Could have been better. WAY better.
So, a game that takes the great gameplay of Guitar Hero, adds Singing and Drums, weekly new DLC, AND 4-player co-op? Sounds great on paper, but the experience is shallow and short-lived. ...Most of the time.
Well, I'll start with the guitar. It's bad. Really bad. Hammer-ons and pull-offs are inaccurate, inconsistent, and sometimes hard to distinguish from normal notes. Anyone who has played Rock Band can tell you how the game just hates you. You will hit a note, you will KNOW you hit the note, but it just decides that you didn't. Also, pitch inconsistency. You will hear the notes in the song stay the same, yet the notes you have to play will change. And that makes no sense. Now, the guitar controller itself. Yeah, it looks more realistic than other guitar controllers, but you can't judge a book by it's cover. The strum bar doesn't click like the Guitar Hero ones do, and while that may save you from a headache or two, it's hard to determine how far you have to push it in order for it to register. Bottom frets? No thanks. Convenient, maybe, but they're smaller than the top ones, and you'll have to learn the correct fingering positions all over again. You would normally only use them in solos. And by the time you got your fingers down in the right position, you've failed the song. A useless feature. Bottom line, the guitar wouldn't seem as bad if Guitar Hero weren't the competition.
Drums. Now, HERE'S a part of the game I can agree with. They're fun, but they suffer from the same accuracy issues that the guitar does, only slightly worse. The drums are basically the selling point of Rock Band, and for good reason. They're unique, and THERE ISN'T ALREADY ANOTHER GAME BASED ON THEM.
Bass Guitar? Nope. See the guitar section. Plus, I swear sometimes on guitar I'm playing bass parts, and sometimes on Bass I'm playing guitar parts.
Singing. Decent, but it feels like it was just thrown in at the last second. Once again, a feature that was outdone by it's competitors, this time by Karaoke Revolution. Plus sometimes it won't let you activate your Overdrive, no matter how loud you scream into the microphone.
Now, the song list. At one point, you'll be playing Country, then Rock, then Punk, then Oldies, then back to Rock, then Metal, and some songs that can't be accurately described. Plus the song difficulties are inconsistent. Nearly all songs are incredibly easy, and the ones that aren't are incredibly hard. There's no median. But, all complaints aside, there are some amazing songs. Just don't kill yourself when you get stuck playing Fallout Boy. >.>
Complaints aside, if you can get over the regular amounts of bull that this game sends at you every few seconds, you'll find a game that... well, just a slightly more-than-decent game. The drums saved this one. But if you have three friends, this is a great party game. The fun will make itself.
