SGD316
11-18-2007, 06:41 PM
Source, more in depth has pics (http://2opgaming.com/2007/11/18/rock-band-review/)
Gameplay
Harmonix did not go back and re-invent the wheel in the gameplay department. But, they did an absolutely fantastic job of polishing the rough edges around Guitar Hero gameplay. The mechanic is mostly unchanged on the guitar. See note, hit note, increase your multiplier and bank more points. Get over drive (it’s Rock Band’s “star power”) and use it to double your points. The drums have the same notes but at points where you need to step on the bass drum pedal will be highlighted as lines that go all the way across the fret board that you will have to time right to hit. For singing, you can see the words along with the voice pitch you need to be using to sing or rap them and the game will indicate to you where it thinks you are so you can make adjustments as needed.
The guitar portion of Rock Band difficulty wise is more on par with Guitar Hero II. It’s not all that difficult especially on easy and medium difficulties. Hard and expert will require you to slide your fingers more and hit notes in higher difficulty combinations. But it’s not “bs” difficulty like GH3 which is a welcome improvement. You can tell Harmonix has making note boards down to a science for the guitar and notes on the display feel in place. Veterans of Guitar Hero will have zero problems with the guitar portion of Rock Band. At the end of some songs you will be given a open fret board to hit as many notes as you can as fast as you can to simulate a burn out at the end of a song. There may be a few notes after the section which essentially housing your bonus. Hit these notes and you’re golden. Miss them, and you’ll literally see your bonus go up in smoke on screen.
The vocal recognition while singing is phenomenal. You will not be able to fool Rock Band with random grunting and making sounds to get through songs. You won’t be able to make up words either. As you go to the higher difficulty levels the margin for error will become progressively smaller and you will do as Rock Band thinks you should or you will fail out. Don’t rap Sabotage fast enough ? Prepare to fail. Don’t got the pipes to hang with Dave Grohl or Brandon Flowers ? What was a cake walk on guitar will quickly turn into a nightmare with vocals. It’s a lot of fun though. Words will come at you in the vocal portion with a straight line denoting the level of sound you need. You can bank and activate star power by screaming into the mic at designated times where the vocal fret board will be highlighted orange but have no words to sing. Certain portions of songs where there are no words and other instruments are in solo may require you to tap your hand against the microphone in rhythm to simulate a tambourine. The vocal portion will be the hit of many a holiday party featuring Rock Band. It’s a supped up karaoke machine, next gen style.
The most popular instrument in Rock Band is also hands down the most challenging. The drums are fun and very rewarding when you have it down but more than a few gamers may get very close to breaking their drum set. Even on easy the drums use all 4 drum pads and the bass drum kick. For those of us who aren’t musically inclined, the drums have the steepest learning curve and will take a lot of practice to get used to. Even on easy I had a heck of a time with them. Sometimes I felt as though I was hitting the proper drum pad and the game simply would not register. The drums were difficult enough, but non-registering pads in the game made it almost impossible. It’s hit or miss which is why at the start of the review I recommend anyone playing the drums to hit them as centrally as possible and as hard as possible. Anyone who can successfully play the drums on hard or expert definitely has my gaming respect. Not only that, but the drums are loud when you play them and that was before I was trying to hit them hard. It’s not drown out loud, but the sound that is made when you hit your drums is a bit annoying. Having played real drums in my earlier years it’s not the same feeling and it’s nitpick to even make that assessment in a game but the feel and sound of playing the drums in Rock Band combined with the difficulty and unresponsiveness make it a real sore spot for me. Add to that, activating over drive on the drums consists of a guitar burn out like section in what seemed like predetermined sections of songs where you had hit burnout and at the end hit a corresponding note to activate it really tried my patience on the drums.
