Rock Band guitar - How hard is it?

[dante666]

Hey

I've heard many different opinions on this one, but the game was mostly considered easier than GHII and GHIII

What do YOU think?

I'm just asking now that there is a month till i get it and i would like to know how much i have to prepare xD

As for my stats i completed both GHII+III on expert, but you know, barely.
Also a thing I experianced latley is that after playing alot of GHIII I now cant get use to GHII H'ons and P'offs. RB is probably gonna be more like GHII, right?

[CCDaDon]

RB HO/PO IS the GHII HO/PO lol

No really its the same exact thing...

i say RB is just in the medium not too easy not too hard just the right difficulty to be the right amount of fun(Green Grass is still a B**** though...)... although some DLC songs seem impossible but i seem to be proven wrong all the time(Yes I'm Talkin To You Sully)

[Tenorrocker]

It is certainly easier than GH2&3. although I think its jsut right. My only grips is that the guitar for RB seems too sensitive or not sesitive enough. I'm having trouple when I have to strum the same not really fast. I'm pretty sure I'm timing it right but still miss many of the notes.

[skullpit]

It is easier than the GH games but not too easy. Just hard enough to be a challenge and fun.

[DSOTM]

rock band has harder hammer ons/pull offs
guitar hero has harder songs

but overall id say rock band is harder
i can four-star through the fire and flames whenever i feel like it, but i cant even beat green grass and high tides anymore

[jeccaneko]

Guitar Hero 3 is more difficult, but some of that is artificial. Actually, some of those songs are harder to play on Guitar Hero 3 than real guitar.

Rock Band does have some difficult songs. One person mentioned Green Grass and High Tides. I personally think Harmonix is very good at making fun charts to play. Even the difficult songs you'll have fun playing and it'll help encourage you to get better. Guitar Hero 3 has some charts that are to me are far less fun, so when you hit a challenging song you have less motivation to keep trying. You just get frustrated. At least, I do. :(

I guess to help you get an indication of things, I can play expert on Rock Band for most songs. I can barely pass even the easier expert songs on Guitar Hero 3.

[DSOTM]

i get frustrated if i cant beat a song on both rock band and guitar hero

[medalofhonor]

rock band has harder hammer ons/pull offs
guitar hero has harder songs

but overall id say rock band is harder
i can four-star through the fire and flames whenever i feel like it, but i cant even beat green grass and high tides anymore

Personally i'd say TTFATF is easy except for the intro, other than that, I ,along with most players on expert, can keep the meter in the green the rest of the song.

Green grass wasnt a problem for me personally, but its still hard as hell. A lot easier overall than gh2 or gh3

[Al_Dags]

Guitar Hero is most definitely harder then Rock Band for me but not as fun

I am 2 songs shy on hard level in Guitar Hero and 2 songs shy on expert level in Rock Band (not counting DLC on both)

[Parodygm]

There are certain songs amongst the Rock Band DLC that approximate the tough parts of GH/GH2, so you can try to grab those for the challenge. Things like "Ride the Lightning" and "Shockwave" spring to mind.

You won't really find a new "Jordan" or "Through the Fire and Flames" though.

[icecoldd]

GH3 is a ***** lol.. I'm having trouble getting threw a few songs on the last teir on HARD in it and still have the Devil to beat. I got 2 Songs left on the Expert level in Rockband.. GGHT and Highway Star.. I can say, that since Rockband hit my Xbox , it hasn't left, and GH3 hasn't been played in months.

[GEEMIEE]

Well, I've beat Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on Expert, as well as Rockband. Still can't get through the battle with Lou on Expert on GH3 though...

Before I played Rockband, I had GH2 beat on Hard, and the battle with Lou left on Hard on GH3. After a few months of Rockband, I breezed through (literally, only failed one or two times, didn't even fail "Free Bird") GH2, and got up to the last set on GH3 without many problems. I don't know if it was Rockband that made me better, or just the amount of plastic-guitar I played.

I'd say overall (on Guitar) Rockband = Guitar Hero 2 (including bonus songs and DLC). GH3 is a lot harder than Rockband though, talking mainly about the last tier of songs-wise.

On-Disk, GH2 is probably a bit harder than RB, but with all the DLC (Metallica, "Shockwave", "Working Man", "Thrasher", etc.) RB has harder songs.

[Kaptankrunch92]

quite a bit easier than guitar hero 3...cuz most ppl wanna have FUN with their game and not get raped by raining blood 30 times before eventually passing it...then 5 starring it magically...

[Bearclaw]

I find the guitar part easier than GHII (definitely easier than GHIII, for different reasons). The plain fretboard makes note considerably easier to see. Going back to GHII and GHIII, I find myself struggling to see some of the notes (GHIII isn't as bad). Getting used to the bars over the circles will probably be difficult at first, but it will get to a point where you wander why GH didn't originally have bars.

Overall, easier, but for good reasons.

[DeadManDrumming]

Its about as hard as plastic should be /shrug.

It's "easier" than GH3, but if you play by difficulty of a game only you might as well be playing the original Contra with no help, (or cheats) because those old games do feel ALOT harder then most games out today.

