Most likely, Rock Band enthusiasts won’t be too heartbroken about the limited gamemodes. There’s still plenty to love with the core gameplay. Rock Band 4 is more about the basics and if you’ve taken a break from the franchise, now is as good of a time to come back as ever.
The coolest and easily the best new feature in Rock Band 4 has to be the guitar solos. In the middle of a song, guitar players will see a blue bar that indicates it’s their turn to shine. Players can smash buttons randomly or follow specific sequences for a major score boost. Even if you have no idea what you’re doing, the solos sound great — you can turn them off, too, if you want to hear the original version of the song.
Even with the guitar solo feature, there isn’t a whole lot of new stuff with the game. At launch, there isn’t online multiplayer which is a feature I enjoyed previously in the older Rock Band games. It’s like the franchise took out more than it added, which doesn’t help since the game’s asking price is so expensive.
That being said, this franchise is still the best local multiplayer game one could ask for. It’s just as fun to have all of your friends over, belt out on the microphone, or play a smooth bassline. The social aspect of this game reminded me why this franchise was so fun back in 2007.
Some of the songs featured on the disc are pretty boring, but luckily, you can transfer all of your old DLC. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent quite a bit of money bulking out your Rock Band soundtrack — so it’s nice to have all of those available to re-download. If you bought your Rock Band DLC on Xbox 360 your old songs will transfer to the Xbox One, same goes for PS3 to PS4.
It’s clear to see that Harmox is a developer that actually cares about their game, and they have gone on record saying they would add more modes in the future. It’ll be interesting to see what they add, hopefully some score attack modes for online multiplayer. The game is also getting weekly song DLC, which adds even more content to the massive library already available to purchase.
Even though Rock Band 4 is missing some features I would have liked to see, the game is still tremendously fun and will get you hooked again. The game is at its best when there are four people playing and the TV is turned up — otherwise, the game doesn’t justify the hefty price tag. If you plan on having your friends over to experience the game with you, it’s absolutely worth it — if not, this game might be better left off and unplugged.
Score: 3/5
Pros• Still one of the best local multiplayer games out there. • Guitar solos! | Cons• Story mode was bland. • Pretty expensive for the lack of features. |