Rock On
Rock Band is more than just an evolution of Guitar Hero. We explain why inside.
Published: December 16, 2007
Long-time readers of TPS will know we're something of a Harmonix Music System groupie troupe; nearly everyone on staff has been a hopeless devotee ever since the Cambridge, MA-based developer paired up rhythm action gameplay with the beginnings of making electronic music. FreQuency laid the groundwork for our addiction, and later sequel Amplitude only made the pull that much stronger.
Amplitude also built the foundation for Guitar Hero (the two games share an almost identical playing area), but with Rock Band Harmonix didn't just add vocals (something they were more than experienced after making the Karaoke Revolution games for Konami a few years running) and drums (arguably the star of Rock Band from the get-go. No, what Harmonix did was inject the evolution of what started on FreQuency with even more of the social glue that Guitar Hero introduced.
There really is nothing like getting four people into a room and having them all jam -- even if it's on a bunch of plastic instruments. That a game could make you want to practice just so you and your buddies can nail some of the harder songs in the game is something I've never really felt before -- and this is coming from someone who was caught in the throes of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks addiction in the late 90s. What's better is that in addition to just learning the harder parts of the songs, just coming to grips with learning to play an approximation of the drums means there's a stupid amount of gameplay delivered right out of that $170 box.
And yes, that caused a bit of sticker shock in me too when I first saw it, but after barreling through the Solo Career Mode on Medium with the drums and rolling right back through on Expert (where it's proven that after years of playing actual drums... I suck at it), I'm more than willing to admit that the price is will worth it -- if you manage to dodge some of the hardware bullets out there.
The drums themselves are both sturdy and responsive, but the bass drum pedal is prone to cracking in half. The guitars, likewise are heavier and have more presence than the old plastic Guitar Hero axes, but they too are prone to breaking thanks to an apparent hurriedly-assembled design flaw. Do-it-yourselfers have found a relatively easy fix, but EA has been quick to offer replacements for busted instruments.
There's also the issue of actually getting that full band together. Right now, there's no way to buy another guitar for Rock Band, and thanks to a bunch of he-said, she-said back-and-forth, it was shown that Activision wanted money for a compatibility patch to allow the PS3 Guitar Hero III controllers to work, despite the fact that the Xbox 360 ones already do. Couple that with the fact that the drums and microphone and the dongle (read: adaptor) for the PS3-exclusive wireless guitar take up three USB slots on the PS3 and you have a bunch of happy new 40GB PS3 owners (with their paltry two USB slots) feeling not so happy. Yes, you can get a USB hub (which is what's needed for the 360 version anyway), but it certainly does leave some PS3 owners out in the lurch, and all of them without a means to get the full Rock Band... well, band.
It's a testament to how friggin' good the game is, though, that these issues don't completely destroy the experience (well, at least for those of use with the early PlayStation 3 models), and even if you were to only play the game solo and then take your skills online to play with other people (a process that's quite easy), the game is still a blast. Granted, even in local multiplayer there are some weird interface issues that make selecting a character and jumping into the game a little cumbersome (you have to pick a band leader and then confirm things, but the confirmation lettering doesn't make it plain to newcomers that they've logged in, so there's a bit of hand holding that has to be done by the vets, which can pull some people out of the whole experience.
Again, though, these are issues that melt away as soon as everyone has jumped in and started playing. The addition of allowing the lead singer to smack the mic on their hand like a tambourine during solos, means that no matter what instrument you play, it's easy to jump in and feel like you're contributing. On top of that, players that hit a solo section of the song can "save" players that failed out up to three times to get through a song where someone might be struggling. It ups the cooperative aspect of the game even more, though Harmonix was wise to put these sections in the game sparingly. The end result is a game that both unifies and, like all bands, at times frustrates some people involved, but honestly that's what playing with friends is all about.
The game proper isn't really all the distant from the different games I mentioned back at the beginning of this review. Singers sing with a pitch indicator, guitarists play just like they did in Guitar Hero and drummers have to juggle the bass drum with the four little toms in the game, hitting a little solo sequence for a bit before hitting a final note to kick off Rock Band's equivalent of Star Power. Other smaller additions include a singers' ability to scream into the mic to get the same effect as drummers' solos and guitar players are now graded on their solo sections.
Those solos can be handled exclusively by the new lower fret buttons on the controller, removing the need for hammer-ons and pull-offs. It might seem like this kills the game, but the rush one can get from nailing an epic solo on some of the harder songs while playing like they're rocking out actually adds to the experience.
Gameplay-wise, though, the game is a minor step up from the old Guitar Hero formula, and that's not slighting the game in the least. The enjoyment you get from those games is built upon at least four fold because of the collaborative feel of everything, and it's an absolute blast -- particularly if you decide to take on the rocker lifestyle for an evening and introduce adult substances (not that we condone that... explicitly).
There is one other area where Harmonix has pushed the idea of their original rhythm action concept that much further: downloadable content. While we PlayStation gamers have had to sit back and watch Guitar Hero II 360 owners get access to exclusive tracks, the PS3 finally affords us the ability to do the same, and it's here that Harmonix and EA have absolutely commanded the DLC space. Not only have there been near-constant weekly releases of new songs, purchasable either on their own or in packs, but the promise (as yet undelivered) of full albums is so stupidly awesome that we're literally praying for the releases of favorites from our music collection. As of the time of this review, the proposed release of Nirvana's "Nevermind" and The Who's self-titled album aren't up, but when they are, understand that content may dip even more than usual as we pretend to be Roger Daltry or Dave Grohl.
