Can't Stop the Rock
Rock Band 2 returns, bigger, badder, and, yes, more fun than the original.
Published: October 29, 2008
It's hard to overstate just how much of an impact on the rhythm action genre the original Rock Band had. Harmonix had already figured out how to do vocals and guitar for their earlier games, but bringing all that together with drums -- by far the part of the game I spent the most time with -- made it a more social, accessible and rewarding experience. It wasn't absolutely perfect, but it did rock harder than any other music game out there.
With Guitar Hero World Tour looking to copy much of the formula but put their own spin on things with additions like music creation, one would be forgiven for thinking that Rock Band 2 is an incremental update, and in truth it largely is. Very little of the interface, gameplay and options on display here are all that far removed from the first game, but that's because the first game was already so friggin' awesome to begin with that little needed to be changed.
That's not to say I don't have some complaints; World Tour Mode is almost the exact same (though now you can play it solo and earn the fans and cash like you would experience and money in an RPG, which makes it plenty addictive), the interface is just about identical to the original, and the character creation additions are a joke compared to how much of the online experience has been beefed up.
Luckily, those are niggling complaints that are more about nitpicking than actually pulling you out of the experience, and far more was done to suck you in even more. Just jumping into a Quick Play session is infinitely easier, with little refinements like having everyone pick their character and then press Start to actually go instead of needing a band leader that has to confirm the whole mess with the same button that pops you back to the character select.
The rest of the single-player experience, though, is more or less as it appeared about a year ago; you'll tour cities, gathering fans and money, but now you can hire on employees that do everything from getting you new venues that you couldn't otherwise play to adding an added risk vs. reward option in the form of double-or-nothing challenges. Likewise, the challenges that pop up as you play can encourage you to step up your difficulty or try to nail a particular sequence. It makes for more variety in things while unlocking new tracks, and the later challenges are especially interesting because they're built off the tracks you've downloaded or imported.
Let's talk about that for a second. For $5, you can get an app that will let you pull almost every track from the first Rock Band into Rock Band 2. This includes the on-disc content, but downloaded tracks are automatically included in your list of songs too, and DLC for one game will carry over to the next (yes, even new stuff). Add to that the fact that Harmonix has an incredible DLC release schedule and are promising a whopping 20 more free songs and you have a library that's absolutely massive with minimal amounts of fuss or extra cost.
All those tracks mean more challenges and different play styles, of course, and all that feeds into the online experience. Now, you can roam the countryside, adding online members to your band that help you pocket more goodies, but you can also participate in online challenges that Harmonix has set up on a near-daily basis. These Battle of the Bands options let you and your friends plunk down an accomplishment (say, a long note streak or amassing a certain number of points) and then everyone else online can do the same and you can compare your results.
With Guitar Hero World Tour looking to copy much of the formula but put their own spin on things with additions like music creation, one would be forgiven for thinking that Rock Band 2 is an incremental update, and in truth it largely is. Very little of the interface, gameplay and options on display here are all that far removed from the first game, but that's because the first game was already so friggin' awesome to begin with that little needed to be changed.
That's not to say I don't have some complaints; World Tour Mode is almost the exact same (though now you can play it solo and earn the fans and cash like you would experience and money in an RPG, which makes it plenty addictive), the interface is just about identical to the original, and the character creation additions are a joke compared to how much of the online experience has been beefed up.
Luckily, those are niggling complaints that are more about nitpicking than actually pulling you out of the experience, and far more was done to suck you in even more. Just jumping into a Quick Play session is infinitely easier, with little refinements like having everyone pick their character and then press Start to actually go instead of needing a band leader that has to confirm the whole mess with the same button that pops you back to the character select.
The rest of the single-player experience, though, is more or less as it appeared about a year ago; you'll tour cities, gathering fans and money, but now you can hire on employees that do everything from getting you new venues that you couldn't otherwise play to adding an added risk vs. reward option in the form of double-or-nothing challenges. Likewise, the challenges that pop up as you play can encourage you to step up your difficulty or try to nail a particular sequence. It makes for more variety in things while unlocking new tracks, and the later challenges are especially interesting because they're built off the tracks you've downloaded or imported.
Let's talk about that for a second. For $5, you can get an app that will let you pull almost every track from the first Rock Band into Rock Band 2. This includes the on-disc content, but downloaded tracks are automatically included in your list of songs too, and DLC for one game will carry over to the next (yes, even new stuff). Add to that the fact that Harmonix has an incredible DLC release schedule and are promising a whopping 20 more free songs and you have a library that's absolutely massive with minimal amounts of fuss or extra cost.
All those tracks mean more challenges and different play styles, of course, and all that feeds into the online experience. Now, you can roam the countryside, adding online members to your band that help you pocket more goodies, but you can also participate in online challenges that Harmonix has set up on a near-daily basis. These Battle of the Bands options let you and your friends plunk down an accomplishment (say, a long note streak or amassing a certain number of points) and then everyone else online can do the same and you can compare your results.
