Vocals, guitar, drums, and bass. What more do I need to say? Most of us will never come closer to playing in an actual band than we will while playing Rock Band. Rock Band takes everything that was great about playing Guitar Hero (namely, the guitar controller) adds in two more ways to rise to rock and roll stardom (microphone, drums) and lets you do all of those at one time (with friends and online) to create your own rock and roll band. Rock Band is the first game by Harmonix since the split with Red Octane after making Guitar Hero II and it is clear that the Harmonix team had all of the creative talent. Rock Band features an excellent soundtrack, the best yet to be seen in a game of this type and promises to offer weekly downloadable content to keep the game from getting old. The soundtrack features a good collection of songs from all over the rock spectrum from metal to punk to good old rock'n'roll and there isn't a song in the game that is not a blast to play. The controllers are simple to use, making it easy for anyone to jump in an rock out; and they are made very well and all feel sturdy and well put-together. Rock Band is clearly a game that is MEANT to be played with friends because the solo career mode just isn't as good as the co-op band world tour mode. The solo career is the same sort of linear song progression that is you have played any of the Guitar Hero games, you will be well familiar with. The band world tour mode however is an all new experience, is really fun to play, and adds a sort of band comradery in that you want to encourage you band mates to perform better or move up to higher difficulties to help out the band. In the band world tour mode, you create a band, create your members (from 2-4 players, you always need the leader to play), and choose a home city. Your home city is where you will begin the game, playing at small clubs and building a fan base until you can get an agent, score some record deals, and before you know it you'll be rocking out at huge arenas. The online mode is a tad disappointing in that it doesn't have an online band world tour mode, but you can still play co-op songs online with players from around the world. All together, Rock Band is an experience that all music lovers will enjoy, is easy for anyone to get involved in, a blast to play, and without a doubt the best game to come out this year. Check out my top ten games to come out in 2007 blog to see the other games from 2007 that I recommend you play.
As soon as I got home from EB Games, I excitedly opened the packaging to Rock Band. After a brief setup, I hopped on LIVE. I was then flooded with messages reading something like "dude, is it seriously worth $170?" So, t... Read Full Review
Understand right up front that I'm approaching this review from a somewhat different angle then the vast majority. For one thing, I have never used any of the actual Rock Band peripherals, and I have not played one singl... Read Full Review
