I see the settled dust upon the tools of my former glory, thick and heavy after being left dormant for far too long. In my hands I hold their reawakening in the form of a Blu-Ray disc, my friends and former members of the greatest rock band the world had ever known stood beside me. As we passed around our instruments and prepared for our reunion tour, we laughed, reminisced about times gone by, and made sure that our plastic companions would not fail us when the time came for us to rock the house down.
As the lights came up on us, we stood there triumphant with the crowd going wild for us. The time had come for us to return and it had been long overdue.
Rock Band 4 recaptures the party atmosphere, thrill, and unrivalled fun of music games from last generation. When the genre finally drove itself into the ground in 2010 things went quiet for almost five years and now the reunion tour has come about.
Whilst Guitar Hero was certainly the more popular music series of last generation, Rock Band was perhaps the most refined with the best list of songs available thanks to the ability to import the previous songs library and DLC into the next game. Rock Band 4 does an ambitious job of not only importing every song from 11 previous Rock Band games and all of their DLC, but also supporting backwards compatibility for Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and select third party instruments provided you play on the same console family as last generation (Xbox 360 to Xbox One, or PS3 to PS4). This was one hell of an ambitious undertaking by Harmonix and Mad Catz and on announcement it seemed clear that Rock Band 4 would provide not only the biggest and best songlist in any music game ever, but also be the more value for money option compared to Guitar Hero Live. But value for money doesn't always mean better.
The gameplay to Rock Band 4 will be immediately familiar to anyone who played a music game last generation. Five coloured notes scroll down the middle of the screen, hit them in time to the music to play the song, build up points, and rock the world. There is no deviation from the usual formula in Rock Band 4. This works both to the games favour and to it's disadvantage.
It certainly gives the game a nostalgic feel, a pick up and play from where you left off attitude. It's like saying that despite the series being gone for 5 years that it never really left at all, and now it's back to carry on from where it left off. It's all about getting friends together and having a great jam session in your living room to some amazing songs. But because it doesn't add anything new, in fact it actually strips back a lot of features from previous entries, it almost feels a last generation title. It feels like I'm playing a stripped down version of Rock Band 3 and though RB3 is a fantastic game, I certainly didn't spend £55RRP (which is a joke in of itself) to play a game I've owned for 5 years on a new console with less features on it.
That being said; Rock Band 4 offers up refinement instead of innovation. Instead of doing anything new, it delivers the same experience as before but with mechanics that have been refined that much further. When compared to every music game of last generation, Rock Band 4 puts all of them to shame in terms of how well it plays. It is music game perfection from a gameplay standpoint. The controller latency is almost zero, the sound is crisp and as clear as it could ever be, the menu's are simplified, the game never drops a frame no matter how long you play it for. This is the music game we all know and love performing as well as it ever will do, I doubt we will ever see last generations formula ever done better than this. Though these compliments certainly don't extend any further than the gameplay.
As the lights came up on us, we stood there triumphant with the crowd going wild for us. The time had come for us to return and it had been long overdue.
Rock Band 4 recaptures the party atmosphere, thrill, and unrivalled fun of music games from last generation. When the genre finally drove itself into the ground in 2010 things went quiet for almost five years and now the reunion tour has come about.
Whilst Guitar Hero was certainly the more popular music series of last generation, Rock Band was perhaps the most refined with the best list of songs available thanks to the ability to import the previous songs library and DLC into the next game. Rock Band 4 does an ambitious job of not only importing every song from 11 previous Rock Band games and all of their DLC, but also supporting backwards compatibility for Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and select third party instruments provided you play on the same console family as last generation (Xbox 360 to Xbox One, or PS3 to PS4). This was one hell of an ambitious undertaking by Harmonix and Mad Catz and on announcement it seemed clear that Rock Band 4 would provide not only the biggest and best songlist in any music game ever, but also be the more value for money option compared to Guitar Hero Live. But value for money doesn't always mean better.
The gameplay to Rock Band 4 will be immediately familiar to anyone who played a music game last generation. Five coloured notes scroll down the middle of the screen, hit them in time to the music to play the song, build up points, and rock the world. There is no deviation from the usual formula in Rock Band 4. This works both to the games favour and to it's disadvantage.
