Can't Stop the Rock
Rock Band 2 returns, bigger, badder, and, yes, more fun than the original.
Published: October 29, 2008
The sheer number of challenges available should mean a near-endless, daily set of new stuff to do, and it'll change as more tracks are added. The Battle of the Bands title might be a little confusing, as it's not directly head-to-head, but the Tug of War (self-explanatory, and completely awesome) and Score Duels take care of that rather neatly, and the game does a great job of letting you know when friends or enemies have bested your score in some of the modes, which is quite handy.
Again, though, the changes here are incremental, most of which have been made to help smooth out some of the rougher parts of Rock Band's debut. Yes, it means you'll have some fancy new tattoo options or you'll see psychedelic visuals while shooting a "music video," or you'll see more of your band members getting into the act (if you can pull your eyes away from the track you're trying to play along with, of course), but there's no denying that most casual players would be hard-pressed to see the difference between the two version beyond the new songs. Rock Band 2 sports a massive 80-plus song collection spanning plenty of genres, and the difficulty of just about everything has been tweaked to fantastic effect (the guitar parts -- in particular the basslines -- are so much more technical and fun to play this time around).
One can't speak at length about Rock Band without talking about the instruments. The first time around, though, a good portion of the conversation likely centered around how, well, broken some of those instruments were. The dubious build quality of the drum pedal (which snapped in half) and the strum bar of the guitar (which would slowly go dead as a connection was worn away) meant that a fairly major portion of the gaming population got stuck with bunk instruments out of the box or shortly after some lengthy play sessions. EA was good enough to replace the faulty instruments, but it was still an issue of initial build quality.
This time around, things are far, far better -- at least as the drums are concerned. The new guitars can self-calibrate and the strum bar is a little closer to the old Guitar Hero ones, but it's honestly not that much of a change, and the mics are identical. The drums, however, are so improved over the originals that they effectively render them useless. Sporting more responsive heads that are quieter, read velocity and offer a more natural bit of kick, they make playing an absolute dream compared to the loud, plasticy sound of the originals. Factor in a new reinforced drum pedal and the fact that they're now wireless, and the drums should become an insta-buy for anyone picking up Rock Band 2.
There's no getting around the fact that the time between games has meant that not a whole lot could be changed. The single-player portion, where I spent almost all of my time with the first game, is functionally the same. I love the new challenges and the ease of getting into the modes, and the new offerings for online means I'll be checking and competing far more often than before, but I really was hoping for a full blow-out of things to make unlocking all those tracks a little more engaging. That doesn't mean they aren't fun (quite the opposite, really), just that not enough focus was put on increasing the bang for the single-player buck.
None of these games stay a single-player experience for long, though, and with the online modes getting such a huge boost, there's more than enough here to justify picking up the second game. It's still the quintessential party game experience for those with enough natural rhythm to get into things, and now those that played through the first game will have quite a bit more challenge this time around. Actually, scratch that, they'll have a lot more challenge. Add in the fact that Guitar Hero instruments work with Rock Band (and vice-versa), Trophy support and a ton of new music and you have a package that's every bit as attractive as the first game, if not more. Just don't be surprised when you shell out the cash for new drums and a copy of the game and don't see a drastic difference in how things look and play.
