With all the DLC, and cool features, this is the only music game franchise you'll ever need. Period.
Most of my review will be comparing the Rock Band franchise with Guitar Hero as Rock Revolution is not up to par with these franchises, and what other games are really comparable with these anyway? Let me also state that the company that invented Guitar Hero, Harmonix, is the maker of Rock Band. A lot of people think that Rock Band is a rip off of Guitar Hero, and that is not true because Harmonix invented Guitar Hero, and left after making Guitar Hero 2 with Red Octane, to go make a full band game. Hope that sheds some light on that situation about RB "ripping off" GH. Also, most of the developers for Harmonix are also great musicians, and even have some of their bands in the RB games. Bang Camaro and Freezepop, are a few bands and there are more as well. I think the fact that they are musicians is why some of the charts for songs that are in both RB and GH are charted better, and more realistically.
GAMEPLAY FEATURES & FUNCTIONALITY:
The first thing you will notice about Rock Band 2 is that the game comes with a ton of great songs already on the disc, and are all very diverse. Guitar Hero does too, but more often than not, they put a lot of for lack of a better word, "weird" songs in their games like spanish and other foreign songs, that could have been more familiar radio hits instead of just filler. I am not totally against foreign music as I have downloaded some great foreign tracks for Rock Band like Tokio Hotel, and H.I.M., but come on, there is just way too much in the GH franchise that isn't even in english.
You will also notice that the charts are compromised as rectangles instead of circles, which can take some getting used to if you've only played GH. This requires you to be very precise, and really doesn't let you get away with much like the GH franchise does in many instances. For example if you don't believe me, go play both the RB version of Metallica's "Battery", then the GH: Metallica version on expert and you will have a MUCH different experience. This is because of the timing window the two games give you to hit the buttons. The chart being different isn't the main factor. RB makes you hit them in a very narrow time frame, while GH gives you a lot more time to hit them. This is why most people that are die hard GH fans aren't as good at Rock Band. The fact that the chart is rectangles and not circles, is also a factor, but not as big as the time window factor.
Another great feature is the ability to switch your effects on the fly, and when you activate overdrive mode, it really gives the game a lot of flare. These effects are for the guitar and bass, and include chorus, flanger, echo, distortion, and wah. You can even take your drum pedal and hook it to your guitar to control the "wah" effect. This feature is absent in GH. The series could do well with something like this after so many iterations. They have finally caught up with RB though in one way, which allows you to keep collecting star power when you already have it engaged.
I have to mention real quick that the bass is much different here. In GH now, they added open notes where you strum your controller without pressing any buttons, and this is very, very, confusing for bass players in GH. Every Rock Band title never does this to you, and they have you strum buttons just like the guitar. I almost forgot to mention that. That was another game breaker for my GH experience. I hated how they changed the bass, there was nothing wrong with it. I have to say that is probably one of the reasons they added the new mode to GH that lets people play any combinations of instruments. For example you can have 4 of each instrument going at the same time in Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero. I think this helps, as nobody wants to play bass anymore in GH. I like that new feature for GH, but I miss the bass being the way it was.
Now it's solo time. The solo mode is awesome and switches to a blue screen when it's time to play it. When this occurs your effect that you have set will automatically activate, and you can play them normal or use the solo buttons with an official RB guitar. This feature is one of my favorites, and gives you it's own percentage rating when the solos are over. I do give GH some credit though, with their new slide feature which lets you just press buttons when they are a certain color. I did like that. I also like the party play feature in GH.
Overdrive activation is another big difference. For the guitar and bass, you lift your guitar up just like GH. For the drums though, they simplified the activation by letting you do a custom drum fill before activating overdrive with a green symbol hit. This is so much better than having to randomly hit two drums at the same time in GH which usually messes up your combo/percentage, and makes it harder in the GH series for everyone to activate star power at the same time. It's just so much easier for the entire band to activate overdrive at the same time, which results in the highest scores in RB because of this. Just wait for the rainbow drum fill, then as soon as the drummer finishes his fill with the green symbol crash, everybody activate. Simplicity rules, and I can't thank Harmonix enough for putting that drum fill feature in. It's so much fun to add your own twist to songs.
CUSTOMIZATION:
This game has a few great ways to customize your experience. First off you can create your own rocker. There are some faces and body types to choose from, as well as clothing and hairstyles. You later get to buy accessories and instruments that you let you customize your experience even further. You could spend a very long time giving your rocker custom tatoos, designs for shirts, and instruments.