It certainly gives the game a nostalgic feel, a pick up and play from where you left off attitude. It's like saying that despite the series being gone for 5 years that it never really left at all, and now it's back to carry on from where it left off. It's all about getting friends together and having a great jam session in your living room to some amazing songs. But because it doesn't add anything new, in fact it actually strips back a lot of features from previous entries, it almost feels a last generation title. It feels like I'm playing a stripped down version of Rock Band 3 and though RB3 is a fantastic game, I certainly didn't spend £55RRP (which is a joke in of itself) to play a game I've owned for 5 years on a new console with less features on it.
That being said; Rock Band 4 offers up refinement instead of innovation. Instead of doing anything new, it delivers the same experience as before but with mechanics that have been refined that much further. When compared to every music game of last generation, Rock Band 4 puts all of them to shame in terms of how well it plays. It is music game perfection from a gameplay standpoint. The controller latency is almost zero, the sound is crisp and as clear as it could ever be, the menu's are simplified, the game never drops a frame no matter how long you play it for. This is the music game we all know and love performing as well as it ever will do, I doubt we will ever see last generations formula ever done better than this. Though these compliments certainly don't extend any further than the gameplay.
The base Rock Band 4 songlist sucks major ass. Most of them are songs from previous Rock Band games and the ones that aren't are from bands you are likely to have never heard of. You have perhaps two well known songs that weren't in previous games. Yes okay well known doesn't mean good I understand that, but most of these lesser known songs I will never play again in my life. They just aren't that good. It's easily one of the worst out of the box songlists I have ever seen in the history of music rhythm games. So if you can''t import your songs over from previous games for whatever reason (trust me, the process is long, complicated and unlikely to work) you are stuck with a game where that you will literally only play once if you manage to see it through to the end...what kind of party game is that?
Then we move onto the visuals. There is no visible improvement from Rock Band 3, which is pretty much a slap in the face for gamers. This game could easily have run on the PS3 and 360 yet it is exclusive to next generation with a outrageous price tag attached to it. I understand that the low fidelity graphics help the game run so smoothly, yet that doesn't make up for the fact that it looks horrible. The Rock Band games were never exactly good looking games before but after 5 years of age it really starts to show. The band customization options are also extremely limited. I had a choice of 3 outfits for my character and the only customisation I could give to my band was the name. I can't change the appearance of the other band members unless other players join me and the band members seem to change on a song by song basis ruining all kind of flow or immersion.
There is also no online play at all. So it's either solo play or local multiplayer and that's it.
Rock Band 4 seemed to be pulling all the right moves when it was first announced. The sheer amount of songs and the backwards compatible instruments were enough to get any music game fan salivating. But on release it just seems a bit like an unfinished mess. The song importing doesn't work that well, and unless you bought the previous games on release and downloaded specific DLC for them you won't be eligible for it anyway. The stripped back features mean that there is literally nothing to do besides play songs in solo or multiplayer, the story is relegated to bits of text before playing songs, and the songlist on disc is awful.
It may have perfected gameplay from last generation and if you can get the songs to import it definitely has the largest songlist of any music game ever, but when push comes to shove Rock Band 4 just can't hack it in today's world.
Then we move onto the visuals. There is no visible improvement from Rock Band 3, which is pretty much a slap in the face for gamers. This game could easily have run on the PS3 and 360 yet it is exclusive to next generation with a outrageous price tag attached to it. I understand that the low fidelity graphics help the game run so smoothly, yet that doesn't make up for the fact that it looks horrible. The Rock Band games were never exactly good looking games before but after 5 years of age it really starts to show. The band customization options are also extremely limited. I had a choice of 3 outfits for my character and the only customisation I could give to my band was the name. I can't change the appearance of the other band members unless other players join me and the band members seem to change on a song by song basis ruining all kind of flow or immersion.
There is also no online play at all. So it's either solo play or local multiplayer and that's it.
Rock Band 4 seemed to be pulling all the right moves when it was first announced. The sheer amount of songs and the backwards compatible instruments were enough to get any music game fan salivating. But on release it just seems a bit like an unfinished mess. The song importing doesn't work that well, and unless you bought the previous games on release and downloaded specific DLC for them you won't be eligible for it anyway. The stripped back features mean that there is literally nothing to do besides play songs in solo or multiplayer, the story is relegated to bits of text before playing songs, and the songlist on disc is awful.
It may have perfected gameplay from last generation and if you can get the songs to import it definitely has the largest songlist of any music game ever, but when push comes to shove Rock Band 4 just can't hack it in today's world.
STORY: 1/10
GAMEPLAY: 5/10
PRESENTATION: 3/10
LIFESPAN: 4/10
SCORE: 3/10
Perhaps the reunion tour should have been pushed back a year or two to work out the kinks.