This year, a very unusual amount of gamer mindshare is centered around rhythm games. Just two or three years ago, this genre wasn't even a factor in the US; now you can't buy a gallon of milk without tripping over plastic guitars. A few years back, you had your core group of vehement DDR guys, as well as the occasional Donkey Konga drum circles. It wasn't until developers Harmonix teamed with RedOctane to unleash the first Guitar Hero upon the world that things really got out of hand. Non-gamers were suddenly interested; casual gamers became enamored with it; hardcore gamers turned into score-chasing guitar virtuosos. Everyone went up a peg.
Here we are, years after that fateful pairing, and the band has broken up. Guitar Hero and RedOctane are now in the hands of Activision and the team at Neversoft. Harmonix have become property of MTV Games. Former partners in crime have become bitter rivals, as EA is now publishing Harmonix's Rock Band hot on the heels of Activision's latest Guitar Hero. In these uncertain times, the question that's burning through gamers' hearts, minds, and wallets is simple: do I buy Guitar Hero III or this new Rock Band game?
The answer is not so simple, and won't necessarily be found in this article. After having played several dozen hours of both products, you'll come to the realization that these are two very different games with completely separate target audiences. Both represent the current pinnacle of the genre, but they do so on their own terms. Much like Burnout and Forza are both worth owning, these two games actually complement each other quite well. To put it bluntly, Rock Band is not a great game for the same reasons Guitar Hero III is a great game.
The most obvious differences between the two musical juggernauts this year are the new instruments packed with Rock Band. In addition to the mandatory new guitar controller, there are also drums and a microphone included. While the microphone is about what you'd expect considering Harmonix's prior efforts with Karaoke Revolution, the drums and new Fender Stratocaster model guitar are where it gets really interesting. Surprisingly solid, the drums consist of four large, rubber pads and a bass pedal that can be mounted either tabletop or on the included metal stand. While they may look like those synth drums that have been collecting dust in your attic since your Flock of Seagulls phase, they feel authentic enough once you thump them with the provided wooden drum sticks. These things can withstand endless abuse from drummers who let's be honest here have no idea how to drum.
The Stratocaster controller, however, has proven a big point of contention. Its appearance is almost universally praised; larger and less toy-like than the Guitar Hero II X-Plorer, the Stratocaster looks like a slightly scaled-down Stratocaster. The fret buttons are now the full width of the guitar neck and maintain the same coloration as the rest of the neck, plus there's a second set of smaller frets at the bottom for tapping out solos. It's all quite lovely until you get it into someone's hands, at which point they'll either fall in love with it or demand their Gibson guitars back. Most of this is due to the new mechanism behind the strum bar, effectively making it silent. Comparatively, playing a round with the old Gibson models sounds like two kids playing cops and robbers with the old Duck Hunt guns. Still, a lot of people have trouble with the new strum, suggesting that maybe the calibration is off, or that it's somehow more/less sensitive than the older controllers. Others have had bigger issues, as total strum bar failures have become alarmingly prevalent just a week after release. Overall should you get one that works, anyway the Stratocaster is an improvement over the X-Plorer.
With that out of the way, the real gulf between Rock Band and Guitar Hero becomes evident the moment you start up the games; that being the overall design philosophies driving each experience. While Guitar Hero is very successful with its brutally difficult single-player game, Rock Band is focused on bringing people together to experience every aspect of group performance. Your mileage may vary depending on the instrument of choice, but playing Rock Band by yourself should almost be a last resort. Due to the nature of the game, many of the songs selected fall into the categories of great drum songs, songs that are fun to sing along, and songs with awesome guitar with very little crossover. Almost every song is fun with a group of friends, however, even if you do get stuck playing bass. The word band is in the title for a reason, and as anyone who's seen a one-man-band performing on the street can attest, flying solo isn't going to be as much fun.
Cooperative play really becomes transcendent in the new World Tour mode. This incredibly involving multiplayer career mode lets you customize every aspect of your band, from your characters and their outfits to the band logo, and tour dozens of unique venues around the planet. Every city you go to has several themed set lists, including local music or random songs chosen by the crowd. Each stop on the tour serves as an opportunity to score fans and cash a rocker's bread and butter and eventually things like roadies, a tour bus, and even a private jet. There are even tough choices that confront any band out on the road; do a charity show to gain more fans, or record a DVD of the next performance to triple profits? These decisions can come back to haunt you later, as the only thing worse than doing poorly on stage is doing poorly on camera. The whole setup is brilliant, and it's hard to imagine going back to just clearing an ordered set list.
The character editor in Rock Band is about as sophisticated as the car editor in Forza, only with people. In addition to the staggering amount of clothing and hairstyle options, you can either apply one of the countless pre-made templates for face paint and tattoos, or just make your own. They really blow the door wide open with the customization, allowing you to create the metal supergroup of your nightmares or the all-girl punk trio of your dreams. Honestly, if the people who give out VH1 Fashion Awards knew video games existed, this would be their game of the year.
A ton of work was also put into making the on-stage antics seem more realistic. Rather than just upping the number of polygons and calling it a day, the developers actually went for a low overall level of detail and concentrated on making the characters move and behave like authentic musicians. Guitar players will lean in with the singer to belt out the chorus; band members will jump into the air simultaneously as a song climaxes; singers will even leap into the crowd during epic solos. The end results are lifelike digital rock shows that were obviously designed by people who've been to hundreds of real rock shows. Set designs are more down-to-earth compared to the over-the-top fantasy stages of Guitar Hero, going instead for more traditional hallmarks of the American touring scene timed spotlights, lasers, projector screens, and giant LED signs are just some of the things that contribute to the rock ambience.
The only place Rock Band falls short should have been the easiest to nail the user interface. Doing something as basic as entering the World Tour mode without the designated band leader is impossible, and trying to temporarily substitute any current band members with new ones often leads to dead ends as well. Oh, and don't even think about trying to play with more than one profile signed in. Did we mention that if you fail a song in single-player and want to practice it, it takes you completely out of the career mode and into the tutorials section? And if you wanna try to finish that song after you're done practicing, you have to navigate the menus back to the career mode again. Worst of all, remember that awesomely complex character editor? Even if you have a regular controller connected, you still have to customize your creations using the damn d-pad on the guitar and drum controllers. It's screw-ups like these that make Harmonix seem like musicians first and gamers second.
Still, it's hard to fault them once you get the game up and running. Rock Band goes above and beyond anything achieved by the genre in the US, and the potential for thousands of downloadable songs (be sure to pick up the David Bowie pack this week) is mind-blowing. All we need now is a keyboard nay, keytar controller.
|
9.0
9.8