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Rock Band Review

by March 8th 2008 5:35 PM CST5 Comments

While most of us grew up with Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and dreaming of becoming rock stars one day, personal ambitions got in the way. But then again, we all played an instrument one time or another and realized that it was just way too damn hard and time consuming. Air guitar was always the best option, until recently. Guitar Hero came out and changed everything, giving us a simple plastic guitar with just five buttons and a list of songs we all knew and loved instead of our imaginations.

Developer Harmonix is at it again with that revolutionary-thing, giving us a game based around exactly what the title says: a Rock Band. That means playing guitar, bass, drums and singing. While guitar is wholly the same as Guitar Hero 2 with some stylistic differences, the drums and singing portions are experiences unto themselves.


Suffice to say, the best singers in the world would shudder at how sound works. It has nothing to do with how good you sing; the tone and pitch you sing at counts. A singer from an actual band would perform worse on his own song than someone just watching the screen and keeping the “proper” tone. Then again, it’s bad enough we’re teaching machines to lie; teaching them what proper singing is would bring them one step closer to Skynet.

Unlike Guitar Hero games, Rock Band actually has a place for the bass guitarist, and it isn’t as a backup player for when friends are over. They don’t earn any more respect, with nearly every song being pitifully easier on the bass than any other instrument. But at least they’re not forgotten.

Finally, the drums. Harmonix seems overly pleased with themselves, stating that being able to play the drums on hard or expert means you can play real drums, in real life. Seeing how loud the drum set can get, hearing problems may ensue, but so far all accounts have shown just the reverse. People who play real drums can play the drums in Rock Band on hard and expert, not the other way around. Unless you’re  HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnw1YpKkCTE"
this guy.

Each of the instruments has their own “campaign” to play through, so it’s easy to lose track of a few weeks. Fans of Guitar Hero will be able to play the guitar and bass with little trouble since it’s easier than the previous games. Only a few songs on expert are difficult for anyone who’s beaten the hard difficulty mode in Guitar Hero 2.

Then there’s the World Tour, where you and at least one other friend, a group up to four total, get to rock out all over the world. Also a campaign mode, this one is strictly multiplayer, and strictly on one machine. That’s right, no online campaign, so get your buddies in house or just practice online. There’s a certain realism to this unfortunate happenstance that is just sickening.

To play the game, it has to come with special instruments, so we get an all new guitar, drum set and microphone. The guitar is modeled on the Fender Stratocaster, has five additional buttons, a completely different strum bar, an elongated whammy bar, an effects switch, and is wired unlike Guitar Hero 3’s Gibson Les Paul. The extra five buttons are for guitar solos where they can be hit without using the strum bar, which can work well but the size difference makes it easy to miss notes.

The whammy bar is too long and oblong, and it isn’t very responsive. The effects switch allows for four different sounds (or none at all) and is for the most part a gimmick unless the player decides the song isn’t good enough as is. It only works when using the whammy bar or using Overdrive, Rock Band’s “Star Power”. The fret buttons are imbedded in the guitar’s neck, which is like going into the instrument to play it. On top of that all, the Xbox button is placed too close to the whammy bar, so a fast motion from hitting the whammy to returning to strumming can lead to a nice break mid-song to show you how many friends are online. Peachy. That happens on the drum set too.

Even with the hardware problems, Rock Band is incredibly fun to play, alone and with friends. The Wii and its mini-game antics can kiss Rock Band’s ass, because this is the real party game to have. Sure, it’s not for super hardcore wannabe guitarists, but for someone who can honestly appreciate a fun game, you will love Rock Band. And even if you are one of those people, learning to play the drums on expert should keep you happy just the same.