Harmonix's devious master plan is finally starting to come into focus. The critically acclaimed music game maker wants us to quit making believe we're rock stars and become real musicians.
Their scheme started out innocently enough in early games like Frequency and Amplitude, which simply had players tapping out rhythms on a standard controller. Then they went a step further in Guitar Hero and early Rock Band games by providing us with toy instruments that allowed players to pretend they were playing guitars and drums. And now, in Rock Band 3, (Electronic Arts, MTV Games/ Harmonix Music Systems) we are just a hair's breadth away from moving beyond make believe.
A couple of new instruments play a big role in bringing players closer to a real music-making experience. The first is a wireless keyboard – never before seen in music games. The full-sized keys feel great; just like the real thing. The most telling sign that they're part of a game controller is that there are only 25 of them. Meanwhile, a radically enhanced wireless guitar with more than 100 fret buttons is arguably an even more authentic recreation of a real instrument. Sadly, I wasn't provided one of these pricey units (they cost $150 each) for my pre-release evaluation, so I can't comment on its feel or performance.
Just as important as the new peripherals is a new mode for each instrument – including the existing drum kit – called "Pro." That's for "professional," as in, you'll basically be one if you can master them. Fittingly, the ambitious players who take on the challenge of learning this new way to play will need to embark on hours-long training sessions. I've never studied guitar or percussion, but I did take several years of piano when I was a kid, so I feel like I can comment a little on the authenticity of the Pro Keys mode. The short version: It does a remarkable job of imitating a real keyboard experience.
- The Goods Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, Wii The good: New peripherals are closer to real instruments than any that have come before. Pro mode is so authentic it all but teaches players how to read music. Career mode has been redesigned to let us play the songs and instruments we want to play whenever we want to play them. The bad: Pro mode will likely appeal only to a relatively niche group of highly dedicated players. Older Rock Band songs don’t support the keyboard or Pro mode (except some drum tracks). The verdict: Authentic new instruments and ways to play combine with a completely redesigned Career mode to make Rock Band 3 the only music game you need purchase this year.
Seventeen sets of lessons train players in everything from proper form – such as how to cross over a thumb while scaling – to methods for playing popular chords and arpeggios. You won't learn how to read music – songs aren't presented in musical notation but instead as a series of coloured icons that scroll down to a virtual keyboard at the bottom of the screen – but you will nonetheless learn how to play. Plenty of people have figured out how to bang out a mean piano number by ear. In this case it's simply by eye. I have little doubt that someone who has never played a keyboard before but who becomes a master of Rock Band 3's Pro Keys mode will be able to do some pretty impressive things on a real instrument with only a little extra practice.
Simply put, it's a remarkable achievement in music game design. Nothing like this has been done before.
But here's the catch: It's really, really hard. If you want to play Pro Keys on expert difficulty you'll be striking every single note and chord on devilishly difficult keyboard tracks like the one in the Doobie Brothers' "China Groove."
I've only had a week or so with the game so I can't say for certain how long it takes to be able to play challenging songs well on the expert difficulty setting in Pro Keys mode, but I'd hazard weeks for many, months for most – close to what it takes to get a handle on a real instrument.
And here's where things get tricky. Is this intense verisimilitude a good thing? For players who want to feel like they're really playing each song and are willing to make the necessary time commitment, certainly. Ditto if you're a real musician who hasn't much enjoyed previous music games because they haven't seemed realistic enough. However, if you just want to sit down for a bit of casual fun, then Pro mode by definition probably won't appeal.
Luckily for these players, Rock Band 3 still offers a highly entertaining pretend music making experience as well as some significant improvements in overall game design. The core mechanics remain unchanged, but everything around them has been rejigged for the better.
Road Challenges will be where most players start. These are a series of venues that grow in size and exoticness as the game progresses. However, rather than locking players into specific set lists that they may not want to endure, players always have a choice between three set types. One option may be random new wave songs, another might let you choose your own tracks from the 1960s, and the third may be a ready-made set of tracks you've downloaded from the Rock Band store. This new method all but ensures that players will never come up against a set list that they just don't want to play.
Road Challenges also feature mini objectives in each set that allow players to earn a new game currency dubbed "spades" used to unlock a variety of bonus items for players' customizable avatars. For example, you may need to perform streaks while in a spotlight or chain overdrives with other players. I found these smaller goals kept my attention focused on simpler songs and created yet another reason to communicate and co-operate with my band-mates.
But the real meat of the game is a player's Career, which essentially consists of hundreds of overarching objectives that range from the grand – such as attempting to earn five stars on every song in the game on hard vocals – to the specific – like hitting at least 90 per cent of notes on expert difficulty on a few select tracks. Some career goals will take weeks of frequent play to achieve. Plus, it's a sneaky way of luring players into trying new instruments and making them set out to master lesser known songs.
And that new keyboard isn't limited only to Pro mode. Even organ virgins can get in touch with their inner Ray Manzarek by playing just five keys with one hand, much the same way as Rock Band guitarists have always used the five fret buttons on their axes. All you have to do is tap the corresponding keys as notes scroll down the screen.
The music in Rock Band 3 has clearly been tailored to be keyboard inclusive. There are some great organ parts on tracks like "Whip It" by Devo and Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle," and players who try hard or expert difficulty will feel like they're really playing piano on songs like John Lennon's "Imagine." A few tracks without significant keyboard elements have us playing other parts, like the brass sections of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4," but in those instances I just imagined I was playing a synthesizer.
One minor beef: Songs from previous Rock Band games and older downloadable tracks don't support keyboards or Pro modes for guitar and bass. It's completely understandable – the developers would need to reprogram all of these songs and have players download them again – but still a shame. I'd have loved to have played the piano in a song like Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" (I've been air-playing it ever since Journey Escape came out for Atari back in 1983).
Other alterations in design are subtler but no less noteworthy. For example, players can now jump in and out of songs on the fly. Plus, we can quickly and easily switch instruments between songs – handy, should you want to change from lead guitar on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" to keys on Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" without working back through the menu. You can even swap profiles and avatars between players in seconds.
Long story short, Rock Band 3 does an outstanding job of innovating within a genre that has recently grown stale. Though not for everyone, Pro mode is a massive stride forward for music simulators and ought to go a long way toward silencing those who criticize these games for their inability to let players carry over what they learn to real world instruments. Meanwhile, traditional play has been polished up nicely and allows us more freedom to play the songs and instruments we want to play when we want to play them.
And, as a former piano player, I have to say that I'm head over heels for the new keyboard. It was number one on a list of requests for Rock Band 3 that I wrote more than two years ago, and now that it's here it's pretty much the only instrument I want to play.
Now if only Harmonix's song selectors could see fit to put up a few OMD tracks for download ...