Review: Rock Band 2 still rocks

September 23, 5:14 PMVideo Game ExaminerQuibian Salazar-Moreno

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When it comes to the music games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or even Dance Dance Revolution, it’s all about the track list. The success of any given music game depends on its track list, followed by the game play. So how’s the music in Rock Band 2?

The music is definitely the best part. With the game you get 84 new songs, most of them master tracks from the original artists. Classic rock cuts from AC/DC, Metallica, Modest Mouse, Rage Against the Machone and countless others come with the game including the new Guns N Roses single, “Shackler’s Revenge.” Plus the game also allows you to upload all the songs from the original Rock Band and Harmonix announced that sometime this fall they will be giving away 20 free songs for Rock Band 2. Then you’ll have continual downloadable songs for the life of the game. You really can’t beat that.

Not much has changed in the game play, except that the game is a bit more challenging. But even though the parts for guitar, bass and drums (which has its own training mode this time) have been tweaked to make them fuller, the vocals portion has also been tinkered with to make it a bit easier on your singer.

World Tour is still pretty much the same but with a couple of new venues. You can still create characters (you can change clothes now too!). You can play through solo or with a group of friends. And you can make money plus gain adoring fans. You also have the ability to make your own set list, choosing what songs you want to play, instead of having to exit out to the menu to play a particular song. And for the newbies, there’s a “No fail” option that you can turn on. No matter how sorry you are on a particular song, the “No fail” option still lets you finish it.

One of the biggest additions to Rock Band 2 however, is the ability to play through World Tour online by joining someone’s band or letting them join yours. There’s also Tour Challenges where you can play difficult songs either solo or with your friends on Xbox Live and get compared to other bands who participated in the challenge. Another online mode is Battle of the Bands where you can go head-to-head against other bands around the world to see who can bang the hardest.

Overall, Rock Band 2 is a definite must have game for any music game fans. There’s tons of music, you can play the game four different ways (vocals, guitar, bass, and drums), and then you can take it online and battle friends or strangers. In other words, it’ll keep you busy for hours.

Q’s Rating: 5 out of 5

Game Revolution: A-

Game Chronicles: 10 out of 10
 

Check out the trailer: