Posted by Panda Jenkins on 1 Jan 2010, 10:54pm.

I waited over a year for Rock Band to finally hit our shores here in New Zealand, though it was definitely worth it. Rock Band 2 sadly had the same thing happen to it, it released over a year after it came out in the US (despite Rock Band: The Beatles coming out on time here). Once again the wait was completely worth it and it definitely proves to be a worthwhile improvement over its predecessor.

Obviously the set list is the most important part to a rhythm game, and Rock Band 2 has one hell of a set list. The first Rock Band had some criticisms in its set list. Some people thought it was too easy, there was a lot of not very well known songs, and so forth. Rock Band 2 proves to fix these complaints. For a start, there is still a range of easy songs, but also there is a ton of quite challenging songs towards the end, especially for every instrument. Also Rock Band 2 has a bigger range of well known and famous songs. While playing, it is easy to recognize songs from the lists or otherwise start playing a song only to think to yourself 'I know this song!'. It makes it much easier to get into the game, and enjoy it more. The set list can get much, much better though. If you own either Rock Band 1, Rock Band: AC/DC or Lego Rock Band then you can have the privilege of exporting songs from the games to your hard drive and play them on Rock Band 2. However you can only export songs after buying a Rock Band license (I know this works for at least Rock Band 1, it seems that Lego and AC/DC may be different), which is cheap and fairly understandable why it must be purchased. Rock Band: The Beatles cannot have songs exported due to other reasons. After exporting I had 67 songs from Rock Band 1, and the new 84 tracks from Rock Band 2 making quite a large set list. The fun doesen't stop there however, for those familiar with Rock Band you will know that Harmonix release new tracks every week as DLC which can be purchased over Xbox Live or the Playstation Network. As of now there is over 1000 tracks that can be bought which range over many genre's and decades. In other words, depending on how much money you put into the game, the more amazing your set list can be.



The World Tour mode from the first game is back and is now called the Improved World Tour, but it is barely different. You still go to the same locations, the layout is exactly the same, this time it just has the tracks from Rock Band 2 instead. There is a few small added things though. For one, your band no longer has a Band leader which was a frustration in the first game due to being forced to always have that player present on a certain instrument. That brings up another frustration that has been removed, and that is now you character can play any instrument. In the actual World Tour mode, you can now hire staff which they all have different requirements. Each gives you a different bonus, and some have risks involved. They just make it easier to boost certain things you may be trying to focus on at certain times. Also sometimes you will get offered a chance to do a music video, which you play a song chosen for you but it has its own special video which makes it feel awesome to play.

There is two added feature modes to the World Tour mode. For a start there is no longer the linear single player tour modes, but there is now a special challenge mode. The challenges are fun to play by yourself, but you can also play them with a band if you please. This just adds to making an experience which can be suited for single-player and multi-player. The challenges have several levels, which reach to the 'impossible' standard. There is a huge range of them too which all have multiple songs to complete. Some of the challenges are instrument specific and must have someone playing the instrument in the band (or if by yourself must be played by you). Some of them have special themes such as 'The 80's, or are songs only by a specific band. What is great is that there is also challenges which relate to songs exported from the other Rock Band games, not to mention challenges that relate to DLC.

The other feature mode is called 'Battle of the Bands'. The Battle of the Bands challenges can be accessed from the World Tour menu or from in the actual World Tour mode. These challenges only last for about a week and are submitted weekly by employees of Harmonix. The challenges can be instrument specific, song specific (and relate to songs from any Rock Band game or DLC). The choices are all made by the person who submits them. The whole point of the mode is to compete for the best online score for your band, and compete with other bands from all over the world. This adds a fun online element of competing as bands. Mentioning online, in Rock Band 2 you can now play World Tour as a band over the internet, which no longer forces you to only be able to play it locally. The other online elements such as Tug of War are still present as well.



Visually, the game isn't that different from the first. This isn't exactly bad, but in some ways it also isn't surprising due to the fact that DLC works with both Rock Band 1 & 2, meaning the same kind of animations and such must be used. All of the same customization features from the first still seem to be present, so if you want to make the same character you had in the first, you can. Though there is some added lists of clothes and other various items to make customization even better than before. Also when going through the set list there is much better organization. Different groups are labeled well and outlined very clearly and there is easier ways to skip through the lists as well. Also depending on what way you are looking through the set list, there is album artwork which I thought was a nice touch.

In my opinion, Rock Band 2 is the ideal Rhythm game on the market to date. Having a well made party experience, deep character customization, a massively expansive set list, several online activities, and plenty of different modes, this is one hell of a package. This game should keep you busy for a long time, and is a lot of fun when you have friends or family to play with. Also with the Rock Band Network releasing sometime this year, the experience should become even better with future updates.

 Rock Band 2, Xbox 360, PS3, Review