Rock Band

"A great party game with some major hardware faults"

Rock Band has taken the gaming world by storm. With its wide variety of downloadable content, (up to) 4-player multiplayer mode, and 3 different types of instruments to play on, it seems like a sure-fire hit. And it was.

But, Harmonix seemed to have overlooked many things..

Gameplay - 10/10
The gameplay is basically flawless. It's simple and familiar to users of Guitar Hero. Glitches are few and far between.

Rock Band Stratocaster - 3/10
Yes, I know. I'm being much too generous with a 3/10, right? The guitar controller is simply the worst controller available on the market. Yes, you can play with a Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer or a Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul, but shouldn't you be able to use the Rock Band Stratocaster with no hassle? The fret buttons are not raised from the neck at all and they are very loud and clicky. The strum bar, however, is almost totally silent. A hard strum will give a muffled THUMP noise. There is really only one problem, and it's that the strum bar has a mushy and unresponsive feeling to it. You will randomly drop strums, and you really will not know whether you strummed at all. Although third party fixes alleviate this, it should have worked out of the box.

Rock Band Drumset - 2/10
And again, another total flop. It's a great idea to have drums in a game, but there are major flaws with this. The drum pads are VERY loud, and emit a loud "CLACK!" when they're hit. To fix this, you can buy Harmonix's official silencers for $20, but again... shouldn't they have worked out of the box? There are three types of drumsets. One type is the "EL", with loud, fragile pads and dropped hits out the wazoo. The pads on an EL will most likely crack after some play. Another type is the "QM", which has quieter pads - but instead of dropped hits, you get double hits. Yes, it actually registers some hits twice. The pads won't crack like on an EL. An improvement, but not by much. The last type is the "SL", which is the newest revision. It's more like a QM than anything else, but it does not have double hits or dropped hits. It's the best drumset by far, but the original EL should have worked just like the SL does! Another problem with the drumset is the kick pedal. The kick pedal is a completely plastic foot pedal to simulate the bass pedal on a real drumset. The pedal has a spring to come back up, making it seem less like a bass drum and more like an effects pedal for a guitar. The pedal, being made out of plastic, has a tendency to snap in half after a short time. There are fixes for this, but once again, things should not need to be improved and should just work out of the box! Take note, peripheral makers!

Rock Band USB Microphone - 9/10
It's a decent grade USB microphone that can be used for any singing game on any platform. It is identical to the microphone that comes with Boogie or American Idol. It can also be used on your PC or Mac. It may not pick up pitch changes that well, though.

Sound - 10/10
With a killer setlist and perfect sound quality, Rock Band took my idea of high quality and threw it out the window. The sound quality on this game is stellar. The setlist on this game is PERFECT, and the DLC only helps that.

Final Score (average) - 7/10
Rock Band is a great party game, and you'll play it for months on end, even if you're primarily a solo player. It's great fun, but some flaws prevent it from being perfect.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/08

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