Fun For One...Better With Four - Rock Band

With Guitar Hero, Harmonix Music Systems made themselves household names with gamers, delivering the kind of music game that transcends its very niche genre and took it mainstream. After Guitar Hero II, Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games, who along with EA have given the Massachusetts-based developer a chance to create the ultimate music game, going beyond even what Guitar Hero accomplished. Dubbed Rock Band, this huge package of gaming goodness is not just a guitar strumming affair, instead doing exactly what the title promises – the ability to play as if you were in a band, playing tons of songs, whether you're alone practicing or getting together with friends. With oodles of downloadable songs via PlayStation Network, Rock Band goes beyond being a game in its most common form; it feels like a format onto itself, and “songs” become individual “games” to master in every offered form. The cost of entry might seem high, despite being a better deal on the whole than Guitar Hero III, but if you're into music games, it's more than worth it.

Fun separately, though better together
Rock Band can be purchased in a full bundle, for $170, or separately for a higher price. The bundle comes with a Fender Stratocaster replica, a drum kit, and a USB microphone, enough for a three-piece band; separate guitars are also available, allowing for PS3 owners to finally add a bass player, something that's harmed the PS3 version thanks to Activision getting sand in their female reproductive organ about using the Les Paul from GH3 and thus blocking use of it. Either way, at least you're given the option; if you just want to play guitar you can, same for drums, and if you have any old USB microphone you can consider it a new version of Karaoke Revolution. The instruments themselves have gone through some growing pains; the Stratocaster specifically is notorious for poor build quality, and drum kits are known for busted bass pedals. EA thankfully has been very, very good about replacing defective instruments, though I personally haven't had to use their warranty since my guitar and drums are issue-free over the time I've owned the game.

3 times the music, 3 times the longevity
If you're going to play Rock Band solo, you can. The game offers three career tiers, Guitar Hero style, for the three major styles; guitar, drumming, or vocals. No bass career unfortunately, which would have been a blast. They all progress the same and contain the same songs, but they're shuffled based on difficulty for each instrument – a song that might be simple on guitar can be very tough on drums, for example. Guitar Hero veterans will understand how to play guitar, as it functions the exact same, with just a few tweaks for the better. There's still the same 5 fret buttons of different colors, and a strum bar, star power, etc. It's familiar. There's only a few changes. The star power, dubbed energy for Rock Band, can be acquired even when you activate it, to keep the combo going. It seems like an obvious and good addition, and it works. Also, you now can see how we'll you're doing on the screen, as it keeps track of your star rating the whole time. Otherwise, it's the same Guitar Hero play, if slightly dumbed down to allow for more people to jump in.

The drums are an entirely different animal, as even on Easy you're forced to use all four drums, unlike the guitar which adds frets as you go up the difficulty ladder, from three on Easy to 5 on Hard and up. Thus the learning curve is entirely different. The tutorials do a good job of prepping you for the process, as it requires more concentration and beat-keeping ability than guitar...seriously, if you can't keep the beat, stick to guitar. At first, the thought of hitting the correct drum and pressing down on the bass pedal is pretty daunting, but over time it becomes easier, especially if you spent the time doing the tutorials and plenty of practice. Drumming still has star power; instead of playing the notes right in guitar you get a “drum fill” note that builds it up, and then you unleash it in a designated area. It's fun, though as said, the learning curve is pretty steep and the later difficulty levels are really, really hard and tiring for even the strongest players. Beating on drums and constantly pressing the bass pedal can take a lot out of someone.

Singing is the “easiest” instrument, long as you know the words or are simply good at understanding pitch and tone. It works like a karaoke game; the lyrics scroll across the screen, and you have to match both the lyrics and the pitch to get a good score for that section. Hit the phrases properly in some places and you earn star power – activating it is as simple as screaming or improvising words during designated areas. On Easy, the game lets you get away with a lot...you can almost mumble the lyrics long as you match the pitch, but if you move up to harder levels, more accuracy is required. Star power/energy is tied to totally nailing specific phrases, and it's activated by ad-libbing or screaming into the microphone in designated areas. More than even the drums, singing is a tiring exercise for your voice, too much can leave one hoarse for a couple days if you're not used to it.

Fun separately, better together part deux
All three instruments have their own individual career modes, with different tiers with progressively more challenging songs. Thankfully, all three have unique ladders to climb; a song dubbed “easy” for guitar might be obnoxiously hard in the drum career. Alas, there's no separate bass career in RB, but that's go be rectified in Rock Band 2 later this year. Unlike Guitar Hero III in which difficulty level has no effect on the songs you can play, Rock Band locks out quite a few tunes if you're playing on Easy – it's Medium or bust if you want to play everything the game has to offer. Also unlike Guitar Hero, there's no set characters to choose from, as you'll customize your own virtual singer/drummer/shredder with tons of parts, like a heavy metal Barbie or maybe something even more terrifying than that. It adds a personal touch that GH lacks...well it lacks until Guitar Hero World Tour comes out.

However if you really want to get into the meat of Rock Band, you have to play with others. It does have an online component for up to four players, but it's really not that fleshed out and isn't really worth the time. What is worth the time is the very fun Band World Tour, where 4 local players can start a band and travel the world (within the game of course, I know nothing about a real-life Rock Band world tour), playing events and gaining fans along the way to becoming megastars. If you're really good it's possible to play this alone by playing guitar/drums and singing at the same time (I tried it, it's only really possible on Easy at the start since you have to watch the lyrics and the guitar notes simultaneously), but it's best experienced with friends. At one point it was rumored the game would get an update to feature online BWT but that never came to pass. Rock Band 2, then.

Looks good, sounds good, feels good
One can't expect much from graphics in a game like this...Rock Band's visuals are serviceable since there's no slowdown to throw off notes on any of the instruments. The create-a-character option means there's tons of different potential band members, offering something different every time you play one of the single-player careers. The vital thing is of course the music. And Rock Band delivers the goods. The main setlist features tons of famous songs from numerous eras; you'll find The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Outlaws, Rush and Deep Purple mixed in with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes, and Nirvana just to name a few acts. With a few exceptions, the soundtrack features a huge library of master tracks, meaning you'll play the exact same songs you remember. Mostly. More importantly, the game has featured weekly downloadable songs since November...and these songs are going to be compatible 100% with Rock Band 2. As is the setlist on the disc – apparently for like $5, it'll transfer songs off the disc onto your hard drive to play in its sequel. Harmonix has built up Rock Band as a platform...and so far that's how they've treated the game.

The Closing Argument
How good is Rock Band? So good that Activision has made sure Guitar Hero 4 features all the instruments Rock Band has, and the Guitar Hero 3 DLC situation has been much more plentiful than most expected. For $170, you get a great rhythm/music game that can be playable for three people (with adding a fourth only $60 for a separate guitar) but just as fun alone practicing. Sure it's not as innovative as it was a few years back when Guitar Hero hit, but Rock Band is a sound investment; tons of weekly downloadable songs at a respectable price, all of which work with the forthcoming sequel, and the same goes for the instruments that'll carry right on over to RB2. With MTV and Harmonix supporting the game like they have, in all likelihood you'll probably never need to buy another music game again – since it has a guitar game, a drum simulator, and a karaoke game all wrapped into one package. It's almost something for everyone who loves music.