Rock Band 4 Review

The Verdict

Rock Band 4 is, for the most part, exactly the game you remembered. Sure, there are some slight refinements and changes to mix it up a bit, but even if you're stuck in the old ways of Rock Band, you can recreate that experience exactly. That may or may not be a negative for you. If you're looking for an all new experience, Rock Band 4 doesn't really bring it. What it does bring, however, is the full band experience to current-gen consoles. If, like me, you've already parted with your last-gen consoles, and missed rocking out with your friends, then this release was a long time coming.

On one hand, those coming in from past Rock Band will ease right into the new game. All past DLC is there, legacy controller support is there, and a suite of customizable gameplay options make it one of the most user friendly rhythm games to date. However, for those that are investing in Rock Band 4 for the first time, will find a rather slim track list on disc, one that they'll certainly want to increase in size with DLC.

The Positives

• Harmonix is all about giving us a new experience without demanding a crazy investment, and even more shelf space for plastic instruments. If you own any of the previous instruments, they are fully compatible with Rock Band 4 (though for Xbox One you'll need a legacy adapter). This is a great feature for those who spent a lot of money on the series before, and just want the core game to continue playing.

• Even old accessories like the Cymbal Kit will work on the new RB drums, meaning you can immediately go into Pro Drums once you hook those bad boys up.

• The 65 songs included on disc are certainly varied. While a majority is sadly not my cup of tea, I can't deny that it's still a positive. You'll get everything from The Cure and Rush, to Paramore and Fall Out Boy, to Bruno Mars.

• The new freeform guitar solos are fun, and can genuinely sound good, assuming you have someone with even a speck of musical talent playing. It's all based on the timing of your strums, how many notes your holding down, and what side of the neck you're playing on. You can also opt to turn these off and play the actual solos.

• There's also a fun mode where you can play entire songs in freeform solo mode. Oddly enough, I've been able to create some cool sounding melodies. Again, having a musical inclination will yield better results.

• On the flipside, drums now don't include free-form drum solos, and are instead dynamically fed in, which means you'll have a different sounding fill each time. However, you can always opt to turn the classic drum fills back on.

• Vocals are now appropriately scored not only based on singing the song as it was intended, but also by letting vocalists free-form their vocals, albeit staying in the right key and harmonies.

• In short, Rock Band 4 allows you to play how you want, without many limitations, making this easily one of the most customizable Rock Band experiences to date.

• Your old DLC works! This was pretty remarkable, and damn good on Harmonix for making something like this work. Granted, you won't be able to jump from say an Xbox 360 and transfer your purchases to the PS4 version, but making the console jump from Xbox 360 to Xbox One, and likewise from PS3 to PS4, most of your DLC is intact and ready to be played.

• The campaign can be a fun diversion, and puts a spin on the experience by giving you the choice between two separate paths during various parts. While they're largely superficial, those that like a little touch of RPG in their rhythm game will appreciate this.

The Negatives

• Unless you have a really loud sound system and tolerant neighbors, or perhaps a decent pair of headphones, the clacking of the drum will always be louder than the game itself. This is a shame since drumming can often feel much more satisfying and closer to actually playing the song, but the immersion is quickly lost when all you hear is *clack* *clack* *clack* *clack* *clack*

• Playing for a high score. As someone who is quite good at rhythm games like Rock Band, there is nothing more infuriating than having the game tell you that you missed a button press, when you know for a fact you've pressed it, and in time with the music no less! I'm not sure whether it's a fault of the controller, fault of bad syncing, or perhaps, truly my fault, but I found that once I started playing for fun and stopped chasing five stars, the experience got a lot better.

• The above point goes double for the drums. I've never trusted any of the previous drum sets to completely pick up every hit, and sadly this one doesn't do much to put those fears to rest. The fact that notes slide by and don't register on screen, despite me actually hitting the corresponding drums is a big letdown.

• Not as fun playing on your own. Rock Band is meant to be played with friends. It's a great party game, there's no denying that. Solo artists should look elsewhere.

• While the freeform guitar solos are awesome, they seem to have a delayed response when trying to switch from strumming quickly to slowly. It always seems like the change occurs one beat after you actually start strumming differently. I've conditioned myself to start the strum one beat ahead now so it changes when it's supposed to, but I shouldn't have had to in the first place.

• My enjoyment of the experience stemmed out of using my old DLC. The song list, while varied, didn't completely speak to me. I didn't start completely loving it until the servers went live and allowed me to re-download all my previous purchases. That's not a good sign.

• Speaking of re-downloading, this is more of an issue with purchases jumping between console generations, at least according to Harmonix, but getting all your old songs back again is a hassle. There is no batch download that simply recognizes everything you own, nor is there a filter that lets you scrolls through already purchased songs. Instead, you have to scroll through the entire list of songs, and redownload them one by one.

• The song list is actually quite smaller compared to previous Rock Band releases. Rock Band 2 had 84 songs on disc, and Rock Band 3 had 83. That's almost 20 songs less in Rock Band 4. Granted, having existing DLC fixes this, but it's slim pickings for newcomers to Rock Band 4.

• Speaking of older Rock Band games, songs from Rock Band 1 and 2 don't seem to be available for download from the store. That also seems like a big oversight especially for those that have previously claimed and exported both Rock Band 1 and 2 songs to Rock Band 3.

• I'm not sure if this is a pre-release issue that will be patched up, but ever since the servers went live, and we were able to redownload our old songs, the game would freeze on many occasions. The silver lining was that it didn't happen during songs, but rather after. On a single day we were able to count five game crashes.

• No standalone guitars until 2016. That's a real bummer. I was absolutely ready to dish out another $50 or so on an extra guitar but sadly my band must remain without a bassist until then.

It almost feels like 2007 again, when Rock Band was a newcomer and offered the first true, full band experience, while Guitar Hero stuck to its guns for the next year, until giving in and doing the same. It's 2015 though, and Rock Band 4 is hitting store shelves, once again being the only full band experience while Guitar Hero is going back to its roots with a focus on just guitars. The question is, was the world ready for another rhythm game revolution?

Rock Band 4 is once again all about you forming the best cover band known to man, creating your caricatured band of misfits, and traveling the world in pursuit of fame and money. This time though, you have a say in your band's destiny. Will you choose to buy a van to help you with traveling to different venues, or do you choose the sleezy band manager who can guarantee you more money.

So the stage is set, and now Rock Band 4 can take the spotlight. Let's take a look at what makes the game great, what falls short, and our final verdict.

The Positives / The Negatives

The Verdict