Review: Rock Band 2 (PS3)
It amazes me that, while the rhythm-based games have always been a solid genre of video games, it didn’t really hit it big until the last quarter of 2007. I have always been critical in terms of the guitar-based games such as Guitar Hero, since it, to me, isn’t the same as Dance Dance Revolution, which gears more toward rhythm and sports, so I never thought I’d really get into Rock Band too much. Boy, was I wrong.
The concept of Rock Band is actually more like putting many popular music/rhythm-based games into one. When you buy a set, it includes a set of drums (just like Beatmania), a guitar (Guitar Hero, ring a bell?), and a microphone (similar to Karaoke Revolution). So, obviously, you get to choose between guitar or base, drum, or singing. In other words, this game included all. Good business thinking there, Harmonix! This game has several concepts that is worth a review, such as the CG element, the music, and gameplay, and I’ll try to break it down bit by bit. Since one of Rock Band’s most formidable opponent is the Guitar Hero, I’ll make comparison with it every now and then.
CG: Since one of my dear friend, Azuki, is a 3D modeler, she was the one that brought to my attention of the difference between GH and RB’s CG effect. The people in RB has a better proportion in body than GH, and are more realistic in comparison. To be honest, this really doesn’t effect my liking of GH or RB, since whenever I play the game, my eyes were too busy tracking the frets on the screen to really notice what the characters were doing in the background. Sure, when there’s a long note and I’m having a hell of a time vibrating using the stick, (get your mind out of the gutter, people lol) I take the time to enjoy my character rocking it out on stage, but when the frets are coming down like rain, the screen could be blank for all I care. But, for those of you who are hardcore in the visual department, you can say that’s the difference between the two franchises.
Also, I personally like the clothings in RB better than GH (and I’m not including GH: World Tour in this comparison because I don’t own it yet.) With RB, you get more customization than the GH, where you can do a lot of changes to the body, face, hair, clothes, etc. for your character, whereas GH has a fix set of characters for you to choose and customize. While GH’s characters are nice, it’s just not the same when you can start from scratch to make your own character and have them do awesome stuff on stage. Oh, and when you create your own character, you get to choose their “personality” among the 3 or 4 selections, and I find it amusing when my character would sometimes do what -I- would do if I were playing on the stage. So that’s extra bonus right there.
Music: Obviously, since this is Rock Band, keyword being Rock, many of the songs are rock and metal music. In all honesty, out of all the Rock Band songs I’ve played so far, I only recognized 2 songs prior to playing the game by listening to them on the radio. (But, in my own defense, I’m a classical musician, and while I enjoy other music, I don’t venture out too much… heh.) However, I still enjoy most of the songs in RB, with the exception of one or two that either was boring in the game play, or just too loud to my liking. The guys at Harmonix were quite careful in selecting music that would appeal to the whole family, so for those of you, like me, who are not hardcore into rock or metal or punk music, we can still enjoy the music immensely. For those of you who are into the abovementioned music genre, from what I’ve heard, no complaints were made about the music at all, so feel free to buy it and rock it out loud.
Oh yeah, that’s one other thing I’d like to mention about the music… It’s more like a cross between music and gameplay, really. One thing I noticed while playing RB (and GH as well) is that if you don’t turn the volume to a point where you can hear all 4 parts, it’s actually kind of hard to play just by watching the fret buttons come raining down. However, some of the songs can get quite loud, so unless you are living in a house that is not close to your neighbor, or your neighbor’s deaf… This game is not for play at 12 in the morning on a weekday. Trust me on that.