Gameplay wise, Harmonix added a lot more pertinent information to the screen during play and even tweaked the gameplay to make it deeper and more strategic overall. In Guitar Hero II until you finished a song it was a mystery as to how many stars you got for your performance. In Rock Band, that is fixed. You can see live as you’re playing how many stars you have. Were you ever frustrated at yourself in Guitar Hero for activating your star power at the wrong moment and playing through another section of a song that had more star power ? That’s been in Rock Band. Just because you have over drive on, doesn’t mean you can’t bank more to sustain and extend an over drive period. In fact, if strategically played you can juggle over drive for a pretty lengthy period of time in some songs you really rack up impressive scores. In multiplayer modes such as Band World Tour you can see where your teammates are easily since all 4 instruments are displayed on one single rock meter. Which brings up another strategic point in the game, especially when playing in a band. If a band mate is about to fail out, activating over drive can save them. The window to save them won’t last forever though so if it’s not done fairly quickly you all fail. This makes for some very interesting decision making mid song if for example you know the guitar solo for Enter Sandman is downright impossible and you’re going to need to save your guitarist’s ass. This becomes serious business especially in Band World Tour.
It all comes together in Rock Band with the showcase mode known as Band World Tour. You and up to 3 other friends have to decide which instruments you each want to play as you co op your way to the top of the charts. You’ll have to pick a leader for the band and choose your leader and instrument wisely. This person along with the instrument is locked and will need to be present to play. I recommend choosing a guitar player as lead. While other band mates will come and go and be able to change instruments, you the band leader have no such luck. This made for some frustration at first when playing through Rock Band as I made the mistake of making the leader of my band the drummer.
Once you have assembled your band you will start out as the proverbial small fries playing small venues without much fanfare. But as your band’s legend grows so will your fan base, your loot, and the size of the venues you play. Successfully completed gigs will net you fans, stars, and money that you will need to unlock new cities. Every few gigs you’ll be able to play for a tour bus, a better tour bus, a private jet, bouncers, PR firm etc. You continue on in the Band World Tour mode you will need to unlock more and more to turn your brand into a real headlining. This is where a design decision was made by Harmonix that troubled me. If you play on easy or medium as a band, it’s impossible to finish the game because your fan base is capped at a certain number. You have to play on as hard to carry on. I know some may say this separates the real rockers from the garage bands but it ruins and closes off a lot of fun in the game. Not only that, but your band mates need to be present in Band World Tour locally to play. Best of luck finding 4 people who are all proficient in each instrument. They’ll be few and far between. Another low point for the World Tour is that the Rock Band song list is currently at 58 and you end up playing the same songs a ton of times to move on. I get it’s supposed to be like playing in a real band where you’re stuck playing the same songs every night, but it gets repetitive and a bit boring for what is at the end of the day a video game. I don’t mind playing 2,3, and 4 song set lists in a row but when the same songs keep coming up that I’ve already perfected and aced it makes me want to stop playing the mode. On top of that, if your band fails out on a song you lose fans, a lot of fans. So if you know a band mate struggles with a particular song or a section, it may be wise to save your over drive to save them rather than increase points. Everyone needs to be alive at the end of a song to count as a successful finish. You can earn bonuses by playing through unity sections successfully and stacking over drive (up to 8 since each member of your band only provides a 2x multiplier in cooperative play). The World Tour game mode is a great concept but really needs some work. The fact that I can’t co op World Tour online really is a downer and the repeating of tracks made me want to move on to something else. Needless to say Rock Band is more a cooperative game where you’ll need more people to fully enjoy it which I think makes it one of the best party games ever made by combining Guitar Hero, Drum Hero, and karaoke.
Overall (Not an average): 9.2 / 10 Harmonix tried something new and it works. Never before has a game taken such a stance and fresh look at the music game genre cooperatively focused like Rock Band. Some gambles paid off, some didn’t but Rock Band is a solid game offline with hopefully an online patch to be released shortly after release fixing the online issue of no live Band World Tour. Good luck finding this on store shelves this holiday.
