Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

First off, I apologize for the lateness of this review – there are certain parameters that have to be met to properly review a music title like Rock Band 2.  Thankfully there was a big party coming up that would put the game through its paces properly – one of our forum member's mother was having a birthday party!  Rolling in from the party this morning at around 3, it was time to knock out the review for Rock Band 2.

Before we could get around to our review, we had to set everything up.  Tossing the USB hub from the first game aside, we fired up the wireless instruments and coupled it with a guitar from the original title for our resident bassist.  Thankfully, this was the first of many positives for the game - the instruments are cross compatable.  (As a side note, they are also supposedly cross compatable with Rock Band 2's upcoming competitor, Guitar Hero World Tour.)

 

One of the inevitable themes of this review will be that Rock Band 2 is incremental, and this extends to the graphics as well.  Rock Band 2 brings new clothing options for the band members, improved animation and interaction for the band members, and several small changes to some of the filters.  The old options are still in the game, so you can still create crazy mad-scientist drummers, Goth emo singers, rock and roll bassists with full GWAR regalia, and more.  This time around however, the bassist and lead guitarist will dance across the stage, throw the patented Pete Townsend windmill move, and the singer will dance around a bit and interact with other members of the band.  The drummer doesn’t do as much stick stirring, which is an improvement for every percussionist. 

One of the aspects of the original Rock Band that I thought was a bit overdone was the use of the ‘film grain’ filter. The overall filter of the game has been reduced, which reduces the level of distraction that occasionally hindered the first game.  There are a few new filters and video modes that help give your videos a bit more flair.  The 70’s psychedelic filter is my favorite, giving your band the same look as the crazy neon in Money for Nothing from Dire Straits (where is this song, by the way – this song NEEDS to be in Rock Band!)

The menu system in Rock Band 2 is improved over the original.  Coupled with cool double-headed fire-breathing tiger graphics, the new menus are logically laid out and give players access to their band, logos, clothing, songs, and stats without becoming cumbersome or confusing. 

Overall, what worked in Rock Band works in Rock Band 2.  There isn’t a lot new under the sun, but there is no need to reinvent the wheel when the previous title got almost everything right.

If there is any one area that makes Rock Band 2 almost untouchable, it’s this one – Rock Band 2 has the best soundtrack of any music title to date.  A first for music titles, Rock Band 2 allows you to export your tracks from the first title for use in the second.  Paying a nominal fee and transferring the contents of the disc to your hard drive (it takes roughly 1.52GB of space), you will have access to the 50+ tracks from Rock Band, as well as any of the downloadable tracks you may have picked up along the way.  In fact, there are a total of 500 tracks slated to be available via the combined discs and downloadable content expected by the end of the year. 

The transfer of tracks from Rock Band to Rock Band 2 isn’t without its casualties.  There are three tracks that didn’t quite make the cut.  Specifically, Enter Sandman by Metallica, Paranoid by Black Sabbath, and Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden do not transfer.  Unfortunately Run to the Hills is our usual party closer track, so we’ll have to choose another one for the future, unless Harmonix sees fit to let us pick the track up in the Marketplace in the future.

Speaking of the marketplace, on the back of the manual for Rock Band 2 there is a code.  This code gives players 20 free downloadable tracks.  There is no date for these tracks or even a list of what they are at this time, but they are included with the purchase.  We’ll just have to see what sort of surprise comes our way during the holidays.  It's a shame they don't let folks pick the songs for themselves though - I don't want any more of Chinese Democracy, thanks.

On the Rock Band 2 disc there are 84 tracks, all of them masters.  They range from classics like Ramblin’ Man from The Allman Bros. to the debut track from the Guns and Roses album Chinese Democracy, Shackler’s Revenge.  Just to give you a sample, here are a few of my favorites:

• Any Way You Want It – Journey
• Chop Suey! – System of a Down
• Down With The Sickness – Disturbed
• Hungry Like The Wolf – Duran Duran
• Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Man In The Box – Alice In Chains
• Our Truth – Lacuna Coil
• Pinball Wizard – The Who
• Souls of Black – Testament
• Spoonman – Soundgarden
• The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
• Carry on Wayward Son - Kansas
• The Trees - Rush

There are a few tracks that sounded like they’d be a blast to play, but they really aren’t.  Eye of the Tiger was a big hit at the party as everyone howled the lyrics, but even on expert the song was relatively boring to play.  Similarly, Let There Be Rock from AC/DC is as dull as the day is long.

