Played on:
Xbox 360
It's time to get out your cheap plastic instruments again, folks, and tear up the charts with some great new songs with Harmonix' Rock Band 2. Of course, many people playing the first never stopped due to the weekly additions of new tracks, but with the release of the sequel, we're getting a huge infusion of songs to play and some great new features that will make playing the game either alone or in a group easier than ever. The focus is even more on the music than before, so get three of your buddies and set aside a few days to take on the latest tracks.
Rock Band 2 doesn't change the formula - it just tweaks it. The first game showed us a vision of the "right" way to play a music game, where four people got together to all play cooperatively, and RB2 tries to perfect the formula while giving us a great selection of new tracks. It's easier to play alone, it's easier to play with friends, and it's also easier to compete against others as a band. Mix in a slick new visual style, the same on-screen antics by the band members and plenty more convenience in the way of setting up controllers and band members and simply playing the game, and I think you'll find that your original Rock Band disc will have become completely obsolete.
That's also due in part to the patch for the original game that allows you to export the original Rock Band tracks to your hard drive for play in Rock Band 2 - the charge is a one-time fee of $5 for re-licensing those tracks, and it's well worth it to be able to take those original tracks and mix them in with your downloaded music (all of which works in Rock Band 2, including the stuff sold under the first game many months ago) and the new stuff that is offered in this release. All told, the Rock Band series, according to Harmonix, will have 500 songs available to play by the end of this year, and all will be playable in RB2.
And that's really where Harmonix has differentiated themselves from Activision and their upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. Sure, the new GH has some cool instruments and also reproduces a whole band playing with guitar, bass, drums, and mic, and hell, they even have real musicians like Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Corgan represented in-game with motion capture, but put simply, Rock Band 2 is all about playing a huge range of music with your friends. Rock Band 2's music is made up of 100% master tracks, although Harmonix has gone on the record saying that we may still get less-desirable covers in future downloadable tracks.
The new tour mode still has the same basic setup as before, where you'll play single songs or sets of them at various venues around the world - many of them are real-life places - and get as many fans and stars and money as you can to get to better and better arenas. You'll also be able to hire staff, some of which are really just a way to force you to finish a specific challenge before you can move up, but on the way you'll get a choice of managers each with their own perks, a merchandising girl, a sound guy, roadies, a bus, eventually a plane, and more on your way to the hall of fame. Playing in this mode is way more fun than before, as you'll have much more in the way of choice of what songs to play than in Rock Band. You still won't be able to veto that one RB2 song you absolutely loathe (and don't get me wrong, the track selection in this game is just as fun as last time, but everyone will still find at least a half-dozen songs to hate) but you will be able to mix in your tracks from the first game if you exported them as well as any new downloaded songs.
As with the first game, I have found a few tracks to be a surprise in just how fun they are to play. Foo Fighters' "Everlong", Nirvana's "Drain You", and System of a Down's "Chop Suey" are all tracks I expected to be pretty good, but they are just a blast - and our impromptu band which has been revolving in and out of the house since Sunday still hasn't unlocked every track, but the absolute best has to be "Master Exploder" by Tenacious D for just ridiculous fun. Still, even when everyone else has gone home I can keep working on the band's progress, because this time you can play your band in their world tour while solo. You won't be able to compete in the fixed challenges that have been added or compete in the daily Battle of the Band competitions (where your band competes with those on your friends list to get the best score on one of several challenges changed out by Harmonix every few days - and once you top your friends list, you start competing with the rest of the world), but playing alone still winds up being much more fun than just going methodically through a list of songs like the first Rock Band and every Guitar Hero game so far.