Higher res photos at my flickr here (http://www.flickr.com/witchking9)
Gameplay
Harmonix did not go back and re-invent the wheel in the gameplay department. But, they did an absolutely fantastic job of polishing the rough edges around Guitar Hero gameplay. The mechanic is mostly unchanged on the guitar. See note, hit note, increase your multiplier and bank more points. Get over drive (it’s Rock Band’s “star power”) and use it to double your points. The drums have the same notes but at points where you need to step on the bass drum pedal will be highlighted as lines that go all the way across the fret board that you will have to time right to hit. For singing, you can see the words along with the voice pitch you need to be using to sing or rap them and the game will indicate to you where it thinks you are so you can make adjustments as needed.
The guitar portion of Rock Band difficulty wise is more on par with Guitar Hero II. It’s not all that difficult especially on easy and medium difficulties. Hard and expert will require you to slide your fingers more and hit notes in higher difficulty combinations. But it’s not “bs” difficulty like GH3 which is a welcome improvement. You can tell Harmonix has making note boards down to a science for the guitar and notes on the display feel in place. Veterans of Guitar Hero will have zero problems with the guitar portion of Rock Band. At the end of some songs you will be given a open fret board to hit as many notes as you can as fast as you can to simulate a burn out at the end of a song. There may be a few notes after the section which essentially housing your bonus. Hit these notes and you’re golden. Miss them, and you’ll literally see your bonus go up in smoke on screen.
The vocal recognition while singing is phenomenal. You will not be able to fool Rock Band with random grunting and making sounds to get through songs. You won’t be able to make up words either. As you go to the higher difficulty levels the margin for error will become progressively smaller and you will do as Rock Band thinks you should or you will fail out. Don’t rap Sabotage fast enough ? Prepare to fail. Don’t got the pipes to hang with Dave Grohl or Brandon Flowers ? What was a cake walk on guitar will quickly turn into a nightmare with vocals. It’s a lot of fun though. Words will come at you in the vocal portion with a straight line denoting the level of sound you need. You can bank and activate star power by screaming into the mic at designated times where the vocal fret board will be highlighted orange but have no words to sing. Certain portions of songs where there are no words and other instruments are in solo may require you to tap your hand against the microphone in rhythm to simulate a tambourine. The vocal portion will be the hit of many a holiday party featuring Rock Band. It’s a supped up karaoke machine, next gen style.
The most popular instrument in Rock Band is also hands down the most challenging. The drums are fun and very rewarding when you have it down but more than a few gamers may get very close to breaking their drum set. Even on easy the drums use all 4 drum pads and the bass drum kick. For those of us who aren’t musically inclined, the drums have the steepest learning curve and will take a lot of practice to get used to. Even on easy I had a heck of a time with them. Sometimes I felt as though I was hitting the proper drum pad and the game simply would not register. The drums were difficult enough, but non-registering pads in the game made it almost impossible. It’s hit or miss which is why at the start of the review I recommend anyone playing the drums to hit them as centrally as possible and as hard as possible. Anyone who can successfully play the drums on hard or expert definitely has my gaming respect. Not only that, but the drums are loud when you play them and that was before I was trying to hit them hard. It’s not drown out loud, but the sound that is made when you hit your drums is a bit annoying. Having played real drums in my earlier years it’s not the same feeling and it’s nitpick to even make that assessment in a game but the feel and sound of playing the drums in Rock Band combined with the difficulty and unresponsiveness make it a real sore spot for me. Add to that, activating over drive on the drums consists of a guitar burn out like section in what seemed like predetermined sections of songs where you had hit burnout and at the end hit a corresponding note to activate it really tried my patience on the drums.