Rock Band has a number of issues that keep it from being perfect, but none of them actually combine in a way that hurts the game to a significant degree. Sure, there are hardware problems (which are fairly easily fixed), and the interface may give newcomers a little bit of trouble, but for sheer fun, the game wins out above almost anything released this year. And that,friends, is what should determine why you buy a game. So buy this one. Now.
Amplitude also built the foundation for Guitar Hero (the two games share an almost identical playing area), but with Rock Band Harmonix didn't just add vocals (something they were more than experienced after making the Karaoke Revolution games for Konami a few years running) and drums (arguably the star of Rock Band from the get-go. No, what Harmonix did was inject the evolution of what started on FreQuency with even more of the social glue that Guitar Hero introduced.
There really is nothing like getting four people into a room and having them all jam -- even if it's on a bunch of plastic instruments. That a game could make you want to practice just so you and your buddies can nail some of the harder songs in the game is something I've never really felt before -- and this is coming from someone who was caught in the throes of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks addiction in the late 90s. What's better is that in addition to just learning the harder parts of the songs, just coming to grips with learning to play an approximation of the drums means there's a stupid amount of gameplay delivered right out of that $170 box.
And yes, that caused a bit of sticker shock in me too when I first saw it, but after barreling through the Solo Career Mode on Medium with the drums and rolling right back through on Expert (where it's proven that after years of playing actual drums... I suck at it), I'm more than willing to admit that the price is will worth it -- if you manage to dodge some of the hardware bullets out there.
The drums themselves are both sturdy and responsive, but the bass drum pedal is prone to cracking in half. The guitars, likewise are heavier and have more presence than the old plastic Guitar Hero axes, but they too are prone to breaking thanks to an apparent hurriedly-assembled design flaw. Do-it-yourselfers have found a relatively easy fix, but EA has been quick to offer replacements for busted instruments.
There's also the issue of actually getting that full band together. Right now, there's no way to buy another guitar for Rock Band, and thanks to a bunch of he-said, she-said back-and-forth, it was shown that Activision wanted money for a compatibility patch to allow the PS3 Guitar Hero III controllers to work, despite the fact that the Xbox 360 ones already do. Couple that with the fact that the drums and microphone and the dongle (read: adaptor) for the PS3-exclusive wireless guitar take up three USB slots on the PS3 and you have a bunch of happy new 40GB PS3 owners (with their paltry two USB slots) feeling not so happy. Yes, you can get a USB hub (which is what's needed for the 360 version anyway), but it certainly does leave some PS3 owners out in the lurch, and all of them without a means to get the full Rock Band... well, band.
It's a testament to how friggin' good the game is, though, that these issues don't completely destroy the experience (well, at least for those of use with the early PlayStation 3 models), and even if you were to only play the game solo and then take your skills online to play with other people (a process that's quite easy), the game is still a blast. Granted, even in local multiplayer there are some weird interface issues that make selecting a character and jumping into the game a little cumbersome (you have to pick a band leader and then confirm things, but the confirmation lettering doesn't make it plain to newcomers that they've logged in, so there's a bit of hand holding that has to be done by the vets, which can pull some people out of the whole experience.
Again, though, these are issues that melt away as soon as everyone has jumped in and started playing. The addition of allowing the lead singer to smack the mic on their hand like a tambourine during solos, means that no matter what instrument you play, it's easy to jump in and feel like you're contributing. On top of that, players that hit a solo section of the song can "save" players that failed out up to three times to get through a song where someone might be struggling. It ups the cooperative aspect of the game even more, though Harmonix was wise to put these sections in the game sparingly. The end result is a game that both unifies and, like all bands, at times frustrates some people involved, but honestly that's what playing with friends is all about.
The game proper isn't really all the distant from the different games I mentioned back at the beginning of this review. Singers sing with a pitch indicator, guitarists play just like they did in Guitar Hero and drummers have to juggle the bass drum with the four little toms in the game, hitting a little solo sequence for a bit before hitting a final note to kick off Rock Band's equivalent of Star Power. Other smaller additions include a singers' ability to scream into the mic to get the same effect as drummers' solos and guitar players are now graded on their solo sections.
Those solos can be handled exclusively by the new lower fret buttons on the controller, removing the need for hammer-ons and pull-offs. It might seem like this kills the game, but the rush one can get from nailing an epic solo on some of the harder songs while playing like they're rocking out actually adds to the experience.
Gameplay-wise, though, the game is a minor step up from the old Guitar Hero formula, and that's not slighting the game in the least. The enjoyment you get from those games is built upon at least four fold because of the collaborative feel of everything, and it's an absolute blast -- particularly if you decide to take on the rocker lifestyle for an evening and introduce adult substances (not that we condone that... explicitly).
There is one other area where Harmonix has pushed the idea of their original rhythm action concept that much further: downloadable content. While we PlayStation gamers have had to sit back and watch Guitar Hero II 360 owners get access to exclusive tracks, the PS3 finally affords us the ability to do the same, and it's here that Harmonix and EA have absolutely commanded the DLC space. Not only have there been near-constant weekly releases of new songs, purchasable either on their own or in packs, but the promise (as yet undelivered) of full albums is so stupidly awesome that we're literally praying for the releases of favorites from our music collection. As of the time of this review, the proposed release of Nirvana's "Nevermind" and The Who's self-titled album aren't up, but when they are, understand that content may dip even more than usual as we pretend to be Roger Daltry or Dave Grohl.
Rock Band has a number of issues that keep it from being perfect, but none of them actually combine in a way that hurts the game to a significant degree. Sure, there are hardware problems (which are fairly easily fixed), and the interface may give newcomers a little bit of trouble, but for sheer fun, the game wins out above almost anything released this year. And that,friends, is what should determine why you buy a game. So buy this one. Now.