Rock Band 2 was developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts.  Microsoft has negotiated a limited window of exclusivity for the game — Rock Band 2 will be available for the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii later on this year, more than likely right before Christmas.  For now, though, the only place to play the game is on the XBox 360.

Story:  Being a music game, Rock Band 2 features no narrative or story elements.  Instead, you and your created rocker progress through the game playing songs either by yourself or with your friends.  Simple as that, though the more imaginative of you can make up your own story for your rock ‘n’ roll creation.

Graphics:  Much like the first Rock Band, RB2 features a more grounded-in-reality look than its rival, Guitar Hero.  As your band plays, everything looks like it was shot in a pseudo-documentary look, kind of grainy, with quick cuts and interesting angles.  There is plenty of unique lighting and pyrotechnics that happen as well, and the actual band members are well animated and move around like real rock stars.  There’s plenty of new animations for your characters — this was the one area that really pleased me, as I thought the interactions between your bandmates was great.  There’s nothing cooler than my guitarist as she wanders over to the lead singer to sing along during a chorus.

Beyond that, there’s no big leap between this game and the last.  But then again, it really didn’t need it.

Gameplay:  Unchanged from the first, but everybody knows that messing with the rhythm game formula for a sequel would be disastrous.  As a guitarist or a drummer, you match the falling on-screen notes to the corresponding fret button or drum pad.  As for singers, they do their best to match the pitch and tone of a song — getting the lyrics right isn’t that neccessary for the vocal portion of the game.  There are four levels of difficulty to play through, each on progressively harder.

Vocal gameplay has improved, with the dreaded “talky parts” completely fixed — maybe fixed a bit too much, as even mumbling your way through “What’cha Want” or “Give It Away” will give you a perfect rating on Expert.

My biggest gripe is the calibration for the guitars.  It’s completely off from the first Rock Band, so don’t even bother using the same calibration setting.  In my case (and many others, according to several forums), it took at least a dozen attempts at tweaking and testing before I finally found the perfect setting.  Having a spot-on calibration for your guitars is crucial in this game, as the timing window for hitting notes is considerably smaller than its Guitar Hero rivals (which, when I played them, required no additional calibration).

Progressing through the game is different, as well.  Instead of tackling the popular “play a five song set, graduate to the next set” model of games past, RB2 thrusts you into a World Tour, reminiscent of RB1’s Band World Tour.  This time, as either a solo act or part of a band, you will play different venues, each with different sets.  As you gain fans and star ratings for each performance, you’ll open up new cities and songs, as well as earning cash to deck your rocker out in the latest fashions.  There is also a challenge mode, which is somewhat like the traditional solo career, and a daily “battle of the bands” where you and/or your bandmates can take part in a posted challenge.  The battles aren’t real-time, instead you’ll be playing against another band’s score.

Finally, there is a new drum trainer mode, but due to my lack of owning the drums, cannot really comment on.  But from all indications, this mode will teach aspiring drummers proper techniques and such that can be translated to real-world drums.

Sound:  RB2 features the largest amount of songs on-disc for a music game so far, spanning 84 master tracks from a variety of artists.  There’s a healthy selection of genres, so there’s bound to be something you like (as well as things you hate).  Harmonix also promises that an additional 20 free songs will be available for download later on in the year, most likely by the time the other platforms receive the game.  If you own RB1, you also have the option of transferring 55 (out of 58) songs from that game to your hard drive to play in RB2 — for a minimal fee of 400 Microsoft points ($5).  All previous DLC songs work in the game as well — by year’s end, Harmonix states that 500 songs will be available for the Rock Band platform.  If you’re curious, here’s a list of the on-disc songs in RB2.

Multiplayer:  For the first time, you can now play a band World Tour online with your buddies — or, join a random person’s band.  If the band is tied to your Gamertag, you don’t have to have everybody together to continue, either; your band is yours in single player, local multiplayer, or online.  There are two other online modes as well, the competitive score duel (where two players play the same song to see who scores better) and tug-of-war (where an onscreen gauge shows you who is doing better at playing a song).  Everything works spot-on, but there’s little incentive to playing the competitive modes besides a couple of Achievements.

Achievements:  The points in RB2 are spread out a bit better than the last game, and since there is no traditional career mode this time around, the typical “beat career on X difficulty” Achievements are no more.  For a full list of the Achievements, check out XBox360Achievements.org.

Intangibles:  This is just personal opinion, of course, but I’m puzzled by some of the songs included — in other words, the “pop” songs.  For example, “That’s What You Get” by a band called Paramore is something you’d expect to hear on a Miley Cyrus album.

- My band wish list for upcoming DLC:  The Beatles (if their music can be licensed for Target and hotel commercials, why not Rock Band?), some more Modest Mouse, CCR, Seven Mary Three, Rolling Stones, and Everclear.

- The name of my band?  The Earthbenders.

The Bottom Line:  Rock Band was/is one of my favorite games of last year, and the sequel only makes things better.  Harmonix didn’t deviate too far from what made the first game such a success, but what they did add made Rock Band 2 a sublime gaming experience.  This is a definite must buy, as it will provide you with hundreds of hours of fun.

9.5/10, for being a damn-near perfect game, but loses just a bit for the initial problems with guitar calibration.

If you liked that, try...

1. The Rock Band Review
2. The Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review
3. The Guitar Hero III Review
4. Big Mean Flash Gamer reviews Rock and Roll Space Monkey
5. The Soul Calibur IV Review

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