Basically Guitar Hero with mic and drums.
Disadvantages: Fragile drum kit and weak character creation.
When Activision were put in the shoes of creating the new Guitar Hero game, Harmonix had a bigger job to do, Rock Band. Rock Band is the new Rhythm game from Harmonix that will keep you rockin' 'n' rollin' all night and partying everyday.
-:Controls:-
Guitar-
The guitar controller is in the shape of the Fender Stratocaster. Just like in the Guitar Hero series, the guitar has 5 colored fret buttons, green, red, yellow, blue and orange. You strum the notes using the strum bar when the colored note runs past the end of the highway. Whats different about the fret buttons from the Guitar Hero guitar to the Rock Band guitar is that they've tried to make them look a bit more realistic and they have. The colors have been placed on the side of each of the fret buttons making the guitar from the front view look like the real neck of a guitar. Its not a big deal but it makes you look just a little bit cooler while playing it.
The guitar controller has a bit more weight to it than the Guitar Hero guitar, which makes feel a bit more comfortable. Just like the Guitar Hero guitar it has the whammy-bar. The whammy-bar feels more comfortable and it is not as wobbly as the previous guitar controller and it doesn't make a tapping noise when its got as far as it can go because that did get a little annoying with the Guitar Hero guitar.
A new feature to the Rock Band guitar is the 5 way switch. The 5 way switch changes the sound of the guitar and gives you 5 different effects. The 5 effects are, Wah-Wah, Flanger, Echo, Chorus and if you don't want any effect, there is the choice of having None. The effects are a good little added feature to the play of the guitar, but if you really have to use the effects for a certain part just to make it sound better for you, you better get it ready before the song begins, because when your in the middle of song and you want to change your effect it won't help if your trying to get to 100% because you won't be able to continue playing when trying to change your effect... obviously.
When in gameplay, there are sections on certain songs called Solo Sections. When in the Solo Sections you can use the new solo buttons. When in a Solo Section you can use the solo buttons without strumming each note with the strum bar, you can just finger tap the notes to make it a little easier, but if you do want to just finger tap them all without strumming it does take a little getting used to. In a fast section between two notes in a Solo Section, the solo buttons really help if your using your right hand to hit the other note. Like when your playing between two notes on expert and its going ridiculously fast then they make it easier for you to hit the highest buttons with your right hand while keeping your left hand on the lowest buttons.
Just like in the Guitar Hero series, when your nailing all of those notes you will gain your precious Star Power. Not any longer now your earning Overdrive. Overdrive is exactly the same to Guitar Heros Star Power and serves the same purpose. It can pick you up if playing badly and your about to fail the song and it can give you a much bigger song. Its a good thing to include because if your failing and you want to get through the entire song it can pick you up, or if you've played through the song once already and your trying to beat your old record you can go back through it but using much more Overdrive. To deploy the Overdrive, you tilt the guitar upwards. Tilting the guitar upwards will hit a mercury switch inside the guitar. And if your at a drunken party playing the game pull a really queer pose. Its a good way of getting it going, it's better than flipping a switch or pressing a button.
And then obviously, it has the Xbox Guide button and a D-Pad in place on the body of the guitar. Speaking of the Guide button, if your signed into Xbox LIVE and somebody sending you a message you can quickly jump to the message by pressing the Guide button. This will automatically pause the game for you without pressing the pause button on the guitar controller. Not a big deal, just throwing it out there its just something that helps me while in the middle of a conversation and shredding.
Drums-
Now nobody expected something like this to be actually possible. Now, the drum controller, it has 4 colored pads, and a kick pedal and a pair of sticks(can't rock them drums without sticks!!!).
The easy difficulty really cuts out alot of the work, basically. It'll be like you hit a pad once and it will do an insane drum solo and it also doesn't use alot of the kick pedal(for people that have no legs, no rhythm and very lazy people). The medium difficulty trys to get you to use a bit more rhythm with your hands and feet, just a little bit harder than easy. The hard and expert difficulties are really for people that know how to play the drums or have just got better by playing through medium and just giving hard a go and nailing the first few songs and carrying on through the career.
With the drums on hard and expert you are playing pretty much the song your playing note for note. So this game, besides from being a form of entertainment can also help you with your playing skills on the drums.
When nailing every note and gaining Overdrive, to deploy it and get your Overdrive going there will a be solo section. This solo section lasts about 2 or 3 seconds you can play whatever you want and at the end of the solo sections there will a glowing green to tell you to hit that green pad to start of your Overdrive.
Mic-
What could you say more than, its a microphone. Just like any karaoke game you sing to the song in the right pitch so that you can get points and get through the song without failing.
During a guitar solo or at a time in the song where your not singing or doing anything to keep you busy and to get extra points there are tambourine parts. This is where there will a round circle going past a line, when the circle reaches the line thats your cue to tap the microphone to make the tambourine sound. Its good idea to keep busy and not sit there and watch the other player do something while your sat in a corner waiting for your next verse.
To set off Overdrive with the microphone there will be a section where you just say or sing something into the microphone and it will set the Overdrive. Its a good way to set the Overdrive off because hear is the time to say whatever you want. And when you not playing on your own in single player, but in co-op when you set the overdrive off, your Overdrive will not drain until you start singing again.
-:Gameplay:-
When playing in single player or co-op there will be parts called "Big Rock Endings". This is where you and your band can rack up your last big points before the song ends. Its a good idea, if someone is 10,000 points away from 200,000, they can quickly as possible try their best to get that extra 10,000 in the big rock ending.
In Guitar Hero, you would have the entire band in the background behind the highway stood in one place playing the song. Now, on Rock Band, its much more entertaining for someone who sitting and watching someone play the game watch the band in the background... actually move. The band are always rocking around and every band members looks like they are actually playing their instruments properly.
The crowd sing along with famous parts of the songs and on songs like Metallica's "Enter Sandman" you can see parts of the crowds in mosh pits.
-:Multiplayer:-
A feature to the multiplayer side of the game is Band World Tour, where you can have 2-4 players touring the world, playing new arenas, unlocking new songs, earning fans and whole lot of money. The idea of earning fans and stuff like that will keep you playing all the time, because unlike the Guitar Hero III co-op career, all you did was went through each song until you got to end of the games
When playing in a multiplayer game if one of your band mates fail you can bring them back into the song and see if they can try again. If none of the band including yourself don't have any Overdrive and one of your band mates are out and you don't save them in time, then the whole band will fail.
Online play is really everything i imagined, you just get a bunch of players together and you play a couple of songs. But thats just band quickplay. You then have Score Duel. Score Duel is when two players with the same instruments play against each other and see who gets the most points and you can each play on whatever difficulty you want. And then you also have Tug of War. Tug of War is when again two player play against each other on the the same instruments and play through a song but you both have to be on the same difficulty. And instead of using points you just use basically a rope between the two of you, and whoever plays the best will get more of the rope to his side. These modes can also be played locally. And with the Score Duel and Tug of War modes you can choose between player match or ranked match. On ranked match your game is monitored so both of you will be recognized by other players on the leaderboards. I think its a good idea not just to have co-op modes but also head-to-head multiplayer modes just incase jealousy rises within the band members.
-:Sound:-
The soundtrack to Rock Band has a little bit of everything. It has everything for every fan of a certain form of rock music. You can also purchase downloadable songs to game which also has a wide range of music but with the downloaded songs it doesn't just have rock music it has all types of music. Its better for everyone to appreciate the game if it has something more than just pure rock.
Well thats pretty much all I can give you of my knowledge of what i've played from Rock Band.
Thanks reading. Jim1845.
Summary: Basically Guitar Hero with drums and mic.