Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

For those unfamiliar with developer Harmonix, they are the development team behind Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, but less recently Amplitude and Frequency.  With a pedigree for music and rhythm titles, Harmonix went to publisher Electronic Arts with a new way to bring the music experience home.  The game would ship with (almost) everything you need to form your own band featuring drums, bass, lead guitar, and a singer – you just supplied the bodies.  It would also feature an impressive track list, but also offer downloadable song packs, individual songs, and complete albums via Xbox Live Marketplace.   The game has finally been released and the first few tracks have been put on the net for download – did Rock Band deliver our Rock and Roll Fantasy (Bad Company), or does it bring The Sound of Failure (Flaming Lips)?

You may be thinking that this review for Rock Band is running a bit late.  I’m here to tell you that it is not.  My wife and I have been playing the game since the launch, but I knew that to really do the game justice I’d have to play it in more of a group.  To that end, some long time readers decided to throw a Rock Band party to celebrate the game’s launch.  With roughly 15 people attending the party, and one reader even flying out for the occasion, I got to play Rock Band the way it was meant to be played.  After an incredible 10 hours of straight gameplay in just one evening, I was prepared to put my thoughts on paper.  Gene Simmons is quoted as saying “James Bond has a license to kill, rockstars have a license to be outrageous. Rock is about grabbing people's attention. “– clearly Rock Band has gotten our attention.

The comparisons between Rock Band and Guitar Hero are inevitable, so let’s get it out of the way: graphically Rock Band moves away from the cartoony look of previous Harmonix titles and moves to a more ‘authentic’ look.  I’m not going to call it realistic as the characters still look a bit anime (and even more so when you dress them up in various over-the-top clothing), but the players are less of a caricature this time.

To aid the slick visuals Harmonix has stuffed Rock Band to the gills with fantastic lighting and voice/motion synched animation work, often giving the performance the look and feel of a music video or a recorded band performance.  The camera sweeps the crowd, your singer may body surf, and despite just how fast their hands will have to move to keep up with a Metallica track, the drummer is synched up quite well with the songs.   With over 45 venues shipping with the game, you won’t be getting tired of Rock Band’s looks any time soon.

Amy Lee of Evanescence said “Honestly I just wear what I like. You know why? 'Cause I can, I'm a rock star “and she couldn’t be more right.  To be a rock star you have to have your own sense of style.  Rock Band enables you to dress your character any way you’d like and in any combination across four distinct styles of dress.  You can pick the oversized GWAR-esque spiked shoulderpads from the Metal side, the ripped jeans from the Rock side, elbow-length gloves from the Goth side, and combat boots from the Punk side to make a pretty odd combination.  All in all there are more combinations of clothing than you see in most shooters or sports titles, so it is all the more impressive in a rhythm title.  Earn the cash touring and you can dress your character however you’d like.

People like Tommy Lee and 50 Cent have plenty of ink on their skin, so why shouldn’t you?  In Rock Band there is a decal system that reminds me of Forza Motorsport 2 to toss tattoos onto your rocker.   There are quite a few tattoos to chose from, and you can shrink, spin, and skew any of them in any direction, as well as place them anywhere on your body.  Want to put a giant spider over your face?  My Goth bassist loves it!  Given how well the downloadable content integrates into the game, I suspect we’ll see a few packs for new clothing and ink before too long.

The standout performer here isn’t really the graphics, it is the animation.  As I mentioned above, the performers are synched to their singing or instruments, but that isn’t really all of it.  Band members will jump up 80’s-sitcom style and do a slow motion power chord together, the singer will body surf, the drummer twirls his sticks, and everyone breaks into a frenzy during the long outtro endings.  These little things add up to something I’m going to reiterate pretty often – Rock Band is about the band.  It isn’t about just one guy shredding it up on stage, it is about the whole crew.  Even that roadie with the handlebar mustache and mullet who schleps your gear form place to place is represented.  So are the smarmy PR guys who help you land those well-timed fan-grabbing gigs.  It is all about the band – your band.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – much of what makes or breaks any rhythm game be it Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or Dance Dance Revolution lies in the soundtrack.  While games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero have only the guitar track or the bass beats to assign, Rock Band has to script out four instruments.  Naturally this makes things a bit more difficult for developer Harmonix as they now have to find songs that will fit their drum, bass, and lead guitar sound.  To that end, Harmonix came up with a track list that includes such tracks as Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi, Tom Sawyer by Rush, Mississippi Queen by Mountain, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden, Epic by Faith No More, and I’m So Sick by Flyleaf, just to name a few.  In the box there are a total of 45 tracks in the main game with another 13 opening up upon completing the solo mode.  Not that this wasn’t enough, but Rock Band has gotten me to do something that I hadn’t done since the launch of the Xbox Live Marketplace – purchase Microsoft Points to download content.

Rock Band already sports the largest amount of Downloadable Content available on any game in the Xbox 360 or PS3 library with 15 songs available to purchase either as individual tracks or as packs.  Harmonix has promised that entire albums will also be available with Nirvana’s Nevermind, an unnamed Metallica album, Who’s Next from The Who, and an 18-track long Grateful Dead song pack coming up in the unspecified future.   Prices are not set on albums at this time but song 3-packs are $5.49 and single tracks will vary from $0.99 to $1.99 each.

