Rock Band
Rock Band takes the music game formula that Guitar Hero popularised just a few years ago and expands it exponentially; not only do you have option of playing lead and bass guitar (a la Guitar Hero), you can also now play drums and sing. In the package priced at $169, you get the game, a wireless guitar, a drum kit, and a microphone. A letdown to many is the lack of a second guitar in the package, especially considering that individual instruments haven’t gone on sale yet. The game consists of 58 songs from a wide variety of genres and time periods, ranging from the Rolling Stones and The Who, to Metallica and Iron Maiden. However, the great thing about Rock Band is that nearly every week Harmonix is releasing additional songs for download on the PlayStation Network.
Rather than focusing on individual accolades, Rock Band’s main focal point is on the aspect of being in a band. As such, the Overdrive system was created. This allows a band member to use what is essentially Rock Band’s version of Star Power to save another band member if he or she fails during a song, or if everyone is still in, then it gives the entire band a 2x boost. These 2x power-ups can stack as well, so if all the band members use Overdrive at the same time the band gets an 8x multiplier. Now you can see how teamwork goes into the game, and how it is an integral part of getting those chart-topping scores. The final teamwork aspect of Rock Band is the Big Finish, where every band member has a free for all, where the only goal is to hit as many notes as humanly possible (or in the singer’s case, hold one long note), in order to build up a nice healthy bonus for the band. The catch is, afterwards, every band member has a few notes they must hit in order to keep the bonus – what’s humiliating is that if you mess up, everyone will know because your instrument circle will be grey instead of white. This can lead to various insults, especially if your score ended up a sliver away from five stars. That said, the teamwork aspect really makes this game shine as one of the best party games ever.
Any Guitar Hero expert that picks up the Rock Band guitar may become a little disappointed. Barring a handful of songs (not including any of the downloadable content), many of the guitar parts are simplistic, repeating chords with a token solo thrown in for good measure. After the hell that was Guitar Hero 3 on Expert, playing Rock Band on Expert with the guitar will be a breeze, yet still fun and entertaining. The guitar, as far as hardware goes, feels relatively cheap and light, but has one cool feature that Guitar Hero doesn’t: solo buttons. These are located much lower on the neck, and when they’re used during solos, the user does not have to strum, thus allowing for the use of some interesting and useful techniques. Overall, the guitar, while not as challenging as some hoped, is still fun, and the lax difficulty only helps make the game even more accessible to the casual crowd.
The big draw to Rock Band, for many, is the drums. Consisting of four pads and a bass pedal, it gives a feeling that they can take a beating. Drumming can quickly become addictive, as it’s something new and fresh to videogames. The difficulty ramps up very nicely to a point where playing on Expert is very much like playing actual drums. The authenticity and satisfaction you get while playing them is immense… it’s not like with the guitar where you’re missing the whole six string factor. The only complaint that can be given about drumming is that some songs are simply too repetitive and simplistic, even on Expert. Other than that, playing the drums is one of the most fulfilling videogame experiences a person can have.
Singing is probably the least appreciated aspect of Rock Band, though is nonetheless still very fun if you play it right. It’s very possible, especially on the lower difficulties, to just hum your way through every song, matching your pitch to the one on screen, but that’s nowhere near as fun as actually singing and just having fun, even if that includes making a fool of yourself.
The best part about the graphical presentation of Rock Band is that (almost) every character is unique, thanks to a highly detailed and in-depth create-a-character. While the face details aren’t too highly varied, the amount of clothing, hairstyles and accessories you can get for your personal character is astounding. Other than the incredible variety, the graphics are only average, using some funky filters and effects to simulate what a real concert would look like. Other than that, the graphics are such a non-factor for a game like this where you’ll hardly even notice them.
The only important sound aspect of Rock Band is the songs, and Rock Band features a large number of master recordings, and all the songs that aren’t originals have extremely good covers, excluding one or two (the cover singer for Rush is kind of questionable).
While the single-player is fairly standard, with a person beating a group of songs to unlock the next group, Band World Tour is where the heart of Rock Band lies. Sadly, this mode is only available on local multiplayer. But on those occasions where you have gathered up three of your friends (hopefully one of them has an extra guitar), this mode will make you feel like real rock stars. You start off as a small local band, where you only have a few shows available to play at, but as you earn more stars and more fans, you unlock new locales as well as bonus rewards ranging from a van and roadies to a jet and a PR firm. One complaint about Band World Tour is that when you start a band you have to choose a band leader, and every time you play, the band leader must be present, otherwise it band can’t be used. This can lead to some unnecessary problems where a few friends will have to start a new band because they set the singer as the leader originally and then no one wanted to be the singer (true story!). Online, Band World Tour is regrettably not playable, leaving only Band Quickplay, and the two not so popular modes, Tug-Of-War and Score Duel. While it’s still fun to hook up with friends and random people online, it’s still a strong desire to someday have Band World Tour online. One thing to note is how smooth the online experience is. Even in a group of four scattered across the country, there was no lag, which is vital to the experience of this game.
With basically three separate, but equally fun games, Rock Band, even at $170, is one of the must buys for any gamer. The multiplayer component and how everything is integrated makes this the party game of the century, thus far at least.
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