With a selection rapidly nearing 500 tracks, or roughly half that if you aren’t the downloadable content type, you really don’t have much choice but to find something you like.  Since Rock Band 2 is a game best played with a crowd, even stinkers like Let There Be Rock and Shackler’s Revenge are fun for the crowd, if not so much for the band. 

Glancing back at my Rock Band review, my primary complaint was that I ended up having to send all of my instruments back to Harmonix for replacement.  One of my drum pads made an awful clanging noise, and my guitar had premature star power problems.  The replacement set worked like a charm, but my tale of mechanical woe was far from unique.  I’m pleased to say that all of my instruments for Rock Band 2 worked perfectly out of the box. 

Since I’m a percussionist myself, we’ll start off with my favorite instrument – the drum set.  The new set is almost indistinguishable from the previous set, minus a few things.   First and most noticeably is that the new drums are wireless.  This alone will make it worth the upgrade for a great many people.  Secondly, the new drums are velocity sensitive. With the previous rig, when you got to a drum fill, the notes were played at maximum volume the entire time.  Now, the drums react to pressure, meaning that you can start quiet and build your fill from quiet to loud.  It doesn’t impact gameplay in any meaningful way, but aesthetically it is a great thing.  The best improvement had to be the metal bass pedal.  Replacing the pathetic thin plastic pedal that shipped with the first game, this metal pedal feels sturdy, giving novice players plenty of leeway to wail on it, and giving more veteran players that smooth double bass action we’ve wanted since last September. There are a few other minor improvements to the kit including hash marks on the legs so you can set the height correct every time, a redesigned leg set to hold the pedal horizontal when you lift it up, and jacks in the back to add a second bass pedal and future expansion items including cymbals.  What surprised me was the feedback that I got from the party.  Everyone who played drums, myself included, felt that the drums were more accurate.  In fact, I found that I was able to complete songs on Hard that had been difficult for me in the past.  Honestly, my only complaint is that, while these are somewhat quieter than the last set, they are still relatively loud.  It’s a nitpick – we just turn up the music to 11.

The second improvement on Rock Band 2’s controls come with the guitar.  It has a slightly longer strum bar, seems to have better velocity controls for deploying Overdrive, and is also wireless.  Everyone found it to be more responsive and accurate, yielding higher scores and more stars all around. 

What can I say?  Everything that was broken about Rock Band’s instruments has been vastly improved for Rock Band 2.  The new guitar works perfectly, and the drums seem more accurate than ever.  While the velocity sensitivity doesn’t serve any gameplay purpose, it is cool that Harmonix cared enough about us drummers to add it in.

Anyone that I know that has played Rock Band absolutely loved it.  A little encouragement goes a long way, and some folks really struggle to get the basic mechanics, but eventually everyone jumps in in some way.  To aid in that hurdle, and to remove the feeling that anyone is letting the band down, Harmonix has introduced a new ‘No Fail’ mode that gives players the chance to flail away at whatever instrument and still come away with a small sense of victory.  During our Birthday bash, we set up Jaime’s parents and their friends with instruments and the no-fail mode and they played several sets without any poking or prodding. 

The No Fail mode isn’t the only improvement in Rock Band 2, the best of which is the improvement to the band structure.  Now, every band member can play every instrument.  This means that the band data, songs, and character profiles are no longer bound to a particular player / instrument combination.  Additionally, menu setup has been changed to prevent new players from accidentally dumping the entire band back to the main menu. 

The Tour mode has seen a few changes and updates as well.  Similar to the previous title, you’ll start off as a nobody garage band, and working through various cities and challenges, you’ll unlock new songs, cities, and items to expand your horizons like vans, busses, and private jets.  You’ll also see online challenges like taking on the GameStop managers group, or other various challenges.  You don’t get anything for these challenges, but they are recorded in your band stats. 
Unlike the previous title, you are now able to save your progress through challenges.  If you decide you want to tackle the 10 hour ultimate set list, you won’t have to do it all in a single run now. 

