Despite some minor flaws, Rock Band is a delightfully fun game.
Now, for all you people who don't love music so much as to blindly grab a game without knowing anything read onwards. Rock Band is a rhythm game where you in short: just have to hit the right notes at the right time. The game comes with 3 different instruments to do this with. The drums, the microphone and guitar are all very fun to play in their own rights. The game also allows anyone with a Guitar controller to play the Bass instead, which despite being incredibly dull is a great way to rack up points, however the game does not come with 2 guitars to have one Guitarist and one bassist so either buy another guitar controller or just use one from another Guitar Hero game. All the instruments are very different and if you listen to the song you can hear that you are drumming/shredding very close to the song. The Guitar is pretty much Guitar Hero, it has 5 fret buttons (which you have to press at the right time in coordination with strumming in order to play a note), a strummer, a whammy bar (which you push up and down on long notes to give them different sounds.) and solo buttons. The Solo buttons can be used normally with strumming but in Solos you can move down to them to play on them and you don't have to strum. Unrealistic, but it can help you a lot. In order to activate your 'overdrive' (which is just a power up to get the crowd going wild) you just have to move up the guitar or just smash the back button. The drums have four different pads and a kick pad. You have to kick the kick-pedal whenever an orange bar appears across the screen. When you have enough energy a 'drum fill' will show up which is where you just smash on the drums and try to end with a symbol crash. If you do, then you activate your overdrive. These controllers also both feature some normal buttons as well to navigate through menus and such. The Microphone is just a mic that you have to sing the words into at the right length and pitch. (Thankfully?) The mic doesn't record what words you're saying so you don't have to sing the right words and can just hum or meow along if you don't know the song. You also have to whack it to use it as a tambourine sometimes however if you don't hit these the crowd won't really care, you just won't get any points. While you're playing through a song and you miss some notes the crowd will not like it and 'boo' if you miss enough notes you'll get boo'd off the stage. If you're playing with a band though and they activate their overdrive you come back. However, when you're knocked out the rest of your band loses crowd love and you can only be saved twice. The more notes you get in a row the larger point multiplier you get so the more points you get. Depending on how many points you get, you get different 1-5 ratings.
The game has four different difficulty settings.
Easy: Which only uses the first 3 fret buttons on the guitar and less notes. Most drum patterns are very simple. Singing is not judged harshly so you can mess up a few notes and still get "Awesome" across the screen.
Medium: Which only uses the first 4 fret buttons on the guitar and not too many notes. Drum patterns are usually simple although it might take a while to get onto the pattern. Singing is judged normally.
Hard: Uses all 5 notes on the guitar, however doesn't use the last note too much. Drum patterns are close to the real deal, singing is judged critically.
Expert: Complicated note patterns show up on the guitar, sometimes using the last and first fret button together or 3 notes at a time (instead of 2 or 1 as in easier modes), Drumming is near identical to their real counterparts and singing is judged harshly.
The game features several different tour modes. Each tour on different instruments and then a Band world tour. In order to play on these you must make your character which you can deck out with items at the Rock store, which can be very fun sometimes. The in the solo tours you just play through all the songs, however, in Band World tour mode you make up your own band and go around the world getting everything a band essentially needs. The band World tour mode can be played with 2-4 different people, however you can also do it by yourself i you can sing while playing another instrument.
The songs in this game number 58, however 13 of those are from lesser known bands and some of them were made inside Harmonix. (The makers of the game). It spreads across many different genres and several songs are covers, but I can't tell the difference at all. The game also features over 70 different Downloadable songs which usually sell at $2 each.
The game looks great graphically and the art style is very realistic. All of the outfits are well-designed and are very 'Rock and Roll-esque'. Some animations in Solos are great.
Now, time to go to the inevitable problems with this game. The price of this game is around $170 and with all the instruments you get, its definitely reasonable. (The guitar hero 3 bundle with the guitar is $100. The Microphone and the Drums are definitely worth $70) however the kick-pedal isn't all too great. Mine broke 2 weeks into playing and I ordered a better custom made version off of Amazon for $20. If you plan on getting this game, I strongly suggest ordering one before you get the game so that its there just in case. I was able to duct tape up the Bass pedal but it doesn't register some notes and well...yeah.
The game features Online Play, but its only quick play, leader boards and such, normal stuff that the game has normally in Local Multiplayer and single player mode. However, it doesn't have the Band World tour mode online so if you don't have at least one person around to ROCK OUT with, the $170 might be better spent on Guitar Hero.
Despite these flaws, I'm giving this game a 9.0 out of 10 because it really is fun and you just get this magical feeling when you're playing in a band with your friends or even just playing the Guitar while singing. I've clocked in about 40 hours on this game and plan to clock in quite a few more as I still haven't beaten the Band World Tour mode.
So, end result:
If you can get a couple people together to play or just cough up enough money, Rock Band definitely warrants a purchase and shall be known as the best party game in history.