Rock Band Review
Rock Band is the newest game from Harmonix, who previously made the Guitar Hero games. This time, though, you can also sing and play drums.
You play guitar and bass mostly the same as in Guitar Hero. You have a mini-guitar with five colored buttons. One green, one red, one yellow, one blue, and one orange. On Easy, you only use the green, red, and yellow buttons. On Medium, you use the green, red, yellow, and blue buttons. On Hard and Expert, you use all of them. As the colored note scrolls down the screen, you press that color and press the strum bar. Sometimes you will have to press more than one at the same time or you will have to hold the button down. For the latter, you can use the Whammy-Bar to change how it sounds. You use Overdrive, (This games version of Star Power,) by tilting the guitar. There are a few differences though. You can get higher multipliers with Bass Groove while playing bass. Also, the guitar has lower frets that you can use to play solos without strumming. Hammer-ons and pull-offs show up as smaller notes now. As a side note, the guitars aren't that well made and sometimes don't work like they should. Also the guitar parts seem much easier compared to Guitar Hero.
The drums have four pads and a kick pedal. The notes also come scrolling down at you like the guitar. But instead of showing up as a square note, the kick pedal note shows up as an orange line across the screen. You use everything on every difficulty. Drums are easily the hardest part of the game. You activate Overdrive by playing the cymbol, (The green pad,) at the end of Drum Fills. These show up at pre-determined parts of the song. Which means that you can't activate it whenever you want, which is stupid in my opinion.
When you sing, the lyrics move across the screen, with a pitch meter above it. The closer you get to the pitch, the more points you get. As the difficulty goes up, the more sensitive the microphone gets. You activate Overdrive by singing whatever you want during glowing parts of the song. Like the drums' drum fills, these only happen during pre-determined parts of the song so you can't activate it whenever you want. I think this is stupid too.
Each instrument, (Except the bass,) has its own "Solo Tour" mode. The best mode, however, is the multi-player "Band World Tour" mode. In this mode, you and whoever your playing with star off as a small band, playing in small clubs and bars. You continue to play and get money, fans, and ways of transportation and eventually become a world famous band playing in huge stadiums, theaters, etc. This, however, can't be played online. There are also competitive multi-player modes, Score Duel and Tug of War. As well as both Solo and Multi-player quick play. These multiplayer modes can be played online.
As with any Music game, it would fail if it didn't have a good song list. And Rock Band has a great one. Some of the songs include "Creep," "In Bloom," "Enter Sandman," "Foreplay/Longtime," "Learn to Fly," and "Go With the Flow." There are also dozens of songs available for download on Xbox Live, with more added every Tuesday. Some of these songs include "El Scorcho," "I Fought the Law," "Gimme Three Steps," and "Still Alive," from Portal.
You can create your own characters. You can choose everything from their clothes, to their style, to their eye color, etc. The game also has good graphics.
The value depends of Rock Band depends on how much you like rock music. If you love rock music and are a gamer like me,then I recommend it. If you are a casual gamer or don't really like rock music, then you might be better off with Guitar Hero.
You play guitar and bass mostly the same as in Guitar Hero. You have a mini-guitar with five colored buttons. One green, one red, one yellow, one blue, and one orange. On Easy, you only use the green, red, and yellow buttons. On Medium, you use the green, red, yellow, and blue buttons. On Hard and Expert, you use all of them. As the colored note scrolls down the screen, you press that color and press the strum bar. Sometimes you will have to press more than one at the same time or you will have to hold the button down. For the latter, you can use the Whammy-Bar to change how it sounds. You use Overdrive, (This games version of Star Power,) by tilting the guitar. There are a few differences though. You can get higher multipliers with Bass Groove while playing bass. Also, the guitar has lower frets that you can use to play solos without strumming. Hammer-ons and pull-offs show up as smaller notes now. As a side note, the guitars aren't that well made and sometimes don't work like they should. Also the guitar parts seem much easier compared to Guitar Hero.
The drums have four pads and a kick pedal. The notes also come scrolling down at you like the guitar. But instead of showing up as a square note, the kick pedal note shows up as an orange line across the screen. You use everything on every difficulty. Drums are easily the hardest part of the game. You activate Overdrive by playing the cymbol, (The green pad,) at the end of Drum Fills. These show up at pre-determined parts of the song. Which means that you can't activate it whenever you want, which is stupid in my opinion.
When you sing, the lyrics move across the screen, with a pitch meter above it. The closer you get to the pitch, the more points you get. As the difficulty goes up, the more sensitive the microphone gets. You activate Overdrive by singing whatever you want during glowing parts of the song. Like the drums' drum fills, these only happen during pre-determined parts of the song so you can't activate it whenever you want. I think this is stupid too.
Each instrument, (Except the bass,) has its own "Solo Tour" mode. The best mode, however, is the multi-player "Band World Tour" mode. In this mode, you and whoever your playing with star off as a small band, playing in small clubs and bars. You continue to play and get money, fans, and ways of transportation and eventually become a world famous band playing in huge stadiums, theaters, etc. This, however, can't be played online. There are also competitive multi-player modes, Score Duel and Tug of War. As well as both Solo and Multi-player quick play. These multiplayer modes can be played online.
As with any Music game, it would fail if it didn't have a good song list. And Rock Band has a great one. Some of the songs include "Creep," "In Bloom," "Enter Sandman," "Foreplay/Longtime," "Learn to Fly," and "Go With the Flow." There are also dozens of songs available for download on Xbox Live, with more added every Tuesday. Some of these songs include "El Scorcho," "I Fought the Law," "Gimme Three Steps," and "Still Alive," from Portal.
You can create your own characters. You can choose everything from their clothes, to their style, to their eye color, etc. The game also has good graphics.
The value depends of Rock Band depends on how much you like rock music. If you love rock music and are a gamer like me,then I recommend it. If you are a casual gamer or don't really like rock music, then you might be better off with Guitar Hero.
