Preview

First of all, a little disclaimer will have to suffice before I continue on with this hands-on preview: I have never until yesterday had the chance to play a Rock Band game. On top of that I am a relatively novice player when it comes to rhythmic music games, therefore my report will reflect this.

On the 30th October EA and Harmonix held a press event on the upper floor of a cosy pub in east London, and me and some similarly inexperienced Rock Band enthusiasts got some playtime of the game in. The party was attended by Dan Teasdale, Lead Designer for both games, as well as PR member John Drake, who we also had a chance to sit down with later on in the day. Before that though, we decided to do our research on the new product and find out how the team have progressed since their Guitar Hero days (and the previous Rock Band.)

As I have been keen to make clear I have not played the original Rock Band, however I have played Guitar Hero games and I was interested in seeing how this more expansive game compares. Aside from the obvious difference and the main selling point of Rock Band - the inclusion of an extra guitar, drum kit and microphone for multiplayer cooperative fun - there were many differences in the presentation of the two games which were immediately apparent. Evidently Rock Band 2 has taken reference from current pop culture trends (particularly every aesthetic associated with the iPod and its ilk) as it is reservedly flamboyant in menu decals. Where Guitar Hero 3, especially, is obsessed with parodying the grungy rock concert atmosphere and reflects this accordingly with funny splash screens and wildly contrasting menu styles, Rock Band 2 is much cleaner, more consistent and casual friendly. Vivid coloured mosaics and flowery patterns adorn most menus and even during gameplay when power-ups and winning combo streaks are in action, whereas every song is accompanied by its CD/album cover thumbnail during selection. Songlists could be rearranged either alphabetically, by genre or decade, and you're even able to set up playlists so as to play a string of songs in whichever order you chose (I don't know if there was a limit to how many you could queue, but the menu showed at least 8 slots for songs so it's a reasonable amount.)

Gameplay wise, it's a fairly standard affair. Guitar plays almost exactly like Guitar Hero, with the same multicoloured notes flying down the screen and a "star power meter" you could build up by hitting special silver notes. As said earlier the indication of winning streaks and activated star powers are shown by stylish swirling patterns that adorn your score strip, which were very easy to see without intruding or obstructing what was going on (and certainly an improvement on Guitar Hero's slightly tacky "lightning shock" effect indicating the same thing during its gameplay.) Drums are the same in principal plus the addition of extra yellow bars that rhythmically have to be hit using the pedal. You also get lengthy segments during most songs on the drums where any notes can be hit in any order, likely the equivalent of the drawn-out notes on the guitar. I was not aware how easy it was to get the knack of playing the drums until I was thrown straight into the deep end on a song rated specially difficult on drums (each song is rated for difficulty both in general and on seperate instruments/roles) - after an admittedly lengthy blunder session at the start I was aware of myself getting into a quite comfortable stance and being looser with the sticks as the songs went on. I did find the drums themselves kept moving away from me as I was hitting them, so it would be nice if there was more weight to the base (or just stick something in front of them.)

Vocals are, as you'd expect, handled SingStar-style with the top of the screen dedicated to lyrics and pitch indicator. What appears to be new for Rock Band 2 is a little arrow to show you which way to alter your pitch should you be slightly off when hitting the vocals. Despite how blatantly obvious and redundant this sounds on paper, it is actually very useful when in the thick of it. There are also vocals which don't count to your score but are thrown in in case you want the opportunity to adlib your way through.

The in-game interface has remained almost unchanged from the original Rock Band, save for a few different colours here and there, but I was actually very impressed by how uncluttered and understandable everything was in spite of all the different things in coordination. The occasional indicator would pop up to brag about how in unison all the members of the band were, and bonus points awarded accordingly - meanwhile if somebody fell too low on the score and got booted out mid-song (ie any unlucky member in our team who was lumped with the drums as they took us ages to get to grips with) it would be up to the other members to "save" them via onscreen prompts - for guitars, tilting them in the same way as "Star Power" activates was supposed to do the trick, but none of us could do it satisfactorily enough to save our fallen teammate and we all failed. Oops!

Along with the normal Rock Band 2, Harmonix were demoing the AC/DC pack which is due out early December here in the UK (again, Xbox 360 first.) Sadly we weren't able to test this as the current build was quite buggy and had faltering sound so we had to resort to looking through the menu interface and guiding tutorials as our preview. This was much more in line with Guitar Hero presentation, with most of the menus being displayed on a tiny black-and-white TV in some nondescript motel room, alluding to a more downtrodden route through music gaming stardom. However everything was still impressively clear and easy to navigate and the tutorials were helpful (if sometimes slightly patronizing.)

Speaking further of presentation, in-game backdrops were grand and quite imaginative. The frame rate and screen filters were evidently a conciensous decision, while the stage animations and camera choreography were more interestingly conducted than the slightly canned ones in Guitar Hero 3. Venues were more interesting too, as one of the three I saw involved the band playing in the middle of a crowded doctor's surgery complete with whiteboards showing x-rays all along the walls. Thankfully nobody was actually performing an operation at the time, although if they were I could picture there being some rather macabre but humorous incidental animations going on. Maybe it's something for Harmonix to think about for future patches!

Asking further about the differences between the two, various sources told of a much more expanded Career Mode which can now be tackled singleplayer if liked (as opposed to the original which only allowed a minimum of 2 players) as well as online co-op modes. There are more unlockables and plenty of interesting items to purchase, from tattoos to place on your character avatar to a manager who will help ease your career woes in some way. Along with the 80+ songs in Rock Band 2 and further DLC, 63 songs from the original can be exported to be used in RB2 along with all the previous game's downloaded songs, making for a mammoth roster - however some people will no doubt be miffed at the news of expanding the series into differently-themed versions focusing on specific bands (such as the aforementioned AC/DC version). Also for those concerned about a (for lack of a better descriptor) gimped Wii version, Harmonix were clear to emphasise that it would be almost entirely feature full as it would have the ability to support the SD card for further storage - unfortunately this solution would not be enough for the more ambitious features that exist in the 360 version, but it's a massive improvement on the original port.

We did get time to sit down with Dan and John later on to talk further about Rock Band 2 (where we expand upon the points I've brought up in this preview regarding features and whatnot) and I will be presenting this to you on behalf of GameBrit soon enough.

Rock Band 2 is due out on Xbox 360 November 21st, and the PS3, PS2 and Wii versions are due "early next year" so sadly there will be no Christmas joy if you're after one of those versions. Nevertheless keep an eye out for it because it will no doubt be a popular Christmas treat for everybody to join in on, and almost definitely a worthy sequel to the original.