Tal's Impressions
In addition to the tracks that have already been revealed -- "In Bloom" by Nirvana, Weezer's "Say it Ain't So," "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, and The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" -- we also had a chance to try out some other songs during our playtest.
As soon as they booted up the game, I literally belted out a triumphant "Hell yeah!" when I saw that Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" was listed on the main menu. This is a song I've been wanting since Guitar Hero came out two years ago. I always thought "Mississippi Queen" would make a fantastic playable track, and after getting some hands-on time with it, I can happily say I was correct. Mississippi Queen, you truly did teach me everything.
I took lead on "Mississippi Queen," playing guitar. This was the first time I had held the Strat-inspired Rock Band controller. It's a little bit larger than the Guitar Hero instruments, plus it feels and looks a little more realistic. I liked that the appearance of the buttons; they flowed into the natural wood color of the neck, with the only colors apparent on the top of the buttons so you can see them as you look down. In addition to the five buttons near the top of the headstock, there were five more buttons positioned close to the body of the guitar.
These work just like the other buttons during most of the song, but you can also use them during certain solo portions without having to pluck the flapper; like a hammer-on, you only have to hit the appropriate button at the right time with no strumming required. Both sets of buttons felt a little stiffer and less forgiving than the Guitar Hero guitar, though I should note that the guitars we played were just prototypes, and didn't necessarily represent the final action or mechanics. As a Harmonix rep told us, "We're still tweaking the guitars, so expect the final guitars to feel a little different than the prototype."
While playing, I noticed the guitar had a five-way toggle switch on it. When asked about that, a Harmonix rep said they were experimenting with the ability to switch on various effects over the guitar track such as reverb, delay, and phase using the toggle. However, at this early point it sounds like it will just be an audio effect and not actually play into the game in any way.
Swedish rockers The Hives make an appearance in Rock Band with "Main Offender," a song that was popular during our playtest since one of the foreign reporters present was from Sweden, and also dressed in full-on Hives all-white regalia. I don't know if he knew the song was in the game already or if that's just how everyone in Sweden dresses, but it was very fitting. I played bass on "Main Offender," which as you can imagine from playing Guitar Hero 2, is pretty much similar to guitar, only with fewer chords. The interface for both the guitar and bass are pretty much the same as Guitar Hero, so if you've ever played either the original or the sequel, you know what to expect.
I decided to take vocals on Bowie's "Suffragette City," with the IGN band in full effect. Not surprisingly, the interface is very similar to Karaoke Revolution, another Harmonix-developed game. In addition to your own voice, Harmonix has included the original vocals in the tracks, but at a much lower volume so as to not overpower. While singing may seem like a lonely affair when others are rocking out on their respective instruments during the solos and breaks, you can relive all of your Stevie Nicks dreams during sections of the track with no vocals as you'll have to tap along with the beat of the song -- sort of like a tambourine -- to keep your crowd meter up.
BOC is represented in Rock Band with their classic "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." Taking the drums on this one, this (along with "Mississippi Queen") was the song which made me wish there was a cowbell attachment for the drum set. After rocking all night, I've already decided I'm going to buy my own cow bell and affix it to the kit just to play along with the songs.
Playing the drums in Rock Band is similar to the guitar tracks -- just follow the beat and hit the correctly colored drum head. The drum kit itself is laid out with four pads in a slight semi-circle pattern on the stands. Naturally, they're not as heavy-duty as a real drum kit, but they were more substantial than I thought they would be. Being made of foam, they can really take a beating; I was playing with real drum sticks, and I'm not really known for my subtlety when it comes to pounding on things. The kit also comes with a kick pedal that simulates the bass drum, which is represented on the playing screen as a wide orange bar that fills up the full width of the drum track.
Although I play guitar in real life, I've never really put much time into the drums, so I waded in on easy difficulty. My confidence was soaring after getting 100% on the kiddie round, so I pumped up the difficulty to hard and tried it again. Whoops, my mistake! I kept dropping out of the band after failing (but keeping the beat going by tapping my drum sticks, of course). Luckily, if one person drops out of the game because they're doing poorly, the other players can "rescue" them by keeping up the groove, and I had to be saved quite a few times during my drum round on hard difficulty. There's just something about coordinating my feet with my hands that I haven't quite mastered yet, but that makes me want to play and practice even more. As a rep from Hamonix told us, "If you can play the drum parts on hard, you can pretty much play the drums."
