Rock Band 3 Review

Rock band is one of those games that seem to get better throughout the series, RB1 was a great entry into the music game scene, with a varied and sometimes unique set list, simple yet addictive gameplay and a great DLC store with hundreds of titles to choose from to bolster your in game music collection. Rock Band 2 took everything that was great about its predecessor and made subtle changes and improvements and was a successful sequel.

Fast forward 2 years and here we are with a new Rock Band entry. Along with the expected set list changes and some graphical additions what else has changed?
Well core gameplay remains the same in the most part, you (by yourself or with friends) pick up the mic/guitar/drums and play along to a series of songs, each increasing in difficulty and becoming more and more tricky to play. If you can succeed in making it through the songs relatively unscathed then your band progresses in its career and goes from playing in the local crap club to headlining concerts on the big stage in front of thousands of adoring fans.

Adding to the fun this time round however is a series of new instruments and modes to accompany these additions. Most notable of these new inclusions is the keyboard. Now you too can rock out to the likes of Elton John and Queen, with your 25 key keyboard!
The keyboard is also MIDI compatible allowing you to use it outside of the game adding some value for money for those who wish to use it elsewhere. Whilst not all songs are keyboard compatible it does give a lot of scope for songs to be added that you wouldn't have necessarily expected to see in a Rock Band game. The down side to this peripheral, is that any of the songs you have purchased from the RB in game shop previously and songs that have been imported from the previous games will not work with the keyboard but hopefully as time goes on you should begin to see more compatible songs being offered as DLC.

Another addition to the games instruments are the pro guitars. The Pro Mustang guitar by Mad Catz offers you a more realistic experience. With just over 100 buttons on it, this is the peripheral for those fed up of the usual 5 coloured buttons and a strum bar set up. Instead of your usual 5 coloured buttons, you have to use actual frets and strum on actual strings making the game far more challenging, something which I am sure the expert guitar players of previous RB games will love. Again, adding to the value for money factor is the ability to use the guitar elsewhere as it is MIDI compatible. A second guitar controller is due for release in March of next year produced by legendary guitar maker Fender and modelled after the famous Squire Stratocaster, this one will feature just strings, no coloured buttons and no fret buttons which is about as realistic as a fake guitar can get.

Along with these new instruments comes new game modes to accompany them. Pro Guitar, Pro Keyboard and Pro Drums ramp the difficulty up a notch on the scale and provide an extra layer of challenge and fun to the game, especially if you are one that likes to master songs on the top difficulty and fancies something new.

This doesn't mean however that the game cannot be enjoyed equally as well by using the standard instruments as it is just as much fun as it always has been so there is no pressure to go out and get yourself a 100 button guitar and struggle in order to get the most from the game. Rock Band is about having fun and enjoying the game alone or with friends; this can be done just as well with ye olde faithful 5 buttoned, strum bar guitars and older instruments.

As previously mentioned, your overall aim of the game is to make it big in the music biz. Before, this was done by progressing you through a map, go here, play song list, gain admiration, move on, lather rinse repeat. This time around things have changed, goodbye to the world map and hello to challenges, lots and lots of challenges. These can be completed at any time during the course of the game and completing each challenge gives you experience points and fans, which in turn allows you to level up your band making them more and more popular.

These challenges are set into the entire game, meaning that you no longer have to complete a career as a vocalist, then embark on a new career as a bassist you can do any of the challenges at any time meaning you can chop and change between instruments as you wish.

There are even some road tours which allow you to pick between 3 different set lists per venue, this is great as it gives you an option of what you would like to play, for example you could have a choice between 80's classic rock, 90's pop or random set lists so if you don't like the sound of the ones the game wants you to do you can just pit your luck on the random factor and hope for the best. Unfortunately this doesn't always go well. I was audibly raped at 4 consecutive gigs by the B-53's Rock Lobster, which very nearly made me loose the will to live but that is what you open yourself up to when you choose random, I guess. With these road tour gigs, you are asked to complete extra challenges which see you co-operating with fellow band mates or just going for the highest score you can. These really add a lot of fun to the game as it gives you something to aim for besides just finish the song, it can create some comedy moments with your band mates also especially when co-operating in challenges such as one person complete a specific part then its passed to the next member to complete the next part.

Rock Band 3 also offers a huge amount of character customisation for those who want to ensure their rock icon looks the part as well as sounds it. You can change hairstyles, hair colour, clothes, accessories, tattoos and countless other aspects of your characters appearance at any time using the large amount of unlockable items you obtain throughout playing the game.

Graphically Rock Band 3 isn't anything hugely different from its predecessor, but there's not a lot of revamping that actually needs to be done. Different back drops and effects have been added so its a little more varied when playing a gig but to be honest, many of these are actually very distracting and some even epilepsy attack inducing with flashing lights and weird spinney effects, some of which I would even consider detrimental to gameplay.

Overall, Rock Band 3 has a lot of new content to offer, it isn't just a rehash of the previous games in the series. The new instruments make the game more challenging but they don't detract from the experience for those wanting to use the standard equipment. RB3 is a great game for solo play but it's even better for group play. A must for fans of the series and rhythm game enthusiasts alike.