After sending DrScotto questing all around Maryland in search of Rock Band last Sunday, he arrived with the large box in tow and laid it at our feet to dig through many boxes, baggies, and instructions. Him, The O, my little brother, and myself rocked out for a few hours that night, each taking a turn at the different instruments. Since then, The O and I have played a few nights through the world tour, switching off guitar and bass. Here’s what I think.
The Instruments
If you’re familiar with Guitar Hero, you’re already most of the way there. Guitar and Bass work the same as you’d expect with only some minor differences. The included guitar is not my favorite, featuring a more difficult to use strummer and an obstrusive extra switch for controlling whammy effects. The whammy bar, however, is larger and easier to use. Of course, the biggest downside to the RB guitar is that it won’t work with Guitar Hero, but Guitar Hero guitars will work with RB. Also, as a seasoned guitarist, I found most of the Rock Band guitar parts to be relatively easy, featuring more repetitive sections that in songs we’ve seen before. The bass is even easier and more repetitive for most songs. I’m not sure if the hard mode is actually more do-able as a result, which is one of the next things I have to try.
Drums are in some ways more intuitive, since you just have to hit the appropriately colored drum pad at the right time- with the pedal being an extra button represented by a straight line (and a source of leg pain if you’re not high enough off the ground.) A number of online reviews are of the opinion that the drums are the most faithful to the real instrument, and enough practice might carry over from one to the other. It’s convinced me that I never want to be a drummer.
The microphone is a lot more fun than I originally thought. You’re not just trying to match the lyrics as they slide along the top of the screen, but it measures the octave of your voice, and judges much more on that than anything else. Sometimes circles appear in the singing track, which means you’ve got some tambourine or cowbell to hit the microphone in time to. Maybe I was doing it too hard, but it really starts to hurt your hand after a while. Also, even on easy, Don’t Fear the Reaper is a difficult song to pass, so my cowbell attempts didn’t last very long before I reached failure.
The Band
Whereas Guitar Hero 3‘s art direction looked like it came from someone whose design experience was limited to cutting and pasting, Rock Band shows that Harmonix really understands the fun of being in a band. Not only can you customize your characters right from the start, you can spend money that you gain through gigs to buy extra clothes, hair-styles, and some bitchin’ mutton chops. Every one of these options is accompanied by a funny tidbit, and all the names are hilarious and often puns.
When actually playing, the visual style emulates a variety of music video styles, but of course with your characters playing on the stage you’ve selected. The characters feel organic, as they do things randomly in the song like having the guitarist sing into the mic during a chorus, or the lead singer stage-diving into the crowd when given some time off. While the star power effects of the GH games are gone, there’s still plenty going on to watch that adds to the game. The loading screens likewise add to the effect by featuring your band or band name doing rock and roll traveling things.
The Tour
I’ve not yet played the single player, but the multiplayer World Tour mode. However, the Tour is quite innovative and a logical extension of the premise. You start out in a home city, and play gigs there (either single songs, or sets of songs.) You earn fans and money, which open up other gigs and opportunities. At times, you’re give the chance to add extras to your band like roadies, a tour bus, a sound guy, etc. The open nature of the play makes it more interesting and adds a lot to the game (and you get to argue with your band mates on where to go next, just like a real band!)
There are some serious downsides to the way it’s set up. Many of the cities have boring “make your own setlist” and “mystery set list” that you have to slog through to complete a gig. And when doing these sets, you will have a lot of repetition in songs. Instead of continually unlocking songs like in Guitar Hero, you have to go back and repeat many of the same songs, and go long stretches without hearing anything new. The amount of songs in Rock Band is fewer than in Guitar Hero, and the repetition really makes you feel that lack of diversity.
The other problem is an issue that drives me crazy but I know other gamers go for. There’s only so far you can go on any given difficulty: you reach an arbitrary “fan limit”, which then tells you to play on a harder difficulty. Many gigs need a certain amount of fans to unlock, which means that there are places you cannot go if the best you can do is Medium. It also looks like you’re limited by the lowest skill level in the group, so if your drummer can only play on easy, you’re stuck with the easy limit.
