MCP REVIEW: ROCK BAND

This is actually a provisional review. Any Rock Band review written over the next month is going to be incomplete. In part, because this is four games in one. More to the point, for some it will live or die on downloadable content, while for others the deciding factor will be online play. Currently, neither is fully implemented. You can play some four-person games online, but can’t yet do the World Tour online, and while there are a bunch of songs ready to download, the full album sets we’ve been promised are still on the way.

The longevity of the peripherals will be a factor, too. I’ve evidently been lucky with my set of instruments*, but forums are littered with complaints about guitars, mics and drums that don’t work properly, and software bugs that may or may not be affecting play.

So, like Rock Band, this is a work in progress. This ‘review’ is also very, very long. I’m sorry.

For the six people who don’t know what the game is or how it works, this is like Guitar Hero in that you’ve got a plastic guitar with which you ‘play’ along to a set of 45 rock songs. Unlike Guitar Hero, most of these songs are original recordings. More unlike Guitar Hero, there are play-along tracks for a singer and drummer, in addition to the bass tracks pioneered in Guitar Hero II. One to four people can play, though you’ll want a full set of four to see the game’s full potential.

Notes on playing solo:

As songs scroll by, you can hit white notes to store up Overdrive power — the game’s version of Star Power in Guitar Hero. While Overdrive is activated, you can continue to build the gague, which is a new wrinkle. Guitarists can choose from a few different sound effects while using Overdrive. Vocalists build Overdrive by wailing away, and drummers by doing custom fills when their track fills with a rainbow set of continuous bars; just hit the green crash cymbal to nail the fill. Vocalists can also play the occasional tambourine, though this is cosmetic and non-essential; a good thing when one person is playing an instrument and singing at the same time.

Solo Play

Some people will want to play Rock Band solo, and it can be done, though the game is specifically designed for multiplayer. So the Solo Tour isn’t all that challenging since the songs have been chosen for accessibility and fun, not virtuiosity. Compared to Guitar Hero III, which turns into a rather insane challenge on the Expert difficulty, many veteran GH players will be able to breeze through most of these songs on Expert. Even a track like Metallica’s ‘Blackened’ (one of the downloadable offerings) isn’t very difficult on Expert.

But while much has been made of the lightweight guitar and bass tracks, there’s more to say about the drum and vocal campaigns. Singing isn’t as consistently enjoyable to do alone, as many of these songs aren’t lyrically dense. But crank up the difficulty to expert and staying on pitch becomes really tricky. But Harmonix has created a great system that not only detects pitch very well, but uses a small arrow to show where you are in relation to the proper pitch. That gives immediate, constant feedback, allowing vocalists to learn where they should be in a song. Just as players slowly get better at playing the ‘guitar’ by progressing through the ranks in Guitar Hero games, many people might actually be able to train themselves to sing better, if only slightly, by rocking through the vocal campaign.

And the drums…well, that’s something else altogether. Obviously the hook, the drum campaign also becomes quite difficult over time. Coordinating five fret buttons and a strum bar was difficult enough, but adding a foot pedal into the mix will kill some Keith Moon wannabes. But, like other core gameplay from Harmonix, it’s not an insurmountable challenge. Easy and Medium will provide a tolerable task for most players, with kick drum requirements that are relatively light and tracks demanding few complex patterns. Moving up to Hard and Expert requires a hand/eye/foot coordination that take some patience to acquire. Mastery may be out of reach, but since I’ll never beat ‘Through Fire And Flames’ on Expert in GHIII, I can live with hitting a drum plateu as well.

Here’s a quick estimation of the hardware. Take into account that I haven’t had these pieces for a long time, so I can’t do anything but estimate longevity.

The Guitar

Feels more flimsy than the Red Octane/Activision ones, but I actually like the feel. The size is better (longer neck, slightly bigger overall) and I love the way the fret buttons are set right into the neck. A lot of songs in Rock Back have a lot of fast chord changes on high difficulties, and this neck makes them a lot easier. The strum bar is soft and quiet. The latter is a great quality, but more tactile response from strumming would make the overall experience better for new players. I’ve played about a dozen different Guitar Hero peripherals and no longer really need the feedback, but when I was learning to play it was essential.