[SputnikDX]

It's easier than GH3, but only because GH3 has stupid charting. Rock Band has mostly excellent charting, but most of the DLC is still incredibly hard, things like Blackened and Thrasher destroy my fingers, after playing Plastic Guitar for about 3 years.

[Apples]

I think with recent DLC packs the whole difficulty gripe against Rock Band has become sort of a myth.

Yes, there are easy songs. Yes, there are a lot of them. With 150+ song library, not all of them are going to be Raining Blood or Metallica's One.

By the same token, not all of them are Surrender or Slow Ride. The top tier on the disc, plus metallica pack, thrash pack, and various singles (such as Shockwave) are a worthwhile portfolio for the difficulty monger.


In short, Rock Band is just like previous games, with a broad mix and texture of difficulties to cater to everyone.


Edit: Just though I'd throw in, something else to consider... even the non-difficult songs generally have some awesome FUN element about them... which is the important thing! :D

[dante666]

Thank you all for the help :D I'll better go and practise some GHII

The charting of GHII and III is different i know, but h'ons and p'offs are way easier on GHIII IMO. Maybe becouse i have played this game so much. I can FC Cult of personality solo on hard, but if it was charted by HMX, i'll porbably do miserable.

[Stov]

The first GH game I played properly was GH3 - I had a few goes on a friend's GH2 in the past but never owned it myself.
I'm not a very good plastic guitar player, only playing at Medium with sometimes dipping into Hard (scary orange frets!), but I find RB so much more fun to play than GH3 regardless of the difficulty.
Yes, the songs seem a bit easier off the disc, but I don't get the feeling that the game is punishing me for not being perfect like you get in GH3 so I've been having much more fun with the game.

Only downside is the clicky frets on the PS3 Strat...

[FinalWarri0r]

Song wise Rock Band is easier then Guitar Hero, but that's only because GH is made for just the Guitar...It's not trying to please every instrument. Also RB can be more difficult, at times, then GH3 because you cant just let your fingers dance on the buttons and hit every note. So IMHO it balances out.

[chillzatl]

The game itself (timing) is harder than GH3 and on par with GH2. THe note charts are easier because as Harmonix has always strived to do, even with GH, is to replicate the feel of the song. RB has you playing one guitar part, not 2 + overdubs the way GH3 seems to be doing. So easy parts in songs aren't going to be harder than they really are. They let the song dictate the level of challenge. If it's a hard song to play on guitar, it's going to be hard to play in the game, if not, it won't be. Which is how it should be.

[Ledgo2]

Rock Band does less of the other instrument playing. In GH3 there were songs where you played synth or keyboard parts. The worst I've seen on RB is Organ in Boston.

Oh, and Rock band is tabbed better IMO. Unlike GH3, which alot of the songs were definatley dramatized, and the last two tiers in GH3 seemed like Activision trying to be funny and think that since players seen Jordan from GHII, it's fine to make the game like that.

I am VERY sure that if you took synth out of some GH3 songs, they wouldn't be as hard as they seem.

[Tenorrocker]

I really like the charst on RB more than GH3. The difficulty is just right. I love playing GG&HT as well as flirtin with disaster. Those are tough songs for me. And I have a blast with Dont look back in Anger. Definately the best Chart I've seen.

[andyb24]

Rock Band is easier but far more fun. The charts match up perfectly with the song unlike GHIII and, personally, Rock Band has better song to play guitar on.

[NarutoJester]

Generally Rock Band is easier. In my opinion, Rock Band is more realistic in the sense that there aren't as many extra notes.

[Deriaz]

I'd say I like Rock Band more than Guitar Hero (Mind you, I've only played III.). The Hammer Ons and Pull Offs are done nicely, and the charts feel like you're actually playing guitar. *Looks at Devil Went Down To Georgia and Through The Fire And Flames.*

As for difficulty, Medium is set just right for Guitar. New people can jump in and get through most songs with a few flops, but general ease. Hard is a little tricky, but even my friend, who's never played Guitar Hero or anything like that, is slowly working his way up to Hard after. . . What, 5 hours of play in Band World Tour? Expert is still what it should be, where you have to be quick with your fingers, but is nowhere near as. . . I don't know the word. . . "Insane" as Guitar Hero III. Easy to some, but still challenging to most others. It's got a nice range of difficulty through the songs.

Bass is practically the same way, though I've noticed Hard is rather easy on most songs, but the jump to Expert can kill on a few. >>

Just my two cents.

-D

[dante666]

What about the square notes, does that take a long time to get used to?

[Sarge51]

What about the square notes, does that take a long time to get used to?

I got used to it fairly quickly, you just have to give it a chance. It didn't bother me much, once I got passed the weird HOPO notes.

[Spandrel]

As others have alluded to, Guitar Hero III has harder note charts than Rock Band, but Rock Band has the narrower window, so there is more emphasis on timing and precision.

Overall, I can 5* most GHIII songs on Hard, and I can beat most all of the songs on Expert (except the most difficult ones), and I have all songs on Rock Band 4/5*'ed except for "Green Grass and High Tides". I seem to fail at the same point in the solo every time.

So if you are a Hard/Expert player on GH III, you should be able to play nearly every song in Rock Band on Expert pretty well.