Gameplay wise, Harmonix added a lot more pertinent information to the screen during play and even tweaked the gameplay to make it deeper and more strategic overall. In Guitar Hero II until you finished a song it was a mystery as to how many stars you got for your performance. In Rock Band, that is fixed. You can see live as you’re playing how many stars you have. Were you ever frustrated at yourself in Guitar Hero for activating your star power at the wrong moment and playing through another section of a song that had more star power ? That’s been in Rock Band. Just because you have over drive on, doesn’t mean you can’t bank more to sustain and extend an over drive period. In fact, if strategically played you can juggle over drive for a pretty lengthy period of time in some songs you really rack up impressive scores. In multiplayer modes such as Band World Tour you can see where your teammates are easily since all 4 instruments are displayed on one single rock meter. Which brings up another strategic point in the game, especially when playing in a band. If a band mate is about to fail out, activating over drive can save them. The window to save them won’t last forever though so if it’s not done fairly quickly you all fail. This makes for some very interesting decision making mid song if for example you know the guitar solo for Enter Sandman is downright impossible and you’re going to need to save your guitarist’s ass. This becomes serious business especially in Band World Tour.
It all comes together in Rock Band with the showcase mode known as Band World Tour. You and up to 3 other friends have to decide which instruments you each want to play as you co op your way to the top of the charts. You’ll have to pick a leader for the band and choose your leader and instrument wisely. This person along with the instrument is locked and will need to be present to play. I recommend choosing a guitar player as lead. While other band mates will come and go and be able to change instruments, you the band leader have no such luck. This made for some frustration at first when playing through Rock Band as I made the mistake of making the leader of my band the drummer.
Once you have assembled your band you will start out as the proverbial small fries playing small venues without much fanfare. But as your band’s legend grows so will your fan base, your loot, and the size of the venues you play. Successfully completed gigs will net you fans, stars, and money that you will need to unlock new cities. Every few gigs you’ll be able to play for a tour bus, a better tour bus, a private jet, bouncers, PR firm etc. You continue on in the Band World Tour mode you will need to unlock more and more to turn your brand into a real headlining. This is where a design decision was made by Harmonix that troubled me. If you play on easy or medium as a band, it’s impossible to finish the game because your fan base is capped at a certain number. You have to play on as hard to carry on. I know some may say this separates the real rockers from the garage bands but it ruins and closes off a lot of fun in the game. Not only that, but your band mates need to be present in Band World Tour locally to play. Best of luck finding 4 people who are all proficient in each instrument. They’ll be few and far between. Another low point for the World Tour is that the Rock Band song list is currently at 58 and you end up playing the same songs a ton of times to move on. I get it’s supposed to be like playing in a real band where you’re stuck playing the same songs every night, but it gets repetitive and a bit boring for what is at the end of the day a video game. I don’t mind playing 2,3, and 4 song set lists in a row but when the same songs keep coming up that I’ve already perfected and aced it makes me want to stop playing the mode. On top of that, if your band fails out on a song you lose fans, a lot of fans. So if you know a band mate struggles with a particular song or a section, it may be wise to save your over drive to save them rather than increase points. Everyone needs to be alive at the end of a song to count as a successful finish. You can earn bonuses by playing through unity sections successfully and stacking over drive (up to 8 since each member of your band only provides a 2x multiplier in cooperative play). The World Tour game mode is a great concept but really needs some work. The fact that I can’t co op World Tour online really is a downer and the repeating of tracks made me want to move on to something else. Needless to say Rock Band is more a cooperative game where you’ll need more people to fully enjoy it which I think makes it one of the best party games ever made by combining Guitar Hero, Drum Hero, and karaoke.
Overall (Not an average): 9.2 / 10 Harmonix tried something new and it works. Never before has a game taken such a stance and fresh look at the music game genre cooperatively focused like Rock Band. Some gambles paid off, some didn’t but Rock Band is a solid game offline with hopefully an online patch to be released shortly after release fixing the online issue of no live Band World Tour. Good luck finding this on store shelves this holiday.
Higher res photos at my flickr here (http://www.flickr.com/witchking9)
