Welcome back! Now that we’ve spoken a bit about The Music of Rock Band 2, we’ll focus next on the Instruments. We don’t literally mean the hardware, but rather the charts, modes, and features that have changed (or not) since the first game. Here’s the breakdown.
Guitar:
Admit it, plastic guitar veterans: During the first 6 tiers of the Solo guitar tour in Rock Band 1, you were practically asleep. Although more realistic than GH3′s barrage of non-guitar notes, those two button chords over and over through every song was enough to make me sick. Harmonix listened to our cries of “too easy!”, and came back with a vengeance. Not only are these charts bigger and badder, they somehow manage to be perfect. The moving lines are memorable and lovely. The increased difficulty is not too much to make people cry and walk away, but there are definitely enough songs in there that will keep FC hounds such as myself busy for months. These guitar charts really take me back to Guitar Hero 2, which is always a good thing. Besides that, the only new feature here are the “Hammer-on Chords”. Yes, Hammer-ons and chords, together at last. These aren’t super common, and they sometimes don’t behave properly, but there’s enough songs with them to make you think Harmonix wanted to shake things up a bit. It worked, at least for guitar.
Vocals:
Remember how in the original Rock Band you had to scream like a pterodactyl just to get an “Awesome” rating on a “talky part?” Well, all you lead singers out there can rest easy, because the “talky parts” have been revamped to actually make sense. They are more responsive now, so you won’t need to become a “wildly fluctuating pitch machine”. Also, I get the feeling that the lag has been reduced as well. A shout out to the ladies: Rock Band 2 has way more female vocalist songs than the first. Not only that. but they are actually good ones. As in, a man’s orientation won’t be questioned. (“When I wake up with my make-up?”).
For all you less-than-honorable players out there, you can still hum the pitches to get the high scores. Or even recite the Declaration of Independence. Cheaters!
Drums:
When I transitioned from Guitar Hero 3 to Rock Band last year, it was for one glorious reason: drums. I’ve always been the air drumming fool at school dances, and my steering wheel takes a heap of abuse when I’m driving. Harmonix’ pledge that sitting down to their drum kit could eventually translate to a mastery of real drums was too irresistible to ignore.
It was a promise delivered, and over the months I progressed from flailing through medium difficulty, to finally averaging 93% or better on Expert drums through the entire RB1 catalog. (Amazingly my original kit is still in one piece!) So when I eagerly picked up RB2 on launch day, I assumed breezing through the enormity of songs on Hard would be a given.
You know what they say about assuming…
Harmonix have raised the difficulty bar here as well, ever so slightly, but enough to punish you for being as cocky as I was. When I had the audacity to launch my Xbox Live Tour Mode on Expert, and “Everlong” appeared for the first time, I got destroyed. From the sporadic and strangely timed high hat flourishes in “Tangled Up In Blue” to the pure chaos that is “Rob The Prez-O-Dent,” you’re going to face an uphill battle for mastery of these songs. The timing signatures are more difficult (but more rewarding to run through) and the variety of rhythms is at center stage.
Drummers: Are you sick of your lead guitarist always hogging the spotlight? Good news, we have our own drum solos now. They’re few and far between, but you’ll get a thrill from each one of them. Other improvements in our domain include the “Drum Trainer” which teaches you various fills at your choice of BPM’s, and the ability to thrash those skins freestyle, or playing along to the music on your 360 hard drive.
All in all, subtle but welcome changes. I’ve always contended that Rock Band really shines when you’re sitting on the drum throne, and RB2 is no exception.
Bass:
As I said before with the Guitar charts, the bass difficulty has also been bumped up. This time around, I didn’t mind so much when people stole the guitar part on Band Quickplay. But don’t get too excited, its still a Bass. Out of all the instruments, the Bass is the least changed. The only addition is the ability to play the main game using the Bass. You know, because some people actually want to do that.
That being said, we recommend picking up the bass for certain tracks as it will give you an appreciation for an instrument that is slightly underrated.
On a side note, any character you create in Rock Band 2 has the ability to play every instrument, meaning the bassist can switch to vocals, or the guitarist can jump on the drums. What’s wrong with that? Stick with us to find out.
In general, the charts are the best yet of any music game, and prove again that Harmonix are not only the grandaddies of colored gems, but that they actually listen to the fans. Now that’s rare.
That’s it for this segment, coming up in Part 3: The Game and The Verdict! Keep it here to find out our bottom line thoughts on Rock Band 2! (As if you can’t tell already!)
Popularity: 5% [?]
9 comments