Masem’s Gaming Blog

After the various shakeups with the Guitar Hero franchise, with Activision now using Neversoft for their development, Harmonix seemed to be left without a port in the storm. However, doing what they do best, Harmonix has gone off with help from MTV and EA Games to produce a natural extension of the Guitar Hero games, one where you can play not only guitar but drums and vocals. Rock Band, despite having a high price tag for the additional equipment, successfully replicates and enhances Guitar Hero’s gameplay to all instruments, making it a great game for both solo and group play save for a few annoyances in the hardware and online limitations.

Review Helpfulness: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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Gameplay: A

The game bundle (which you can only get now, individual instruments will not be available until early next year) comes with a Fender Stratocaster guitar controller, the drum set, and a microphone, along with a USB hub to connect them all to the 360. The Fender is decent as a guitar but has a few gotchas that make the Guitar Hero III Les Paul much more enjoyable to use. First, the strum bar is a bit stiff, and doesn’t feel as responsive as the Les Paul, though it is nice and wide like the Les Paul. The lower fret keys, while having bumps on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th key to help with fingering position, are also a bit too clicky and stiff. There are some nice things about the instrument: there’s a set of high fret keys (near the body of the guitar) that can either be used for jam sessions within the game, or as noted by the game, for those with smaller arms as the neck on this guitar is closer to full size. There’s also an effects switch near the strum bar to change the way the guitar sounds within the game, but otherwise has no effect on gameplay. The microphone is a standard handheld USB mike, and otherwise is nothing special. The drum kit consists of 4 pressure-based drum heads along with a few keys to replicate the 360 controller for menu navigation, and a positionable virtual bass drum pedal – the kit is about 2 feet wide and can be adjusted to about 3 to 4 feet tall; this also comes with a real pair of drumsticks. While it is a pain that everything on the 360 side is wired, the cords are long enough for most average setups, and of course, if needed, the USB bus can be extended as needed. I have not had any problems with the instruments yet, but there are reports of failing guitars and unresponsive drumpads, but Harmonix seems to be ready to replace these as needed.

The guitar aspect of the game really hasn’t changed from Guitar Hero – hold down frets and strum as the notes come at you on screen. Star Power is now Overdrive mode, with the only significant change is that you can build Overdrive up while in Overdrive mode, allowing you to extend the higher scoring periods if you plan them out right. There is also now sections outlined as guitar solos in dark blue – the basic game play doesn’t change in these sections, but you’re given a bonus at the end of the section based on how well you’ve hit the section. This is a nice addition as these solos are generally the hardest part of most songs, with long runs of hammer-ons and pull-offs, and while you can muddle through these sections, you only get the best scores by perfecting them.

The vocals aspect of the game is pretty similar to Karaoke Revolution – you need to sing both in pitch and in general sound of the lyrics as they come at you; an indicator shows you how far off pitch you are, allowing you to adjust it as needed. Some sections have no assigned pitch and are more spoken, but still require you to be close to the words. Scoring is based on the performance of each phrase, but builds up the same way as guitar scoring, along with Overdrive sections. When you have enough Overdrive, special marked sections will allow you to shout into the mic in order to trigger your Overdrive, which can be a little embarrassing if you’re playing through the vocal solo mode. There are also times that to provide extra rhythm in the game (such as cowbell in “Don’t Fear the Reaper”), you’ll need to slap on the microphone to make the hits.

The drums are probably the most unique part about the game. While essentially the same as the guitar parts, there’s only the 4 drum pads represented in the normal fashion, while the bass drum is shown by a glowing orange line through the notes. Learning to play the drums in this fashion is probably the most challenging aspect of the game – I found it very much like trying to rub your stomach and pat your head at the same time. It’s a matter of someone focusing one eye on the main drum line, while the other eye is only for the bass, and then learning to work those together. I definitely got a much better appreciation for drummer after stumbling my way though some of the songs for the first time. Scoring and Overdrive buildup work the same way as with the Guitar, with Overdrive activated by successfully hitting end-of-phrase drum riffs with the high-hat.

