Rock Band 2
Posted By: James on Oct 12 2008

Harmonix returns to the stage not with a new show, but an encore. Fans spoke out with wallets like lighters held high. Rock Band would have been crazy to end the show right then, with the world rocking so hard. So Rock Band returned to the stage, but with the biggest and best hits out of the way could this star go on to wow us even more then before? In some ways, yes we could rock all night and party everyday and in others we should have left the show early just to get out of the parking lot easier.

What you are initially greeted with is a menu screen that looks quite similar to that of the original, but this hides what is a much more smoothly designed user interface. Loading times feel dramatically decreased when moving between sections of the game. The music menu adds album art and difficulty per band member, features that were much appreciated when the store launched. Much more logically, you can now create a character and it can play all instruments, this is a huge improvement for what was basically a huge oversight in the first Rock Band.

Other old features have been given a new coat of paint in hopes of making them more appealing. Chiefly, I am talking about World Tour Mode. For some reason, Harmonix still thinks that this is the heart of the game. It does feel more varied, with different people that will work for you to up your cash or fans earned per show. However, Rock Band really is just a party game and that means I want to play any of the songs I paid for whenever I want. How much longer must we endure locked content? It only forces songs that you cannot stand to be played time and again.

Speaking of songs you can't stand, Rock Band 2 does have some insufferable tunes that are not only difficult to listen to but are painful to play. It would seem that MTV simply had some songs that were really cheap, or already owned, and forced Harmonix to use them regardless of fun value. I cannot imagine that any of the rhythm game geniuses at Harmonix would have picked “Whatcha Want” by the Beastie Boys, for as much as I love Beastie Boys this track is absolutely boring for every band member involved. It really is a mixed bag this go around, one minute giving huge expressions of glee and then suddenly making one die a little inside.

Rock Band 2 offers those wanting to master the ever-elusive drums a very thorough training mode that could actually bring someone closer to understanding the actual instrument. The mode offers an amazing wealth of drum lines to practice and even teaches proper fills to play during the activation of star power. Other little features include a most bizarre method of calibrating the game, that I recommend looking up in greater detail to fully understand.

In all, Rock Band 2 is a user-friendly version of the first game with 85 new songs and an additional 20 that will be available for download at some unknown time. Combined with the songs of the original Rock Band, you have an overall amazing package, but with some things feeling really forced. All told, I feel that the original show wins out.