Rock Band 2 quick review

Just one year after it's initial conception, EA, Harmonix, and MTV Games have rocked their way back into the limelight with the release of Rock Band 2. Instead of forcing you to read through this entire review, I'll be blunt: If you loved the original game, you need this installment. When they were hyping up the original release of Rock Band 1, they were referring to the game as it's own platform and that they wanted that version to be the only one that you would need, due to the massive amount of DLC and updates they promised. Fortunately, that still holds true, but the newest version in the series does offer a large number of improvements that were technically impossible to do in the original game without doing some sort of a recall on the discs.



First off, the biggest complaint many gamers had was in the World Tour mode. The mode was a feature that allowed you to create your own band with your friends and go through different cities, each with its own objectives you must accomplish to earn money, cash, and fame. THIS was the mode that separated RB from GH. It allowed for a more immersive and varied experience. The complaint lied in the fact that you were unable to play this mode in single player or online, which limited the audience that got to take full advantage of it. Instead of playing through the different venues (which was the way you unlocked songs, some appeared randomly, some were there by default), the single player experience was the traditional tier layout, which means that you went through the songs in order of difficulty. It was an effective mode, but wasn't nearly as compelling as its multiplayer component. The online mode was constrained to a quick play, in which one player was the band leader and got to pick the music that the others played, and a few head to head modes that were basically instrument vs same instrument.

If any of those things were bothering you, Harmonix has addressed every single complaint people had. First off, the single player mode is the exact same world tour mode that was only available in multiplayer before. Not only that, but now you can play that mode online, opening up its appeal dramatically. The multiplayer quick play option is also still there for people that just want to hop in, play a few songs, then roll out. Now, instead of just the leader, every member of the band gets to choose a song at one point instead of just the leader. Another MAJOR fix that they had was the simplified the way that you choose your bands and the way people join in. Instead of having to make sure the creator of the band was logged in and pressed start first, the game directs you to a list of bands created on each profile, with all of the band members linked there. Believe me, it saves a lot of time and frustration, along with allowing you to use the same character on multiple instruments.




The most important thing of all has received an even bigger overhaul too: The song list. Many people enjoyed the fact that there were so many different genres of music availible in RB1 and loved the fact that there was so much DLC, all of which was guaranteed to you on Tuesday at 5AM (Friday for PS3 owners). The game has increased the number of tracks availible on the disc from the skimpy 40ish songs before to a whopping 83, featuring artists from the 60s and on, ranging from Bob Dylan, Silversun Pickups, Alanis Morrisette, The Offspring, to Panic! at the Disco, and many more. I can say that they have managed to find something in the game for everyone. The best feature of all is that for anyone that has been considering getting rid of their Rock Band 1 disc, if you still have it lying around, you can transfer a majority of the songs from that game over to RB2, and all of your prior DLC will work with absolutely no issues on Rock Band 2, which..for me..increased the songs from 84 to around 300.

I'll be very straightforward here: I'm a drummer in this game. That's about it. I'll try out vocals, but I almost always pass on the guitar, so I can't speak for any significant changes there. What I can have noticed is that there are a few new features that actually made it into the game. There is an option to just pound away on the drums, which allows you to make your own music...or "music" for the rhythmically challenged. You are also able to play any song on your hard drive and drum away to it if that's your thing. Another thing they added in that I wish had been availible in the original is the new drum trainer tutorials, which teaches you some of the basic to extremely complex rhythms and fills you'll come across in a standard training environment, also allowing you to slowly increase and decrease the BPM in case you were intimidated by the drums before. I also went out a purchased the new drumset and I highly recommend them for anyone that's serious about the game in the slightest bit. It helped my scores dramatically, the pedal is steel [it can't snap anymore!], the entire thing feels sturdier, it's wireless, and the drum pads are a lot more quiet and "velocity sensitive" meaning that if you hit them softer, the sound in game is softer.



As a note, I wrote this article right around when RB2 came out, so Guitar Hero World Tour is already in stores. Right now, if you're looking to decide between which one of the games you should pick up, I'd recommend RB2 more because it's got that extensive library of songs (+500ish as of today), along with being able to transfer your RB1 content over to RB2 for a small fee. I'm sure eventually World Tour will be a valid contender, but I like how many songs are already available and the fact that EA has delivered on its promise to have new content every single week since the originals release, either as a single download or a bundle pack. If you're having trouble deciding, I'd say hold off on purchasing either until we get an idea of how well Activision will be delivering DLC, because it DOES make a huge difference. Oh yeah, don't buy Rock Revolution! =)