Rock Band Review

I purchased and reviewed Guitar Hero III a while back. I figure now it's time for my review of Rock Band. The whole reason I purchased GH3 was to get the guitar controller so I could play Rock Band. From friends I had heard the Rock Band guitar was pretty defective.

Basically, Rock Band is similar to the Guitar Hero games in that the notes scroll down the screen and you have to hit the right controller button at the right time. Where the two games are drastically different is in the fact that Rock Band isn't limited to just a guitar controller. They've added a drum and microphone controller interface as well. This lets you play with up to four people in a band (Guitar, Bass (guitar controller as well), drums & vocals). Since I only have a guitar controller, that's all I've played so far.

The notes in Rock Band seem a bit more sensitive to hit than those in GH3, but that just takes a bit to get used to. Once you're used to it, it isn't much of a problem. The difficulty levels in Rock Band also seem a bit easier when compared to the same difficulty levels in Guitar Hero 3. In other words, Easy on Rock Band is easier than Easy on GH3. Since the game isn't limited to just focusing on the guitar aspect of the songs, the music selection seems to be a bit more varied. The dedication of the game maker to put up additional songs on the Xbox Live Marketplace on a weekly basis is also a big plus to Rock Band.

For those who are gifted with superior hand coordination, the game gives you a good challenge, even up to the Expert level of difficulty. If you just like to enjoy the songs, the Easy difficulty isn't all that hard to figure out. I think I lie somewhere in the middle. I enjoy playing on Medium, but also enjoy listening to the music.

Music selection is the biggest obstacle in playing with friends online. In order to play a song together, everyone needs to have that song on their Xbox. This is really frustrating because the songs aren't cheap, running on the average of $1/song. A better solution would have been to allow people to play songs with friends if anyone in the group had the song. This would allow people to explore music they might otherwise not have tried. In the end, gamers may decide to go out and purchase the songs if they liked playing it with a friend. The pricing structure pretty much guarantees players aren't going to buy a song until they're sure they like it, and the limitations on what you can play (only if you own it) is a sure fire way to make sure gamers never get a chance to hear the song in order to decide whether or not they want it.

Even with it's faults, Rock Band is a pretty fun game. One thing that was pointed out by my wife, which I kind of agree with, is that the game could use a better mix of music genres. Adding a few country songs into the game would allow those who favor that genre to enjoy the game as well (as guitars, drums, & vocals aren't only used by rock musicians exclusively). Overall I'd have to give Rock Band a score of 8/10.