For guitar, drums, and vocals (no bass), you can perform your own solo tour mode which has 45 songs (varied in order depending on the instrument) along with 13 additional bonus songs across several different cities for performance. Completely songs earns you money for which you can customize the clothing and look of your avatar for that solo tour. It is a bit annoying that you cannot have one avatar that can play each instrument: you have to create a new one for each of the instruments, but of course, its unlikely that your drummer will want to be dressed the same way your guitarist would be for performancing. The difficulty level (at least for guitar) is comparable to Guitar Hero games – Easy only uses the first 3 frets, Hard the first 4, and with similar introduction of hammer-ons/pulls-offs and double strumming. However, in terms of overall difficulty, Rock Band is definitely easier at the same difficulty level as compared with Guitar Hero II or III; I had no difficulty at all breezing through the guitar solo tour in Medium, and Hard is yet to be anything difficult to make me fail a song, though certainly not 5-starring these titles. Outside of the solo tours, you can compete online or off in 1-on-1, same instrument scoring battles or in Tug Of War, playing off sections of the song to get the best score.

The biggest part of the game is the ability to play with up to 3 others to form your own virtual rock band. Offline groups can partake in the Band World Tour mode which provides sets of challenges for the band to unlock additional challenges, but both offline and online groups can perform any songs they want. As a group, the overall score is kept for the whole band, though individual instruments keep their own Overdrive and multiplier. Should a player fail out of a song, any other member can activate their Overdrive to bring them back into the song. Additionally, if the entire group is doing well, the group can earn additional scoring bonuses within the game. In both solo and group play, some songs will end with a big finish, allowing the various members to improvise though they need to hit the final few notes correctly to earn the bonus gained by this mode. While it’s a shame that the Band World Tour mode is limited to off-line groups, the rest of the cooperative features really make the game shine.

Value/Replayability: A+

Note only having 58 tracks in the game, Harmonix has promised that they will be providing a lot of additional downloadable content in the future; already after release they’ve put out several 3-song packs and singles, and they’ve already got at least two full albums from Metallica and Nirvana on the way. Given that Hard and Expert can still be challenging modes, as well as the whole thing about actually trying to learn the drums well enough, makes Rock Band a game that you can get a lot of fun out of.

Graphics: A

There are a few nice interface changes from Guitar Hero. The Overdrive and current multiplayer state are located immediately below the notes, making it easier to spot-check these while playing. Additionally, the game shows you your progress in score towards the star-rating that you would get, showing what current stars you’ve earned and how close you are to the next.

The background visuals are much more interesting than Guitar Hero, showing the whole band seeming to have a lot more fun, singing together, and in general a lot more active than before. The stage effects also feel a lot more energetic, and include several unique camera angels and filters, though at times some of the effects are a bit strobe-like and may briefly distract from the game. However, these are few and far between. The stages feel more realistic as well — they help to give the overall game more of a seriousness than what Guitar Hero has had previously

Audio: A

The soundtrack is a pretty decent collection of “rock songs” – not necessarily ones that specialize in any singular instrument but balance them all out to make the game fun for all players playing. The soundtrack is more aimed towards the last few decades, but I found very few of the tracks to be to my dislike – of course, your mileage may vary here. Having nearly all the tracks as masters helps the songs a lot – the few that aren’t, such as Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, are rather noticeable in the vocals, but otherwise are truthful to the original.

Overall: A

Rock Band and Guitar Hero will likely coexist – the latter focused on great guitar pieces while Rock Band can focus on overall strong rock pieces. However, Rock Band’s additions and modifications to the gameplay are the step up that I was hoping would be present in Guitar Hero III. The additional instruments and overall gameplay improvements are excellent to have, and the available offline and online modes are very good. There’s a few annoyances in that you can only participate in the Band Tour mode offline, and some of the new guitar features aren’t as great, but the overall package is still very very, and if you can get over the cost of getting the bundle right now, is a definite addition to your library.

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