Then there is the create your own band feature that is just totally awesome. You pick your band name, location, and members, then start on your world tour which is very excellent. After that you can make your own custom band logo, which I recommend putting some time into since you can use your band online, and everyone can see it, along with all your cool custom rockers and instruments. These features are very good, and I always find myself making new characters and bands. The money feature is very well done as well, and money let's you buy clothing, hairstyles, and more instruments.
The fanbase feature is cool as well. You can gain millions of fans by playing gigs. It should be noted that fans gained offline and online are not the same fan bases, and will be different numbers.
DOWNLOADBLE CONTENT FOR THE SUPER WIN:
This is where the game totally owns all of it's competition. Guitar Hero can't even compare to Rock Band in any way here. At the end of the day this is a music game remember, and the DLC available is what makes the game so great on top of the disc songs being amazing as well. There are over a 1000 songs available for download, as well as FULL ALBUMS. Some amazing albums include: Foo Fighters, "The Color and the Shape", Rush's "Moving Pictures", The Cars debut album, Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik, No Doubt's greatest hits, and two Megadeth albums ("Rust in Peace" and "Peace Sells"), just to name a few of the many that are available. There is something for everyone here. Think of a genre of music and it's here. Classic rock, metal, emo, alternative, pop, nu-metal, and thrash metal, are just a few. Country music has also made it's way into their amazing catologue of music recently. There are even Rap songs coming out, as Snoop Dogg has already been confirmed as one artist that wants to be in the game's DLC library. The Rock Band Store comes out with an average of 9 songs a week compared to Guitar Hero's 3 or so. Most of GH's DLC lately is also stuff that has already been in RB for a while as well.
ROCK BAND NETWORK DLC AS WELL:
It should also be noted that currently for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band 2 there is seperate DLC from the recently added Rock Band Network. The RBN consists of bands that chart their own music, or have another professional chart songs for them, then add them to the RBN library. The RBN is growing every single day, and they add new songs to it all the time. They already have over 200 songs just from it, aside from the official releases from the default Rock Band Store. This is really where unknown bands can step up and show off their songs, and I love it. The RBN isn't just about unknown bands though as there are some really popular artist's songs available too. Steve Vai, Third Eye Blind, Drowning Pool, are some off the top of my head. Other bands that have officially announced partnership with the RBN and will have songs available soon are: Smashing Pumpkins, Creed, Evanescence, and tons of others. This is only going to get better and better. Everytime I check the RBN there are three more songs available each day so far.
You can also import all the songs from Rock Band 1, Lego Rock Band, and even the track packs that are in the store for purchase. There is only one tiny exception there being that from the first RB you can't export 3 songs. These include "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, and "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. The first two songs I mentioned were covers anyway. This is nowhere near as bad like the misleading GH franchise which says you can import the songs from GH: World Tour and Smash Hits into GH: 5. That isn't even close to accurate. Once I saw that you could only import about 1/3 of the songs from each game into Guitar Hero 5, that totally bummed me out, and was a major factor in me trading them all in.
GRAPHICS:
The game's look is one of my favorite things, and the way they got all the animations right is mind blowing sometimes. It really looks like these avatars are really singing, and playing these instruments. The stage lights, explosions, and locations all look fantastic. Everything here is superb.
SOUND:
It's a music game, and it sounds like music. I can tell you that the songs all sound really good, and the overdrive effects sound awesome like I mentioned before. Also there is a drum practice mode, that let's you play along with songs already on your hard drive. There are six "drum sets" to use by hitting the back button on your drum's control panel while in this mode that all sound great and realistic. My favorite is the "trashy" kit. Basically, the game sounds fantastic, as it should being a music game and all.
FINAL WORD:
This is the best music game experience to be had, because of the DLC that's already available, and all of the DLC that's coming out every week. I can't tell you how exciting it is to look at the announcements on the Rock Band forums each Friday, to see what's coming out the following Tuesday. It's amazing to me all the great songs and albums that are already out, and how much fun the game is to play, especially with friends at your home, or on Xbox Live or PSN. I wanted to do a review like this because I know some consumers have a hard time choosing between RB and GH. I'm not going to completely trash GH, as I have had a lot of fun with many of their games, but I feel like RB is expanding into something much bigger. I think Harmonix got everything right with this franchise, and having EA and Viacom (MTV,VH1) on their side really helps them put out great DLC. Harmonix created Guitar Hero, and moved on with the first full band game, and the best.
I thank everyone who has read this, and all my other in depth reviews. Now if you'll excuse me, my friends are waiting for me to play some Rock Band 2.
Until next time.
-badron11