Risin’ Up To The Challenge Of Our Rival: Rock Band 2 Review

Alright, at least we’re not as late as we were with Rock Band. Truth be told, I’ve been having a lot of fun with Rock Band 2, and now that it’s out on all major consoles, and is even breaking new ground on the Wii by opening up the SD slot, it’s a good time to tell you what we think.

So, is it better than its predecessor? I’d say it is. There’s a healthy combination of the same ol’ stuff that made the original so fun to play along with a lengthy list of tweaks, and yeah, more DLC that is piling up into something entirely unmanageable! If you haven’t already, find out why you should consider the upgrade.

Read our impressions of Rock Band 2 after the jump.

If you happened to read our coverage of the original Rock Band, you’ll recall that my only complaint was the visual presebtation. Unfortunately not much has changed here (and it’s unlikely that it ever will), but it’s the music that’s important, right? Fortunately, my problem with the team’s graphical approach is the only complaint I can really levy against Rock Band 2, which means that you’re going to get a more refined version of the same great game this time around.

I suppose I’m still not the biggest fan of the career mode. It’s not the fault of Harmonix here, but rather my lack of patience. I hate unlocking songs. However, I did enjoy the truly “random” 2-track sets in the World Tour Mode (which is now playable via single player), as they often introduced me to new songs from the playlist that I may have otherwise never bothered to check out. Even more, for those who were fans of some of the unique challenges that were thrown at you in the original Rock Band, they return here in the form of a band manager who offers unique challenges to players seemingly at random in the World Tour Mode. This was a nice feature that kept the gameplay experience fresh, and earns your band extra cash and a bigger fan base in the process.

So, how’s the all-important set list? Not only are there a ton of new tracks in Rock Band 2 (84, to be exact), including some of my favorites like Survivor’s “Eye of the Tigger” and “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit (yeah, make fun of me if you’d like), but you can also import the playlist from the first Rock Band for a small fee of $4.99. This ensures that you’ll have lots of songs to play with your friends, even if you never manage to tackle the massive online catalogue of downloadable tracks, and prevents you having to swap discs to play the songs from the first game. A very sweet addition for sure.

I also enjoyed the tweaks to the song selection screen that displays the difficulty for each instrument on a given song. For example, a song might have a very challenging guitar section, but an easy drum part, which makes it much easier to gauge what difficulty to select to ensure your band doesn’t fail prematurely. All of these additions have made the game even more fun to play in groups, as that’s the primary setting in which I play Rock Band.

Yet another addition and one that people seemed to be really excited about is the Battle of the Bands mode. This allows players to take part in global challenges for the chance to win fame and glory atop a worldwide leader board that is posted for each unique challenge. These change frequently, and are pretty cool if you’re any good at the game. Unfortunately I’m not. I admit I’m pretty lazy when it comes to taking Rock Band online outside of purchasing music, but I know there are some competitive people out there who will love this.

So yeah, I’m being brief here, but it’s because I feel the game is just as good, and even slightly better than the original game which I already wrote extensively about. you’re not going to get anything groundbreaking (it was actually less than a year between the release of Rock Band and Rock Band 2), but at least they didn’t make the game worse with uneccessary changes. This game rocks parties, and brings people in who were never gamers to begin with, and it’s not even a casual game! While I still have no idea what to do with my plastic peripherals when I’m not playing the game, I still enjoy it a whole lot, and recommend Rock Band 2 to anyone who loved the original or wants to get a (late) start delving into the rhythm game genre.

What did you think of Rock Band 2? Did it hold its ground against Guitar Hero: World Tour?