"Say it Ain't So" and "Main Offender" are original cuts from the bands themselves, but even the covers sounded great and spot on, especially when everybody was keeping it together as a band. The overall band interface is laid out in a familiar manner with the drums, guitar, and bass tracks all scrolling in a vertical pattern similar to Guitar Hero, while the vocals scroll horizontally at the top of the screen. While this does block out most of the background band, to be honest I didn't really mind that because I never really pay attention to the background when I'm playing, anyway, as I'm too focused on the rhythm patterns.
All in all I had a blast playing Rock Band, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting more play time during E3. I have no doubt that this is going to be the ultimate party game, even if it will take up the entire living room.
Jeremy's Impressions
Tal covered a lot of the bases with his impressions up above and it paints a great picture in regards to how much fun Rock Band already is. I really like the Fender guitar's design and feel, and absolutely adore the drums -- with four pads, sticks, a kick pedal, and a size that's roughly 80% of the real thing, they're awesome! Plus, I find it absolutely amazing that drummers who play on the expert level are actually going to learn how to play a real musical instrument. How many other games out there can claim something like that? Not very many, I can tell you that much.
Anyhow, rather than rehash what Mr. Blevins has already said, I'm going to focus on some of the things we learned apart from the actual hands-on experience -- such as a number of new details that haven't been revealed before.
Take the interface shown in the inserted screenshots, for example. If you compare those to earlier images shown in magazines, you'll notice a slight difference in how they look. This is because the print shots were based on a version with an incomplete HUD. But as you can see, the vocal cue has been touched up a bit, the icons are less cluttered, and the scrolling tracks themselves have been given stylized detailing. It may seem trivial to some, but this extra polish helps the visuals in Rock Band pop put that much more.
Harmonix also revealed a bit about the various game modes. In addition to the basic "Tutorial" feature that you'd expect, there's also a "Practice Mode" that allows users to pull out any segment of a song to be played at whatever speed they want. "Solo Tour Mode" lets players pick a single instrument and hit the hitchhiker circuit for what's essentially a single-player career, while "Band World Tour" is undoubtedly the game's meatiest addition. In it, you'll be able to form your own band online (or off) and move from small town gigs all the way to stadium-sized locations while earning "fame and fortune" to get the stuff you need. Luckily, if any of those options sound too time-consuming for you, there's also a "Quickplay Mode" for easy single-song jamming.
Speaking of jamming to songs, MTV let us in on its plans for the various tracks -- the most impressive of which is a proposed 100+ downloadable tunes in the game's first year alone. As an added bonus, the EA/ MTV/ Harmonix trio is using its muscle and money to secure as many master tracks as possible. Of the eight announced songs so far, six of them are the original masters ("Won't Get Fooled Again" from The Who, "Suffragette City" from David Bowie, "Don't Fear the Reaper" from Blue Oyster Cult, "In Bloom" from Nirvana, "Main Offender" from The Hives, and "Say it Ain't So" from Weezer), with only two covers ("Mississippi Queen" from Mountain and "Paranoid" from Black Sabbath). Obviously, that's a pretty good ratio and Harmonix says that it will continue to go after originals songs wherever possible.
Another cool feature is the ability to create your own avatar. Using an in-depth character creation system, users can select their gender, face type, hair, body shape, tattoos, signature moves, and specialized instrument to create the rock god they feel best represents themselves. Once created, players can then do a range of fun little things like calling out the crowd (if they're a vocalist) during freestyle opportunities or perform drum and guitar solos during those same opportunities. Even better is the fact that you can save a bad band member who may have "failed out" of your current song by using one of those aforementioned signature moves -- it psyches up the audience and allows a laboring buddy to hop back into the action. You can even compete for a special points power-up known as "Unison Phrase" that rewards all four band members for playing perfectly. In other words, there's a lot of depth here.
And "deep" really is the best way to describe Rock Band. Its scope and gameplay options are incredibly impressive, and yet it remains highly accessible and undeniably fun. But what I want to know is, if we like it this much now, how much better is it going to be by the time it ships this Holiday? The potential answer is frightening.