Overall the soundtrack is filled almost entirely with master tracks, with only a few cover bands turning in passable performances to round things out.  Each song is crisp and makes use of the full 5.1 Surround Sound setup very well.   While a few songs might not be for you (I’m looking at you Pixies), it is hard to knock such a diverse track list. 

Again, the comparisons to Guitar Hero are pretty natural, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Fender Stratocaster that ships with Rock Band.  The Fender that ships with Rock Band has a slightly larger body with a longer neck, very similar to the real thing.  The fret buttons are no longer colored on the face, instead putting small color strips on the top and bottom where only the player can see it.  The buttons are pushed together like the frets of a real guitar and sit flush against the neck.  Sliding down to the bottom of the neck there  is a set of buttons that are slightly smaller that can be used for solos  On the body is an effects switch that allows you to change between several sound types for your whammies including Wah-Wah, Flange, Echo, Chorus, or off which just whammies as normal.  Moving to the center of the guitar body, the new strum bar is now completely silent.  All of these changes make for a very different feeling guitar.  During the party and at various other points that friends picked up the guitar they all commented that the guitar felt simultaneously better and worse.  They all agreed that the look was unbeatable, closely approximating a real Stratocaster.  They also stated that they felt that they missed the obnoxious clicking sound from their other guitars.  In my personal experience I found that the guitar was no better and no worse than the Explorer Axe – it just took a little adjustment to switch between them.   This proved to be very true at the party where some folks loved the new guitar while others would avoid it if they could. 

The microphone that ships with Rock Band serves double duty.   While it does handle the singing parts of the songs, it also handles the striker instruments.  This means that you’ll tap the side of the mic against your hand for the cowbell parts of Don’t Fear The Reaper (headband and exposed stomach are optional, but speaking like Christopher Walken is required – “Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!”) as well as any other percussive fill instruments like the tambourine.  This gives the singer some way to be useful while the rest of the band is etching their name into rock history with fiery fretwork, driving bass grooves, and pulse-pounding drum fills.   The singer can assert their faux dominance over the rest of the band by adjusting their volume up and down on a controller, but this sort of thing only encourages the drummer to find his 2B marching sticks.   The microphone is a slightly larger than the mics we’ve gotten in other singing products and looks similar to a Shure Beta 57A Dynamic mic.   It feels sturdy but I don’t recommend twirling it by the cord – nobody does that anymore and it just breaks the wires.

The third and most intriguing (for me at least) element of Rock Band is the drum set.  It features four drum pads that are roughly the size of a small rudiment pad and have about the same consistency on the surface.  There is also a pedal at the base of the unit that functions as a bass drum kick.  The drum pads are suspended on a spring that gives them a small bit of travel and bounce and are color coded to coincide with the on-screen prompts.  The bass kick uses a single coil spring non-tangle wire to the back of the main drum platform.  Said platform sits on top of two adjustable poles that stop at the oversized feet of the unit.    These adjustments allow you to move the drum platform up and down to fit your particular height.  There is no angle adjustment, but after more than 20 hours of play I can safely say that the angle is pretty good.  I picked up a Tama HT25 Drum Throne to compliment my fake drums which made for some more comfortable drumming than the typical edge-of-the-couch or lawn chair drumming that I was doing prior.  There is also a pair of what looks to be Vic Firth American Classic 5A drumsticks with wood tear tips.  I’m not a fan of this particular stick, but the overwhelming majority of people will likely care less.  Also included on the face of the drum chassis is a D-Pad, four colored face buttons, a start and back button, and an Xbox button.  This gives the drummer a quick way to enter in text if you are so inclined.  For those who have the concentration to carry on conversations while they drum (I’m not one of them) you can also plug your Xbox Live headset into the drum chassis via a small included adapter. 

It absolutely pains me to say this – all but the microphone in my kit have to go back to Harmonix.  My blue pad on my drum makes a horrible rattle when I hit it and has since I took it out of the box.  I noticed this when playing on long-time forum member PeteRock’s drumset and found his drums to be far quieter in general.   I thought that perhaps the blue drum was meant to be a ‘cymbal’ and thus should have a more metallic sound, but it turns out that my drum is just defective.  Harmonix was cool enough to send me a spare Fender guitar as well, but unfortunately both of them have to go back.  One won’t deploy the Overdrive power, and the other deploys it immediately without any tilting whatsoever.  It just seems that the initial rush of components has a few quality control issues, but I am very happy to report that Electronic Arts has stepped up to the plate in a big way and is not only offering rapid exchange of the components at no charge to the consumer, they are also offering a free (unspecified at this time) EA game as an apology for the inconvenience.  Harp on EA as an evil empire all ya like – a few of the more ‘lovable’ companies out there could learn a thing or two about taking care of customers from the way EA is handling this issue.  Kudos to their team – while I have to take points for the quality control issues, they’ve earned my respect for how they are handling it.

