In the beginning, there were FreQuency and Amplitude. And they were good. Created by a small company in Boston, MA, these indie titles introduced me to a genre of entertainment largely ignored in North America: the rhythm game. It brought about my interest in electronic music and gave my then fledgling website (now dead and long buried) its very first video game developer interview. My partner in crime drove to Boston to see them and discuss their titles, and we pretty much knew right then that these guys were destined for big things.
A few years passed and a little title by the name of Guitar Hero was released by that same small studio, capturing the attention of… well, everyone. It was a logical progression in their line of games. After they were purchased by MTV Games, Harmonix further extended the concept and brought about the band game, Rock Band. There was clear room for improvement which lead to the quick sequel, Rock Band 2, and now two years after that, we have Rock Band 3. The question now is, where does Harmonix go from here? With the exception of perhaps a band specific title or some other larger track pack, Rock Band 3 is possibly the last band music game you’ll ever need to purchase.
I’m completely serious here; they’ve gone and thrown everything possible onto a single disc, legitimately removing the need for a Rock Band 4. Where competitor Neversoft has floundered with a lack of creativity and focused on strange things like a story mode, Harmonix has had a mission from the very beginning with Rock Band: they didn’t just want to make a game, they wanted to make a platform–and they have done so. Mission accomplished!
When you first fire up Rock Band 3, you may feel like I did: a bit disoriented. Instead of having a clear, focused mode to just jump into and go, you’ve got menu items like “Play Now” and “Career”, which sound an awful lot like QuickPlay and Story Mode; but that isn’t exactly the case. Neither is unimportant or better than the other. “Play Now” houses both quick “jump in and play” modes, as well as your actual rock tour progression mode where you travel around the world playing gigs and working your way up to rock super stardom through a series of Road Tour challenges. The Career mode, however, is a bit different. Here you’ve got tracking for your Rock Band-itude with specific goals set out, helping you be as focused or as scattered as you like. When I say track, it visualizes these predetermined goals for you in a sort of achievement system, but also allows you to play songs to specifically meet the necessary criteria at the press of a button.
The goals are ever present in the background no matter what you’re doing, so you can be working towards them in whatever game mode you’re playing. They’re also interestingly adaptive depending on what you’ve imported on your system. Prior to kicking off RB3, I had not “exported” anything from previous titles, but during the course of my playtime grabbed the contents of both Green Day: Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Specific goals for each of them appeared magically in the career view, and disc specific playlists were added to the Road Tour challenges. Pretty rad. Of course, songs off of these discs were also available wherever you looked for use. The only Rock-Band-branded title you can’t bring into Rock Band 3 is The Beatles: Rock Band.
I actually started out in the career section, working on the goals for the newest instrumental addition–the Keyboard–then hopped over to form my band and hit the road when I was comfortable enough with the ebony and ivories. Well, really just the ivories as I’m not yet proficient enough for Pro Keys mode. The Normal Keys mode utilizes only 5 of the 25 keys present in a way very similar to what we’ve all become accustomed to with the standard guitar, but with zero strumming and requiring more finger strength and precision. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’d hit two keys at once because I was just a bit off. Thanks, Rock Band 3, for reminding me how difficult real music is to play! The standard Keyboard is by Mad Catz, feels quite solid, will act as a legit MIDI controller, and–most importantly–accepts a strap so you can rock it as a keytar. You’ll be able to play any instrument with it as well, just in case the initial offering of Key-infused tracks isn’t holding your interest. I haven’t gotten a chance to touch the new pro guitar or pro drums, but RB3 supports them in an effort to transcend the “game” stigma by requiring real musical proficiency.
There are two points that I need to slap Harmonix on the knuckles for. First and foremost is the dastardly inclusion of surreptitiously titled DLC within your list of songs. They’re highlighted, but instead of being labeled as “BUY ME,” they just say “RECOMMENDED.” Even if you don’t have a huge catalog, you may not know all the songs you do have, so having one recommended to you by the game sounds great. That is until you try to add it and realize they’re actually trying to sell you stuff. Second is the repetition of canned animation and intros throughout the Road Tour. I saw the same bro throwing up the horns and sticking out his tongue, outside the same bar, many times all over the world. I know it’s not super important, but it’s noticeable and annoying.
So here we are, back to the beginning. Rock Band 3 has everything you’ve ever wanted in a band game. It’s both awesome and at the same time a fairly hard, solid stop for the band genre. Track packs and band specific titles withstanding, Harmonix has effectively painted themselves into corner and will likely need to jump out a window for their next title. Maybe that’s why former Rock Band senior designer Dan Teasdale hit the road so close to the ship date, or why Viacom just announced they were selling off Harmonix? Either way, you should totally buy Rock Band 3 because it’s the quintessential band game, with or without the new hardware.
5 out of 5
Originally posted at Evil Avatar.