Gameplay: Aside from the numerous style of playing one person can do by themselves on this game, the major lure for me was the online play component. RB is the first to introduce online play into the music genre, and it’s a lot of fun to play with people around the world, so you never have to worry about running out of a drummer or a bassist. There is a catch, however, that I soon discover when Azuki and I tried to play with each other, and that is one major draw back I am hoping RB would correct or GH can remedy, and that is the cross-platform playing. According to RB publisher, because each RB platform sits on a different server (so PS3 has its own server, and Xbox 360 another, and Wii a third…etc.), those who own different platforms of the game cannot play with each other. So, for example, I own the PS3 version of RB, and Azuki owns the Xbox 360 version, we cannot play with each other because of platform issue. I haven’t find out if either RB or GH publisher is addressing this problem, but I sure hope they do soon.
Solo gameplay wise, you get to do the story plot either by yourself or have others do it with you, and that includes multiplayer on one system or online as well. The RB throws in some curve balls every now and then, such as playing private parties so you earn more money and less fan, or do it for charity so you earn more fan but no money. These incidents are random, and if you fail and you restart without saving, that event won’t come back. The incidents usually appear after you select how hard you want to play, so if you happen to bit off more than you can chew, then oops it is. ^^|||| There are a couple of events that are always there, such as playing for a bus, and you will need to beat it to proceed to the next town, so there is a variety of different events to make the game interesting.
Personally, what I find most enjoyable of this game is the fact that I can pick it up when I need a break from studying, and play a song or two to relieve the pressure, and stop whenever I want to. While I enjoy RPG tremendously, it’s sometimes bothersome for me to know that if I sit down for the game, I can’t quit for at least an hour or two. Not very good for quick pressure-relief, if you know what I mean.
The way both RB and GH are designed were to simulate as much as possible of real instrument playing, while combining fun and excitement into it. I am more appreciative of what real guitarists do in their work because of this game, and actually inspire me to learn guitar in the future (no money now, no music learning lol). Also, this is a great game for the family and friends to get together and duke it out, in a nice way of course, so it’s definitely worth buying. In terms of which one is better – RB or GH – it’s really up to any individual’s music preference, since both games try to incorporate different artists and songs to compete with each other. Personally, I find both of them equal except for what was discussed above, and I really just play RB more because of the online play and my chara, but I also own GH: Aerosmith and like it as well, so it’s a toss-up. If you -have- to choose between one, I would suggest checking on Gamefaqs.com for the complete list of songs first to see which one has more of your favorite artist/songs, and decide as such.
Money-saving Tip and Side Notes: Couple of things to save money for the RB package and GH in the future, plus some helpful notes:
1. If you are considering playing both RB1 and RB2 (and you will), and you -know- for a fact that you won’t play drums that much, I would suggest you get the RB1 package instead of the RB2. Since the release of RB2, the RB1 complete package has dropped, and for some platforms the price is now below $100, so you can save a lot of money by getting that. The only difference between RB1 and RB2 are the drums, I believe, but I’m not too sure about this. If you decide to be a drummer in the future, just buy the extension drums for about $40 or so. You still save over $50 if you do it this way.
Cymbol Extension
2. Check out the following charts, courtesy of Wired.com (taken without permission), that shows the compatibility between the two games. Most problem really exist on the drums, not so much on the guitar and mic, so you can have a basic idea of what you want to get should you want to play both games and have limited funds/storage space.
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/11/official-guitar.html
3. For you guitar players, I have a big money-saving tip if you want to play RB and GH. Nyko has a really nice looking wireless guitar for PS3 (and Xbox360 I believe) that is designed to play on both RB and GH. The retail price I’ve seen around stores are $39.99+tax, but if you buy it on Amazon.com, you only need to pay $19.99 without tax. Instant savings right there. ^_~ I paid $6.95 for this one, and I’m shocked to learn it actually jumped up to $19.99 after Black Friday… Too bad I didn’t get more when I had the chance. lol
I’ve tried this guitar on RB2 and GH: Aerosmith, and it works smoothly, so I know for a fact it works. ^^ Price wise I would encourage you to shop around and compare it with the Amazon price, ’cause maybe in your neighborhood stores there are cheaper ones, but this is the cheapest I’ve found.
