CONTROL: 9/10- Everything is responsive and easy to use, though Guitar Hero fans will need some time to adjust to the new rectangle shaped notes.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10- Pure fun, and very addicting. It's easy to play until 3 in the morning without realizing it. Prepare for some angry neighbors. One complaint, no world tour online?

OVERALL: 9/10- If you have the cash, and need a party game, or just something that'll last your for a long time, look no further than this. It's a great game to have, especially when waiting for other big releases to come out. The downloadable packages keep it fresh and new.

REPLAY VALUE: VERY HIGH

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/07

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