Then there’s the small set of fret buttons high on the neck. The idea is that you can finger tap solos, if you’re brave enough. Guitar solos are marked during gameplay; the screen background turns blue and a readout shows what percent of the solo you’ve nailed. While the screen is blue you can tap notes on the high fret buttons without strumming. This works for complex, fast solos pretty well, but isn’t all that useful for slower, easier solos. Problem is, there aren’t a lot of complex solos in the game so far; this hardware addition would be a lot more useful (maybe) in Guitar Hero III.

The Drums

I was worried at E3 that the drums would be too weak to stand up to hours and hours of pounding. These are stronger than what I played back in July, but I’m still a bit concerned. The stand could be a lot more sturdy, and I’m already seeking out a decent way to stick both the stand and kick pedal more firmly to the floor. Velcro time.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about lack of response from the drum pads. During my hours with the game I’ve certainly had moments where I’d swear that I’d hit something the game didn’t register. But I’m willing to allow that, despite years playing drums in real life, I might currently suck at playing these.

I have two tips for aspiring players. First, get a stool or something similar. Playing from a couch or Lay-z-boy sucks. Second, be Charlie Watts, not John Bonham. Play with softer, more measured hits until you know intuitively where the pads are and how the timing works. Every time I’ve relaxed my playing has been better, my hits more accurate. Funny, how the game registers a lot more hits when I’m not frantically wailing away. (Just like real drums.) Like I said, I might just suck.

The Mic

My experience with the Rock Band mic so far has been positive. It’s the right size, or seems to be, having used plenty of real mics in the past. I’ve experienced no lag though apparently I’m not unique in that respect. And much of my singing time has been spent crooning into an Xbox Live headset, as I attempt to master singing and playing guitar at once. Still, this is the simplest and most solid piece of the package. My only request would be a longer cord, but I’d ask that of all the instruments.

The biggest gripe about the mic is that you have to use it in conjunction with a controller; the hardware has no buttons or directional pad for input. This has escaped a lot of people, because while Harmonix is usually good about presenting in-game guidelines for hardware use and gameplay, they dropped the ball on instructing new players on the mic/controller combo.

The Multiplayer

The heart of the game. There are a couple of main options, which include quick play, the World Tour career mode, and a couple of battle modes. Because I’m already at book length I’m going to focus on the World Tour.

Notes first on playing as a band:

Teamwork. Instead of just unleashing sound effects, Overdrive can resurrect a player who’s failed out. Or, when everyone goes into Overdrive at the same time, the score multiplier rises. Also, nail segments in unison and you’ll get notes praising the effort. Play really well and the audience will start to sing along — during some anthemic tracks this is cool as hell. (This happens in solo play, too.)

To make all this happen, creating a band is the first step. If you’re expecting to just jump in and play with a handful of people, there are a few hurdles. For the World Tour, you’ll have to create a character for every player.

Now, I love Rock Band‘s character creation system. It’s a very EA Sports style setup, with options to change basic physique, facial structure, hair, clothes and instruments. Makeup and customizable tattoos allow nearly endless user options; spend some time tweaking a character and you can easily come up with something totally unique. I’ll take this over the limited characters in GHIII without question.

That said, I don’t want to have to do it every time someone new wants to join a band. A set of pre-made players, or a ‘randomize’ option, would have helped a lot. Since I know those premade characters exist — they’re available in the Quick Play option — I don’t know why they’re not available for World Tour bands starting out. (This is really a ‘first time’ issue, since once band members and solo players are created, they’ll be available to choose from.)

Also, the player who creates the band will be the Band Leader, and this cannot be changed, nor can that player’s role. An illustration helps: friends and I started a band and I (the drummer) was the leader. We played for hours, and later on I wanted to continue opening up songs using a guitar and mic on my own. But since the band leader was a drummer, and drummers can’t become guitarists, I couldn’t continue the progress that band had made. To do so, someone would have to be playing drums as that character.

So, realistically perhaps, roles of band members are pretty strictly defined. You can create a guitarist who can play bass and vice versa, but no guitarist can then be selected as your character while singing or playing drums. Not a big deal most of the time, but it means you’ve got to be careful when starting a band with people that you might want to continue using later. My advice: have the singer start the band.

It goes without saying that this setup is a pretty bad design decision, but I’m not going to dwell on it. Instead, I’ll accept that specific reasons are behind the choice.

