Posted by Shawn M. on Dec 12th, 2007
Here’s the review for the XBox 360 version of Rock Band.
Rock Band was created by Harmonix, the studio that has previously made Guitar Heroes I and II, as well as Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s with Activision and RedOctane. This time, they’ve partnered up with MTV Games and Electronic Arts. While this review focuses on the XBox 360 version of the game (as always), it’s also available for the PS3 and PS2. Sorry Nintendo users!
Story - There’s no story in the traditional sense. As with Guitar Hero, you play through a set list of songs, each one progressing in difficulty, until you reach the final set. Upon completion of that, you “beat” the game. But wait… Rock Band features two new peripherals — the microphone and the drum set! You can play through the solo career as a drummer or a singer as well as a lead guitarist. Additionally, you and up to three other people can join instruments to create your own band and play through the Band World Tour, playing different sets, visiting different cities, and trying to gain as many fans as you can. So, in short, the story is up to you.
Graphics - Since this is a music game, graphics really aren’t the main draw. However, the visuals in this game are pretty impressive. Unlike the recent Guitar Hero III, your characters are more realistic, in both looks and movement. And speaking of characters, Rock Band lets you make your own. You can pick from either gender, and dress your rocker in large variety of clothes, hairstyles, and accessories. You can also customize your rocker (or even their guitar) with tattoo art, or make your own design with the art editor. You can really spend as much time creating and fine-tuning your rocker as much as you play music.
The actual concerts that you play have a very gritty, grainy look to them, as if they were shot by a snuck-in camcorder. That may sound off-putting at first, but it really works. Each song also has its own lighting effects, video effects, and unique character choreography. The venues are also quite unique and interesting, and never really get old.
As for the more mundane things, your on-screen note charts are almost the same as you’d find in Guitar Hero. However, your notes and chords are rectangles instead of ovals. This was odd at first, but seems naturally better after a few hours. In previous Guitar Hero games, I sometimes had trouble seeing which notes came next during especially complex sections, as the ovals seemed to overlap. With the rectangular shape, that’s not a problem anymore. Also, the fretboard your notes scroll on is somewhat see-through, which is a big improvement over Guitar Hero’s oft-time distracting fretboard artwork.
Gameplay - Guitar sections are exactly the same as Guitar Hero’s, right down to the guitar-tilt to activate your point-multiplying Overdrive (think Star Power). As always, there are four levels of difficulty — Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Rock Band is geared towards beginners far more than Guitar Hero III, as the difficulty is much more manageable. As you play through the levels, the game does a great job of preparing you for higher difficulties. I had no trouble at all finishing the Hard solo career (something I could never do with any Guitar Hero), and my lovely wife is comfortable learning the guitar on Medium. Guitar sections also feature a new “solo” section in most songs, where the scrolling plane is drenched in a soft blue. As you play during these sections, you’ll be shown a real-time percentage of how well you do. At the end, you’re graded and given extra points depending on how well you accomplished the solo. Bassists have the same thing, though their sections are called Bass Grooves.
Vocalists sing into the Rock Band USB mic (any USB mic can work, as well as the XBox Headset, though it doesn’t do so well). The lyrics scroll across the top (during band sessions) or bottom (during solo career) of the screen. There are two different types of lyric sets. The first and most common are the lyrics where the game judges your tone and pitch. An arrow will scroll along a fuzzy line representing the correct tone and pitch of the lyrics. If you hit it perfectly, the arrow will scroll down the center of these lines, and build up your point multiplyer. If not, you’ll lose your multiplyer and get closer to failing the song. The second type of lyric sets are words that don’t require tone or pitch, but will judge you on the accuracy of each word’s length and general sound. At certain points in some songs, you’ll see circles instead of lyrics. As these scroll by, you need to tap your microphone in time to the circles to simulate tambourine or cowbell in the song. Overdrive is earned by singing specially marked lyric sections, and activated by also-specially marked sections.
Drummers use the drum kit to hit the beats on screen. The drum kit features four pads and a foot pedal. As with the guitars, each pad is represented by a color on a scrolling plane. An orange line that goes across the entire plane represents when you need to step on the foot pedal. As for Overdrive, there will be sections in the song where you’re prompted to basically freestyle, though you must hit the green pad at the end of this section for it to be successful. This will likely also be the most difficult of the three instruments to master, as it’s really never been done before.
Sound - Rock Band features 58 songs, which is about twenty less than Guitar Hero typically offers (keep in mind Harmonix had to have room for the drum and vocal data). 45 of these songs are licensed, and all but six are original recordings. The other thirteen are “bonus” tracks mostly made up of Harmonix employees’ bands, and a song from “South Park”. These bonus tracks aren’t nearly as good as Guitar Hero III’s bonus songs, but the variety of songs is much better than GHIII’s metal-heavy set list. The song list is very eclectic, offering some classic rock, punk, and pop. There should be plenty to keep most people happy, but everyone’s going to have a few songs they can’t stand. For example, there’s no reason why Fall-Out Boy should have a song in the game, as well as that awful Coheed & Cambria song.
If you want more music, Harmonix already has quite a number of songs available for download from the Marketplace. In a very good move, songs can be purchased separately or in a three-song pack for a bit cheaper. They’re still a tad pricey, but not as much as Guitar Hero’s downloads. Here’s hoping for a Beatles song pack — if their music can be licensed for those horrible Target commercials, why not Rock Band?
