Rock Band 4 isn’t a reboot, or a restart, or even a direct sequel. Rather, it’s a relocation – a migration of the brand across generations. We want to start by saying this: our review is of what comes on the disc. Rock Band 4 intends to be a platform, an iteration, a game kept alive by the DLC and services it will put out at, apparently, regular intervals. Right now, that’s a relief.
Because what comes on the disc is a step back from Rock Band 3.
We’ll take the defences Harmonix has put out when it comes to stripping away Pro-mode – this is meant to be a party game, a fun game, a simple game. Pro mode wasn’t any of that, fair enough – we can deal with the loss. But there are some other missing elements that feel odd… we went back to Rock Band 3 as we were reviewing 4 to compare and contrast, and 3 just felt fuller.
For a game that wants you to live out the fantasy of being a rock god, we were actually disappointed by the lack of customisation options when held against previous games. Small details (gloves, shoes, tattoos etc) are missing – gone entirely – and that made us ponder. It’s superficial, sure, but all part of the experience. This sort of feeds into the lack of online play – we’re certain that’ll come in down the line, but not being able to make a true version of yourself and play with true versions of friends… on the PS4/Xbox One, you’d have almost thought that was a given.
At least, then, the core mechanics are in place. The main gameplay of this series hasn’t changed at all from what you’ll drunkenly remember playing with your friends some five years ago. If anything, it’s better, actually – we prefer the instruments, the vocal detection is vastly improved over Rock Band 3, and even the note lanes and gem effects themselves come across much nicer. Graphically, the cartoon style still disappoints compared to console competition, but the art direction works really well (and who’s looking at the graphics when they play Rock Band, anyway?).
The big new changes to the game come in the form of ‘solo’ sections on guitar, and custom fills on drums, as well as the ability to ‘improvise’ lyrics as long as you’re in the same key/range as the original. These parts deviate from how Rock Band typically scores you, meaning you can just have fun with those sections and really go for it… in theory. Think about the score-chasers, though, the players that gun for the leaderboard peaks: these custom fills and solos score differently, and require a whole new meta to sufficiently ‘beat’.
It’s messed leaderboards up for now, and whilst we’re sure that’ll get fixed, you can’t deny a large part of the Rock Band audience was in it for that arcade score-chasing action. Still, these features are fun, and have been applied to some legacy content, too; playing Outfield’s Your Love and figuring out how to make a solo to fit that Eighties pop-rock vibe was very satisfying… especially when our drummer came in with a fill that rounded it all off perfectly.
It’s reassuring at least that the ‘campaign’ portion of the game – the world tour – remains so good. There’s an incredibly basic choice system under-pinning the whole thing, and as long as you continue to play the setlists and shows the countries of the world want, you’ll earn all the limited customisation items in no time. This RPG flavour helps you feel more in control of your band’s fate, but the lack of in-depth customisation, once again, stings (making your own symbols or creating your own stand-ins would have been very welcome).
The pre-made characters you can have as stand-ins when there aren’t four players aren’t bad… but they’re not yours. It’s one of those elements of depth that may not be adding anything to the core experience of playing tracks and rocking out with your friends, but it would have given Rock Band 4 some richness. Some of the ownership of the rock fantasy is missing, but not entirely lost.
Keeping the band together is easier than ever now, at least: between songs, you’re given the option to vote for what comes next. This happens either in ‘Party’ play mode, or at certain points during career mode. While this can help in general progression-related things, it seems to have come at the expense of making your own custom setlists… something we can’t defend. That was a staple part of Rock Band 3, and if you’re playing through over 1,000 songs in your DLC bank, you don’t want to be selecting ‘Play a long Metal Song’ and just hoping it turns out to be Iron Maiden, right?
Our gripes about the game’s seemingly random cuts aside, we can’t deny this is the best party game available on the new consoles. It’s rhythm action done right, as it always has been, and despite some bizarre step-backs in terms of functionality, Harmonix and Mad Catz have done a phenomenal job in setting up the Rock Band platform for this generation. The instruments are better than ever, the responsiveness of the game is excellent, the range of content available and on the way is superb. What’s on the disc leaves a little to be desired, but it’s a solid platform from which something better can be built. We just hope – really hope – that Harmonix keeps iterating upon it.