Progression in World Tour is actually interesting. After some consideration, I like the basic scheme quite a lot, and I imagine I’ll like it more when there’s some extra content available. You won’t just play one tier of songs after the other, as in Guitar Hero and Solo Tour. In each of a series of cities you’ll have available venues and chances to play single songs, build a set list and play some mystery sets. You need to win not only money, but fans. Failing a song at a big arena can cost a band thousands of fans, and you’ll have to play a few extra songs to catch up. There are other neat options that let you bet money and fans, in various ways, as you play sets of songs.

The salient point here is that, unlike progression in the solo games, you’ll play a lot of the same songs over and over. You know, like a band does.

This is great if you’ve got a party full of people that all want to play; the repeats won’t seem so obvious and there’ll be a chance for everyone to play their favorite song. Some people will find this tedious; other bands will use the repetition as a chance to slowly get better at playing not just each instrument, but together. More variety would help in the long run. There is an answer to that, but you’ll have to pay for it.

Before I even had time to put together the drums, I started my 360 downloading two 3-song packs, by Metallica and The Police. (440 Microsoft points per pack.) Downloadable songs are integrated into the World Tour campaign immediately as the download completes. That’s good, because as people download songs their multiplayer experience will open up considerably. And it’s bad, because there’s nothing like being asked to play the ten-minute ‘…And Justice For All’ during a random set selection played by enthusiastic non-metalheads. I haven’t found an option to exclude certain songs from random setlists. Metallica obviously learned their lesson after touring a set full of ten-minute songs for several years (they cut a lot of them) so now Harmonix is going to make us learn it, too.

One hint: songs unlocked in solo play will be available on the multiplayer side. So old hands at Guitar Hero can jam through the entire Medium difficulty guitar set in a sitting or two, which will give a lot more flexibility when playing World Tour with friends. Also: buy some songs, you cheap bastards.

The simple fact is that bands need to play the same songs over and over again to sound good, and when a group of people playing Rock Band doesn’t sound good, they sound very bad indeed. In fact, it’s amazing how bad four people can sound and still squeeze to the end of a song. But it’s a party game, after all, and the idea is to have fun. Just be ready to pick your friends carefully, and maybe even get used to the idea of firing a Rock Band member when they can’t keep up.

Fuck me, this is a little too much like having a real band.

The Presentation

I won’t be shy here; I’m so much more impressed with the visuals here than I was with any version of Guitar Hero. Rock Band handily beats Guitar Hero III in this arena, making Neversoft’s effort look quite lame. There are several things to take into account. One is the simple interface. Where Neversoft went nuts with details and doodads in GHIII, Rock Band has a bare but legible presentation. Near your score is a readout that shows how far you’ve gone to earning stars. I like the percentage readout showing how well you’re hitting a solo, though it’s a bit absurd given the relative ease of most solos.

The breakout blocks that replace Guitar Hero’s gems are fine, though I’d like Hammer On/Pull Off indicators that stand out better than these. (Is it just me, or did the HO/PO’s get both more visible and more responsive after the first patch?)

Beyond the interface, there’s a lot of beautiful detail. You’ll see smoke effects and blown-out backlighting. Crazy craned camera angles and the singer and bassist screaming into the same mic. Unlike GHIII’s toy monkey drummer, the drummers here look great and accurate, and the fretwork by guitar and bass players looks good, too. Even the lip-syncing is fairly on point. More important: none of the singers in this game look like a mulleted Venom; the same can’t be said for GHIII. The venues aren’t as overblown as those of Guitar Hero, but they look great. And the package is completed by small touches, like loading screens that use your custom characters.

The Songs

I’m not going to head into a massive amount of detail here. The list is online, so you can see what you like and what you don’t. Unlike Guitar Hero, there’s not a lot of inventive playing to be found on the guitar or bass. Power chords dominate, and the solos are frequently restrained. You don’t look at a New Pornographers song and think ‘challenge!’ But you should look at it and think, "holy shit, that’s awesome!" And I do. While I don’t love this set list top to bottom (The Killers? Again? Lord.) there’s enough great material, and enough master tracks, that I’m on board until I can start assembling a custom set that I truly love.

(And as an aging alumus of Boston’s ’90s rock scene, it’s fun to see Tribe, a few ex-members of whom work at Harmonix, in the unlockable songs collection.)

((As an aging Iron Maiden fan, I’m sad to see the Irons getting the shaft again with a relatively poor rendition of ‘Run To The Hills’. Whatever. I’ve got my ticket for next year’s tour already.))

Final Thoughts

Which drops the score (capriciously) down to: