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- Rock Band 2
- Reviewed on: Xbox 360
- Also available for: NA
- The Good: 84 brand new master tracks to start, plus backward compatibility with all previously released Rock Band songs. Expanded online functionality. Improved instruments.
- The Bad: Feels more like an expansion than a true sequel.
- The Verdict: The improvements are mostly minor, but scores of master recordings, a new Battle of the Bands mode, and tweaked instruments make this a worthy encore to Harmonix's popular rock sim.
Billy Joel once lamented that "videos destroyed the vitality of rock and roll. Music said, Listen to me. Now it says, Look at me."
What, I wonder, might Mr. Joel have to say about rock music games, which utterly eschew the notion of simply listening in favour of not only looking, but also interacting?
Indeed, interaction is what Harmonix Music's sequel to its extraordinarily popular rock and roll simulation game Rock Band is all about. Rock Band 2 provides one of the most compelling means yet by which non-musicians can interface with the music they love.
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Range of genres and eras represented ensures that there will be something for anyone who has ever banged a head
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Rock Band 2 opens with a stylish CGI cinema featuring two bands riding on the bodies of speaker-powered cars headed on a collision course with one another; an indication that this sequel, more than its predecessor, is focused on pitting players in high-octane rock and roll battles against each other. These battles take the form of weekly themed challenges that allow bands to post scores that other bands can see. It's a minor but engaging innovation; a good excuse to schedule regular jamming sessions with your band mates.
In fact, most of the additions, improvements, and tweaks made to Rock Band 2's game design can be fairly described as minor (which is to be expected, given that its predecessor was released just nine months ago) but also fun and well executed.
The primary mode, which is called World Tour and has bands playing gigs across the globe, has been augmented with new venues (including several in Montreal), staff members who can help your group make more money and open new gigs, and new challenges, such as recording videos.
Plus, band management has been opened up so that members can be more easily swapped out and players can switch instruments without switching avatars. And we can now hook up with band mates not just in the same room, but online as well—very handy for crews whose members are spread across the city (or the globe).
It's all good stuff, but there's nothing that could properly be classified as an earth-shattering advancement for the genre.
While Rock Band 2's new game features may not be enough to guarantee that the sequel will be a smash hit, add to the equation some 84 new tracks — all master recordings — and you suddenly have a rock and roll game that sells itself. In fact, even if you were to look at Rock Band 2 as being only a glorified track pack, you'd have to admit you were getting quite a bargain — purchasing 84 tracks at individual prices through the Rock Band Store would set you back nearly $250.
Of course, whether you like most of the four score new songs is another question. Still, the sheer range of genres and eras represented all but ensures that there will be something for anyone who has ever banged a head.
Classic rock is represented with Kansas' Carry on My Wayward Son and Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way. Lovers of 1980s pop can bop to Billy Idol's White Wedding Pt 1 and Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf. Nineties grunge shows up in the form of Soundgarden's Spoonman and Nirvana's Drain You. And there are plenty of modern melodies, too, including Beck's rhythm-driven E-Pro and Modest Mouse's Float On.
What's more, players can export 55 of the tracks on the original Rock Band disc to the sequel for about five bucks. And any songs you may have already downloaded through the Rock Band Store will automatically pop up in your Rock Band 2 catalogue. That makes a total of more than 200 possible songs to start, and Harmonix has promised to hit 500 by the holidays.
As Jack Black might say, that's a whole lotta rock.
Returning Rock Band fans might be worried that they'll need to spend $190 on a new instrument bundle. That's not the case. If you own the original Rock Band and associated peripherals, all you need to play Rock Band 2 is the game disc.
That said, Harmonix has created new drum and guitar hardware for the sequel, and both feature some desirable improvements.
The new, wood grain emblazoned Fender Stratocaster guitar is wireless. Without the two-metre tether of the original guitar, wannabe shredders are free to wander the living room and do the odd knee slide or power kick. Personally, I used my newfound wireless mobility to sling my axe on my back Bon Jovi-style and head to the kitchen for a drink during the lengthy, guitar-less interludes in AC/DC's Let There Be Rock. The new guitar also has a more sensitive strum bar and fret buttons that no longer clack so loudly as to overpower the music in quieter playing environments.
The drum kit is wireless, too, though, as mobility means little to a drummer, the main benefit here is that setting up to play is a little easier. Other new drum features include a sturdier, metal-reinforced kick pedal and auxiliary ports for a set of attachable cymbals that peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz will soon be rolling out. In an attempt to dampen the sound of stick striking drum, Harmonix changed the pad material from plastic to rubber, but the difference in volume isn't particularly dramatic; you'll still need to turn it up to eleven if you want to completely drown out your drummer's taps.
Rock Band 2 may not be a quantum leap forward for the genre, but it provides little fodder for complaint. The brilliant original gave millions of people a chance to feel what it might be like to be part of a rock quartet, and the sequel simply refines and enhances that experience.
Videos may have destroyed the vitality of rock and roll, but the interactivity of video games like Rock Band 2 has brought the spirit back—and democratized it.
