Review: Rock Band 2

Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 2

Harmonix / PS3, PS2, Wii, Xbox 360 / Teen

Reviewing games is usually a very insular process. You get the game, you lock yourself in a room with it, and you futz with it until you have an opinion and a bunch of talking points. The only place other people come into the equation is if your mom decides to bring you pizza rolls and ask why you haven’t gotten a “real” job. As pitiful as this seems the system usually works, but it hits a few snags with a game built from the ground up to start parties like, say, Rock Band 2.

So, being young, crazy, and surrounded by other people of the like, I decided to try and cram as many people as I could into m tiny dorm to do some of my futzing for me and collect information on how other people view a game I’ve turned into a private obsession. Luckily for my self-esteem, the consensus was “fun”.

Before we get to the group work, some technical observations from the “professional”:

1. The “talky parts” have been fixed, and by fixed I mean made so easy they’ve become meaningless. You can 100% Testify while ordering a pizza.
2. The drum trainer is genius, if you can’t get better by using it; you had no rhythm to begin with.
3. There are now drum solos, but there are only six of them and half of those are uninteresting or unchallenging. Oh well, no one likes a drum solo anyway.
4. The only change to the tried-and-true guitar gameplay is the addition of hammer-on/pull-off chords. If you know what that means you’ve already bought the game and are using this review as masturbation material.

But enough about me, lets get to the party.

As soon as I go the game home I opened our dorm-room door and started propositioning passers by like a Dutch prostitute in a red-light district window. Through my persistence I assembled an interesting group of players:

• Dan - Guitar Hero expert. Rumor has it he got so good by playing constantly while under house arrest
• Evan (from 511) – Came in drunk and insisted he could play Joker & The Thief on hard guitar (he couldn’t) then wandered off to race people through the lobby. Came by next day and apologized.
• Wes – Tobacco chewer who gave every instrument a shot. My mic has smelled funny ever since.
• Jimmy – Roommate from most racist town in the state. Insists he likes black people. Loves the Grateful Dead more that is reasonable for any non-stoner.
• Jacob – Other roommate. Only actually comes to room if he needs a place to sleep or has enough time to play a game of Madden between activities. Plays a mean medium bass.
• Red – Floor punching bag, butchered Black Hole Sun on vocals.
• Steve – Generally bewildered, played bass
• Kayla - Real singer from a musical family. Blazed through Maps on expert like they really don’t love him like she does. 
• Austin – Sometimes singer, super geek, responsible for fan-favorite drummer Protoman.
• Brittany – RA, said she would sing Livin’ on a Prayer then chickened out.
• Kelly – Wandered in, played a couple songs, wandered out, said it was cool. Probably stoned.
• Blake  – Good guitarist, better at Halo
• Kaitlin – Jimmy’s friend from different hall. Defies all the stereotypes about girl drummers.
• Krikor – Last roommate, talented violinist who holds 17 state weightlifting records. Yeah, you read that right.
• Big Scott - Also can sing, brought his own fancy-pants wireless guitar.
• Me – Jack-of-all-trades and the person in charge of the DLC choices. Can guitar and sing on hard if I want to show off.

Jimmy and I kicked things off by trying to unlock all the songs we could. We knew we had to grab potential party favorites like Down With The Sickness and Any Way You Want It, but I also wanted some personal favorites like Alex Chilton and Uncontrollable Urge available.

As we grinded our way through the tour to unlock all we could, there was a steady stream of interested faces by going by our door. No one actually tried to play they just stared. It was like being in a zoo, but with better music and less stink. Eventually we decided to give up the grind and start inviting the gawkers in.

The first visitor was Austin, who had played with us on Rock Band 1 before, and has real drumming experience from getting kicked out of a garage band for not being serious enough. Knowing we had a capable crew we kept touring for unlocks, but that would have to change soon.

Slowly other visitors entered until we had 8 people in our tiny 8×15 room. The core band finished the set and then motioned to the watchers to come forward, take up the instruments, and turn on the no fail mode for their shot. It was then that I finally got to rest my pipes as Red took up the mic for Black Hole Sun. 5 minutes and 35% later Red was off the mic and I was back on.

While some others had success with the vocals no one really had their 2001 monkey at the obelisk moment with the drums. Evan, Dan, Blake and Steve all tried with a too-stiff grip on the sticks and never got a hold of it. Wes got closer but almost broke my pedal. The non-experienced person who did the best was Jim’s study-buddy Katlin, who made her way through Simple Man on hard with few mishaps. Despite my own efforts to get everyone to try everything, it became a reoccurring theme that no one really wanted to stick anything out to get better; they just wanted to have fun.

And fun is what we had, with more people dropping in and out, usually on some form of guitar. We had the band experience I always dreamed of, and I got to sing Chop Suey more than I ever wanted.

Even when I wasn’t trying to draw people in I somehow managed to. I was minding my own business one night and doing some solo singing when Scott caught the sound of Master Exploder. We ended up playing ’till 2 am, not doing anything too intensive, just having fun.

It was like that for a few more days with some people coming in and dabbling, some spending serious time with it, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I got to feel like a gaming evangelist, bringing people into the fold. Then Jim broke the drumsticks and it was all over.

I may be using the word too much but dammit, we had fun, and that was what the game is all about. You don’t have to play on expert or work the heaviest metal songs over and over until you get the solo right. You just have to pick the level you have fun at, and a song that everybody knows and prance around like a rock star. Also, I have firsthand experience with the hardcore appeal the game has to offer.

As has been said many times before Harmonix is a group of musicians making games to create new musicians, or at least people who know a little more than when they started. Every week there’s either something fresh to dig into that I wouldn’t have listened to otherwise, or I get to learn the bassline I never noticed in a song I love.

For some it may be about the music, for some it may be about the multiplayer fun, some may even be drawn to the challenge of nightmarish songs like Painkiller. Whatever your calling Rock Band 2 has something for everyone… except, perhaps, people who really, really love Aerosmith.

9/10

by Zack Rovinsky