Rock Band Review(Ps3)
Create your own fab four in this finely tuned rock 'n' roll simulation game.
Posted by Libe Goad on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
This rock 'n' roll simulation game pulls off the unthinkable -- letting even the most musically untalented experience what it's like to start a garage band and taking it to the top -- all without leaving the living room.
From the creators of Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II comes Rock Band, a
music and rhythm game that lets a four-piece ensemble rock out to
guitar-driven songs from the '60s to present day. The entire setup
costs a reasonable $169 , considering you get the game, a guitar, a
drumset and microphone attachment. But wait a minute, you ask, since
four people can play, why do only three instruments come in a pack?
The good news: the guitar, drum and microphone will also be sold
separately, so you can buy them one at a time, or add an extra guitar
controller to play bass. The bad news: you can't buy single
instruments until February '08. The good news: you can use an old
Guitar Hero II controller to fill in until then.
Once the controller confusion's straightened out, up to four people -- online and off – can jam to songs, each guided by their own set of notes on screen. Guitarists push the corresponding colored buttons while pressing the strum bar; the drummer hits the correct colored drum head with the included drumsticks and the singer matches the pitch of the vocal track as the words scroll by. For anyone who's played Guitar Hero, it's easy to pick up and play the guitar. The drums takes more time to get used to, but once you get the hang of banging skins and pressing the attached foot pedal as directed on screen -- you'll shove your bandmates out of the way just to stake your (rightful) claim on the drum throne.
Mock rockers can jump into the action Solo or in Multiplayer mode. Solo Quickplay and Career are a great way to brush up on your skills, but Multiplayer mode is where it's at. You can jump right into the action in multiplayer Quickplay, but we recommend taking the 10 minutes to create a band from scratch. Name the band, go to the Rocker Creator to custom-mold your on-screen shredder, pick a hometown and then set off to conquer the world, one club at a time.
The better the band performs, the more cash and fans it acquires, which unlocks new venues and so forth. Fail a song – the band not only gets booed, but they lose fans and have to gain them back again before advancing to new areas. The rewards and punishment give a real sense of accomplishment (and loss).
The band concept gets further integrated into the game with the ability to 'save' your peers after they fail a song. Instead of using the neck-tilting powerup (also lifted from Guitar Hero) to double your points, you can use it to bring a band member back to life. This is more of a requirement than an option – let a failed band member sit too long and everyone goes down with the ship. It's also a nice lesson in collaboration that will most likely be co-opted by corporate America as a team-building activity. At least that's what you tell the boss when busted hooking Rock Band up to the TV in the conference room.
Each new venue contains a limited number of songs and options to play
random song or create a setlist from a larger pool of songs. While
those options allow you to choose tunes different from the given
setlist, there's a lot of repeating the same songs over and over while
clawing to the heights of rock stardom.
Which leads to the biggest complaint of the game – the number of songs that comes as part of the standard setlist. While 48 seems like a large number of songs, after spending a few days playing them, song fatigue sets in sooner rather than later. Sure, new song packs for about $5 can be purchased online – a nice touch – but then again it's hard not to feel a little ripped off after spending 15 bones to buy a few Who and Metallica songs.
To be fair, the music selection offers a wide collection of songs that will appeal to music aficionados across the generations. Bands like The Killers and Yeah Yeah Yeahs get mixed up with The Who and Mountain. Fill in the gap with Bon Jovi and you've got four rock 'n' roll decades mostly covered. We'd like to see more classic acts like Hendrix and The Kinks in the mix (this is our official request, Harmonix), so we'll keep our fingers crossed til the next go round.
The online portion of the game seemed set for greatness, and while it reaches certain heights, it has yet to be fully realized. While it's pretty easy to connect to other players online, the lag time keeps the singer's vocals from transmitting over Xbox Live – a blessing or a curse depending on who's singing. The online modes, while fun, don't offer much in the way of innovation. Of course, rocking out with a friend remotely still has a certain cool factor that lack of features can never take away.
In fact, these nitpicky complaints still can't touch the fact that this is, bar none, one of the coolest games to hit stores this year. It celebrates rock, bands and video games that appeal to people who've never heard of an FPS, RPG or MMORPG. Is this game better than Guitar Hero III? This reviewer says, yes definitely. Then again, value-conscious shoppers and brand loyalists might stick with the $99 Guitar Hero III package. That just means more Rock Band for the rest of us.
Final Score: 9/10
