Time to rock out with my... erm, guitar out. ahem...
So that’s a look at the Rock Band kit but what it really comes down to is how the game plays and the track listing. So let’s have a look at Rock Band in its playable glory.First off, you can create your own online persona, making a rock star from scratch with a range of physiques, hairstyles, clothing and accessories. You start off with the basic stuff and, as you progress through the career mode, you unlock more kit to dress your character up with. This is all kind of superfluous to the main game but I guess it adds to the general appeal as my kids spend absolutely ages in the character screens swapping out outfits on their rock chicks.
If you’re just looking for single player action, you’ll have to create a different character for each instrument in the game, which is a bit of a pain as it means you’ll be playing the same songs over and over as you progress through the career mode. You can’t have one character that you use and, if the going gets tough, switch him from lead guitar to drums to crack that tricky song. But one saving grace is that the track order changes for each instrument, so switching from one to another does mean you’re likely to get new songs to play, especially if you’ve not progressed too far on any particular instrument.
Click for larger imageBut having four instruments and just playing on your own is all a bit pointless unless you actually have some other people to play with. And when you do Rock Band really comes into it’s own. Just like Guitar Hero II, where once you and your mate were both playing along it felt like you were really playing the song, Rock Band really comes alive once you’ve got three mates strumming, drumming and singing along together.
But getting four people together can be tricky, which is where the online co-op side of Rock Band really comes into play. Just as for the solo career, but this time for a group of you, you can create a virtual band which others can join online. As with real life bands, members can come and go but as long as you, the band creator and leader are online, the band can play, even if the rest of the band are different players each time.
Of course, Rock Band is at its best when you’re all in the same room and there’s a multiplayer feature for that too, but happily you can use your band on or offline, meaning you haven’t got to start from scratch on the gig list, or Tour as Rock Band calls it.
Click for larger imageEither way, when you’re playing together, you can help out band-mates should they suck at a particular song. At the side of the screen is a performance meter that shows how well everyone is doing. If a member drops into the red, and then off the bottom of the meter through missing too many notes, they drop out of the game. But other band members can rescue them by using their Energy to revive the failing member. Watch out though, you can only revive three times… after that the crowd will have had enough of the lot of you and you’ll be booed off the stage.
But play well and get everyone topping out the meter and the crowd will respond, often singing along to the song… and really, there’s nothing like the buzz of hearing a crowd singing along to Wanted Dead or Alive or Say it Ain’t So…
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