Hello There Ladies and Gents!

December 20, 2008 1:43 am Sir Haxington Games for Fun, Gaming

Those lyrics always get stuck in my head when I play Rock Band 2 for some reason.

Anyway, Rock Band 2 is the shizzle and I refuse to believe otherwise. Harmonix basically took Rock Band, added and fixed all the stuff I had issues with which basically makes this this perfect music game for me.

I didn’t get the new instruments. I think buying a new guitar or drum set with every iteration of the game is silly and wasteful. I’m still rockin’ the Guitar Hero II guitar, the OG Rock Band guitar (which sucks so the bassist always gets it) and the OG Rock Band drums. And they suit me just fine, especially since I had the pedal replaced after it snapped in the middle.

What did Harmonix really fix that makes RB2 that much better? Not a lot really, the first one was pretty good. The interface and UI is fixed up a lot so that it no longer annoying to select you dude (or dudete) and get a game started. They’ve basically fixed the most annoying part of Rock Band, which was the front end when playing with a group of drunk twenty and thirty somethings that have never played the game before.

The songs in RB2 I don’t think are nearly as good or memorable as RB1. I can only think of a handful of RB2 songs I actually play over and over, and I rely on DLC (No Doubt!) for most of my enjoyment out of the game.  “Down with the Sickness,” “You Oughta Know”, “Lump” and “Everlong” are some of the few tracks I like from the main set list. Other than that, I can’t think of many. “Cool For Cats”? Common, seriously?

I’m assuming the “No Fail” mode will be useful in the future, especially when under the influence with multiple people. Nothing kills the vibe more than failing out 90% of the way through “Dead or Alive” because someone wanted to show off on expert but was too drunk to get by.

Maybe I’m getting better at guitar, but it feels like expert guitar is much easier than it previously was. I have no problem now on most songs on expert, but I feel like if I went back to Guitar Hero II I’d get owned on hard. Actually, no, it feels like Harmonix left out the middle ground as far as difficulty goes. I can pass most songs with ease, except for crazy-ass solos, which usually only exist in heavy metal songs. I wish RB2 had an option to drop the difficulty in the middle of a set, and if you finish the set you get the lowest difficulty you’ve chosen awarded for completion as the penalty. I hate getting into a random set then getting to the final song, only to play “Ride the Lightning” at the end. I’ll fail, shut off my 360, and basically avoid that set list forever out of spite. If I failed but could opt a lower difficulty setting, even with the penalty, I’d keep playing.

The challenges are cool although I’ve been mainly on the world tour mode. At least I can play world tour mode with or without other people. And my character isn’t stuck being just a drummer now, he can be whatever he wants. Like I said, stuff I was like “Why didn’t they have this?” in RB1, and now it’s in RB2. Sweet!

There’s something magic about “music gaming” and I just love the way Harmonix has presented Rock Band 2. It’s one of my favorite games to play. With my time off off work now, I think I’ll go for that endless set list completion, on expert. Base of course. What the hell, do you think I’m going to get to the last few songs and have to play Metallica on expert guitar or drums and fail out? No thanks.