The Songs
As usual, there are some great choices, and some not so great. Wikipedia has the whole list, but there should be at least one great song (OKGO!) in there for everyone. The downloadable content has already begun to roll out, which is a big plus. A game like this is going to benefit from having constant influxes of music, and I imagine is a blast to play with others online. I have heard from others, though, that changing instruments is a pain to change profiles to ensure that you’re getting credit for your drumming.
The Finale
Rock Band is a blast to play, and looks to replace Wii Sports as my multiplayer of choice. There are lots of customization options and a big tour to play around with, in addition to mastering all the different instruments. Unfortunately, you’ll probably get sick of certain songs quickly, as you will have to play them many times in the course of your career, whether you like it or not. Coupled with a limited amount of gameplay per difficulty level, and you may run into various replayability issues. That aside, if you’re a fan of Guitar Hero and similar games, you’ll find that Rock Band… dare I say it… hits all the right notes.
(For another perspective, I highly recommend checking out the article Rock Band vs. Real Band, written by the guitarist of Sleater-Kinney.)
And now it’s time for everyone’s favorite segment; “From the Vocalist’s Perspective”!!!
Now, being the cocky ho that I am, I assumed that I would float through on the vocals. This is mostly true. HOWEVER, I have a few peevs.
First, say your rockin’ band (whose name is not even NEARLY as cool as “Atma”) chooses a song that you’re not familiar with. At all. Guitars and Drums are cool – they’ve seen the red and yellow buttons before, they’ll get through. But you, the lead singer? Pretty much screwed. You’ll be spending some time in single player mode just listening to the vocal tracks. On the plus side, now I’m totally a fan of some songs I didn’t know before.
Second, say your rockin’ band wants to take an egg nog break. DON’T DO IT, VOCALIST!!! Clearly they are trying to sabotage you.
Thirdly. As I ramped up the difficulty levels, I noticed that you get rewarded for singing…how shall I put this…without character? You get a much higher score for singing pure and right-on notes in what I would call a “choral” style rather than putting in the little rifs and cues that you’re used to hearing in rock/pop music. This tears me between wanting to be really good at the game, and wanting to really rock out.
Now, I don’t have a better idea for how the designers could fix any of these things, just my two cents. I wouldn’t have such detailed complaints if I were not loving the game so much!
Interesting stuff… but you are wrong about one thing: THAC0 is the coolest band name ever! The lead guitarist, who somewhat resembles me with a fauxhawk, has already bought a pair of “Dungarees & Dragons” from the store and a “Dr. What” coat. The rest of the band is current saving up for knight and summoners outfits, in which case our adventuring party/band will be complete. And the coolest nerd band ever.
My band is called Rock In To Mordor.
As in, “One does not simply…” ? That’s pretty awesome, I’ll give you that.
It sounds like fun, though I’m surprised they didn’t throw in a keyboard/synthesizer. That would have been neat.
Um, yeah, I think we’ll have to have a poll of the week about that one.
I imagine that’d be a mighty complex element to add to the game…which I’m sad to say I haven’t gotten my itchy hands on yet…I’m aching to give some drumming a go…see if I can’t put my real-time ability to the test…
Hard mode for the bass is very accessible. I was playing it tonight and was always between 95% and 100%. I have not yet tried guitar.
I know drums were difficult on medium, but I suspect that is mostly because I have practiced with them the least (lots of guitar hero). Singing is easy on easy or medium IMHO. I have not tried that on hard either.
I’d really love to play a game where everyone was playing on hard. That would rock!
Ok, the only other problem with Rock Band is that it sucks up time like a [create your own euphemism!] Danny and I were almost glad to get it out of the house, until we started getting withdrawal sweats…
It’s really nice for something to get people out of their shells and singing, damnit. No one is truly tone-deaf, just takes a little time 🙂 It was bringing out the inner crooner in most everyone!
Yeah, as in “One does not simply…”
I played a little more last night, scoring high 80s-low 90s on medium drums. Mostly on the easier songs, but still.