Equipment - The Fender Stratocaster guitar controller is heavier and sturdier than previous guitar controllers, and looks much less like a toy. The frets are inlaid into the neck, which can be disorienting at first if you’re used to the raised buttons. The guitar also features a second set of frets closer to the body, which can be used for the special solo sections. The guitar is wired, for the moment, but will eventually evolve into a wireless version for later purchase. My only complaint is that the strum bar is silent — I prefer the X-Plorer’s click when I play. Otherwise, it’s a very fine guitar.
The bundled-in mic is responsive, feels very sturdy, and has a very long wire. Any USB powered mic will work with the game, though. There aren’t any plans to release a wireless mic, nor do I think that’ll every come about.
The drum kit is sturdy, and height-adjustable. The pads are responsive, so there’s no need to pound on them. The bundle ships with real wooden drum sticks. I’m not quite sure about the longevity of this item, though, as it’ll take the most abuse. It seems like it’s made for the long haul, but you can never really tell.
Since the Xbox 360 only has three USB ports, the bundle ships with a USB hub that you can plug all four instruments into. With all of those wires at your feet, you really will feel like you’re in a rock band!
Each instrument isn’t available separately yet, but expect them to be by March 2008. Otherwise, you can check out Ebay if you only want one specific item, but expect to pay more than what they’re worth.
Multiplayer - Here’s where the real fun is. You and up to three friends can play as a band. If you don’t have any friends, or they’re at their place, just log onto Live and you can rock out with three other people. Unfortunately, online multiplayer doesn’t let you play Band World Tour, so you can’t complete any game objectives unless your friends are physically with you. That’s something I’d like to see taken care of with the sequel.
Rock Band also features a Tug of War game mode, where two players take turns during parts of a song to see who scores the most. There’s also Score Duel, in which both players play the same notes in a song, and the higher of the two scores wins. Basic stuff, really, but it’s kinda fun.
There’s also leaderboards that you can look at, by band an by solo player. It’s interesting just to look at the band names that other players have created — some are very cool. On that note, when you create a band, the game will tell you if another band has that name (you can ignore this, but by doing so you won’t be eligible to appear on the leaderboards). In my case, another band already grabbed up my choice, “Wonkavision”. However, my wife came up with a great name for our band — “Miasma Sol”.
Achievements - Standard fare, really, and nothing that’s really too far out there. You can get an achievement for completing each difficulty level for each instrument in solo tour. Thankfully, if you play at a harder level, you’ll also get the achievement for completing the lower level as well (in other words, complete Hard for any instrument, and you’ll get Medium and Easy as well). You’ve got a couple for online Score Duel and Tug of War, nothing too hard there. Most of the rest come from Band World Tour, where you’ll nab achievements for completing the setlists in different cities. For the complete list, check out the awesome XBox360Achievements.org link right here.
Intangibles - Some of the menus can be kind of tricky to navigate, especially when you’re trying to set up an online match.
- Once you create a character, you cannot have them switch careers. Once a character is a guitarist, you cannot make them anything else. Hopefully our characters can be multi-talented once the sequel comes around, or maybe even sooner in a title update.
- While on the topic of your created characters, once created, you can’t go back and edit their basic attributes such as physique and facial structure. Thankfully, the clothing options are very versatile, so you can make some funky looking characters.
- Harmonix knew this was going to be a big party game, so the difficulty isn’t ramped up to ridiculous levels like GHIII. Beginners shouldn’t have any problems with guitar or vocals, but drumming may take some time just to get used to. On the same note, the higher difficulties are challenging, but rarely ever frustrating.
- The scoring system can seem a bit off at times. For instance, it’s possible to get 97% notes hit on guitar, but still only earn four out of five stars for the song. The star systems should really be based on percentage, not points gained.
- If you’re not a singer, it helps to know somebody who has had some vocal training to help you out with some of the more difficult songs. In my case, my wife gave me some very helpful tips on how to handle some higher notes without sounding like I was crying out in some sort of Klingon death/battle cry.
- Harmonix has pledged to support this game with literal tons of downloadable content. Tuesdays of each week promise to bring a new song pack for download, and with MTV as a contributing partner, there’s shouldn’t be any shortage of new music.
- Speaking of, Metallica has recently announced that they will premiere their new single on Rock Band. Too bad they suck the big one these days.
- Why are there so many skirts for your female characters that feature ripped up fishnet tights? Am I missing something, or is the “cheap hooker” look in this year?
The Bottom Line - Before this came along, I was a Guitar Hero snob. I scoffed at the initial announcement of the game. Man oh man, am I ever glad that I picked it up anyway, just out of curiosity. Rock Band really offers you the best experience when it comes to faux-rocking. Harmonix took everything that made Guitar Hero great, refined the presentation, fixed all of the little things, and gave the gaming world a truly unique game. It’s the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer game since I began online gaming.
If you’re a fan of the music and rhythm game genre, Rock Band is a definite must-have. Guitar Hero is going to have a steep uphill battle if it wants to reach the level of sheer brilliance that Rock Band gives us.
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Migo
December 13, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I may look into this, but I’m guessing the multiplayer isn’t really for the self-conscious. It may take a few cocktails to find the singer in you, much like Karaoke Revolution. Still looks like a blast though.
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