As a percussionist, I can’t help but mention the incredible fill and beat trainer in Rock Band 2.  The beat trainer gives players access to over 70 common backbeats used in a variety of songs.  You’ll learn jazz, reggae, swing, big band, surf, and more through the course of the beat trainer.  You can set the beats per minute (BPM) to anything from 40 to 200, giving you a chance to start really slow and work your way up.  If you need a bit more help with your timing you can also turn on a metronome for a little more pacing assistance. 

When people sit down to play Rock Band you can usually spot the people who have played real drums in the past.  When fills come up and they are given a completely blank canvas in which to paint a mini-solo fill, they turn from Keith Moon wannabes into deer, fully transfixed in the headlights.  The fill trainer gives player over 40 fills for fledgling drummers to drop into that empty space.  Just like the beat trainer, you can vary the speed from 40bpm to 200bpm. 

Players who simply can’t be satisfied by the 500+ tracks available with Rock Band 2 can also drop into the new “Freeplay” mode that allows them to play an mp3 track of their choice through the 360 dashboard while flailing away on the drums.  I don’t see this mode getting a lot of use, but it is cool that Harmonix included it. 

The On Tour mode does include one last item – a bass tour mode.  Last go around, the bassist got the short end of the stick with no tour mode for them to play.  This time around, bassists can bust out their best rhythms as a soloist. 

Saving the biggest and best modification to the game for last, Rock Band 2 uses the store system for song sorting.  As the track list climbs, more sorting options were needed as scrolling forever to find your favorite tracks was getting tedious.  This also means that you’ll be able to see the difficulty levels for the individual instruments, as well as the overall difficulty for the band.  The new sorting options were a big hit at the party as players were able to quickly find their favorite bands, favorite song, or simply songs in a particular difficulty range easily. 

My wife usually serves as the singer for the band and she cited the only big complaint with the game – rapping.  There are songs that have more ‘talkie’ moments such as So Whatcha Want? and Give It Away that don’t have a guiding bar to give players a melody to follow.  This means that players get credit just for showing up.  You can (and we did) simply yell “Timmay!!” at the right general pace and you’ll score 100%, even on Expert.  Half of life is showing up, true, but that isn’t the case for singing a song.  We’ve got enough processing power to do it right, so let’s make that happen, mmkay?

As I’ve said several times, Rock Band is a party title.  As such, you won’t always have four friends to get together to party.  The online component of Rock Band not supporting an online band option was a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully, Rock Band 2 fixes this in style, giving players the chance to form a long distance band.  Several of our forum members have formed a group called the GT Facemelters and seem to be having a blast with it.  My experience with online play was pretty smooth and lag free.  It’s nice when a new feature as big as that comes together without a hitch.

Harmonix made a bold statement when they announced that there would be downloadable tracks every week and people doubted that they could pull it off.  Amazingly, they have hit that mark every week and have provided some amazing song packs, as well as a few full albums including Moving Pictures from Rush and The Cars from The Cars.  Well, now they have committed to a new challenge every day.  As amazing a statement as that is, I’m not going to doubt them twice.

When you count all of the music available, all of the incredible song packs coming up (Foo Fighters, Jane’s Addiction, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and more), and all of the incredible improvements made to an already solid package, there is no doubt that Rock Band is an fantastic value.  The upgrades to the instruments are solid, but even if you don’t want to upgrade, the instruments you already have work just fine.  It isn’t often a company works so hard to meet fan demands, but it is clear that Harmonix really is listening to what we have to say. 

The party went off without a hitch.  Everyone had fun and we rocked out from 4pm until 2am the next day.  There is no other title that I can think of with that sort of staying power, and certainly none that could run that long and not repeat a single track.  The tracks brought to the table span a wide array of music tastes, and when combined with tracks from the original title as well as all of the downloadable content, you have a soundtrack that delivers beyond any other title to date.  The instrument improvements seem small, but they are significant in terms of quality and accuracy.  Overall, Rock Band 2 may be mostly incremental in upgrades and seemingly more of the same, but from where I sit on my drum throne, that isn’t a bad thing at all.

Gaming Trend Score

93

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 95
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:93