Fun.  It is the one word that I work very hard to avoid in any of my reviews.  Fun is not quantifiable.  Fun is not measurable.  Fun can’t be scored.  What is fun for me may not be fun for you. Saying a game is fun is just cheating to make your point without explaining what actually makes it fun.  I really do my best to avoid using the word fun.

Rock Band is fun.

I’m not one to leave fun dangling out there without explaining myself, so let’s talk a bit about what makes Rock Band worthy of the Double Viking headbang.  If you are a Guitar Hero veteran, the first thing you’ll notice is that the guitar sections in Rock Band are actually pretty easy by way of comparison.  I believe that this was done purposefully to make sure that the game wasn’t a constant mental drain on the fun factor as players constantly bombed out during performances.  When you have three other people relying on your ability to rock out, a little bit lower of a difficulty level makes sure that everyone can get through the song instead of just bombing immediately thanks to some ultra-complex fretwork and strumming.    While it does take some of the ‘teeth’ out of playing on Hard or Expert difficulty, it does still provide enough of a challenge to keep you focused on performing well as a band member.

The fundamentals of Rock Band are rooted in previous Harmonix titles.  Just as in Guitar Hero, you strum along as notes move down the screen, and doing well earns you multipliers.  Nailing specific sections allows you to obtain “Overdrive” (think Star Power from previous titles) that gives you a bump in scoring as well as energizing the crowd.   The difference here is that you can now use Overdrive to save a downed band member.   Each player can bomb the song twice without too much consequence beyond the low score and star rating.  If you fail a third time you are dropped from the song, but the band won’t be able to go on too much longer without you.  Even if you complete the song, you still fail as not everyone made it to the end.  If you haven’t already gathered this, Rock Band is about the band – not just completing the song.  It is about playing music, not just hammering out complex patterns to approximate a real instrument.  In my case, it was about the party host doing his best Richie Sambora impression on the 10th time we played Wanted Dead or Alive.   Again, the unquantifiable ‘fun’ rears its ugly head.

The scoring in Rock Band is similar to Guitar Hero, but there are a few exceptions.  I’ve already talked about how Overdrive can save your friends, but what I didn’t mention is that Overdrive can be extended.  What this means is that you can deploy Overdrive just before another Overdrive section and it’ll in fact extend the amount of time that you are earning double score and double fan support.   The star system has also received some attention and is now displayed in real time.  As you play you can see  a ring begin to form around the star in the corner, fully lighting it up as you’ve earned it.  Once earned, these stars don’t go away, so don’t fret (ha! See what I did there?) if you start to really fall behind in the latter part of a song. 

Sometimes Rock Band isn’t about the band – sometimes you have to step it up and do your best Joe Satriani impression and crack out a rough solo section.  Giving credit where credit is due, you are now scored individually for this section with a running tally of your accuracy displayed for the world to see.  Nail that 100% and you’ll likely be dubbed the “Solo Master” at the end of the track, as well as getting additional bonuses based on accuracy. Primadonna guitar players get all the love on this one, so don’t expect to see a wunderkind title displayed when you break out the Neil Peart rendition on the drums.

After familiarizing ourselves with the individual song list we progressed to the World Tour mode.  Starting off as a lowly garage band, you have the chance to make your way to the top via a progressive set of gigs all across the world.   Playing a set well earns you stars which unlocks new cities and songs.  Amping up your game (again with the puns!) gives you a shot to earn a new set of wheels to get around to more remote locations.  Hit the big time and you can get your own private jet, roadies, PR agents and more.  Since you can play this mode with four players all at varying degrees of difficulty, it is truly a story mode that the whole family can enjoy.

While some may say that Rock Band is a little bit light on the number of songs, there is no doubt that Harmonix has a good path started with their downloadable content packs.  That said, the amount of content present on the disc was enough to keep the party going non-stop for 10 hours straight with a second party already planned very soon. 

There are a few things about Rock Band that do have me scratching my head.  For reasons unknown, Rock Band doesn’t support World Tour over Live.  While you can play four player games in Player Match mode online, you can’t join up to create an online band.  My dreams of running an international band came crashing down with this realization.  Despite the fact that you can use the robust online community site to check out your band stats, post band photos, and even post album art, you can’t actually create a band online.  Harmonix plans to try to patch the online functionality into the game, but until that arrives it’ll really feel like the one last piece of polish is missing.

Rock Band is a great example of chain-collateral success. The success of Frequency made Amplitude all the better.  Guitar Hero took the best parts of both previous titles and ratcheted it up a notch.  Guitar Hero II further refined on the best parts of Guitar Hero and added online capabilities and downloadable content.  It is in this way that Rock Band is far more than the sum of its parts.  With tight integration between all four instruments, fans that sing along when you do well, and various other touches that add up to a very polished product that’ll should only get better with a few patches.  Now I’m off to get in touch with Harmonix and EA to arrange for some defective hardware coffins.

Gaming Trend Score

88

1. Graphics: 85
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 80
4. Gameplay: 90
5. Value/Replay: 85
6. OVERALL:88