Review - The Beatles: Rock Band
Few games have been as highly anticipated or hyped as much in the mainstream and game press alike as The Beatles: Rock Band. It seems that everywhere you look, someone is writing about it: The New York Times, USA Today and even the local papers were getting in on the action. So can a game with this much power and press behind it live up to the hype? In a word... yes.
The Beatles: Rock Band (TB:RB) is much more than just another Rock Band title. It's an homage to one of the greatest bands of all time, a history lesson and scrapbook as well as a complete blast to play. The time, care and love put into the making of this game is obvious in everything from the song selection and accompanying videos, to the excellently crafted cut scenes. Aside from playing the songs themselves, in many cases, the cut scenes are some of the best parts of the game.
TB:RB story mode has the same basic skeleton as previous titles in the series. The game is split up into various levels that you unlock by playing songs that get progressively more difficult as you go. However, unlike Rock Band and Rock Band 2, you do not get to create your own characters, purchase clothes and items and increase your fame. Instead, you are taken on a tour of the Beatles' long career starting with their humble beginnings at the Cavern Club in their home town of Liverpool and ending at their famed last concert atop Apple Studios in London. Along the way there are stops ant the groups' many famous appearances including the set of the Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium, the studios at Abbey Road and others. As the locations change, so do the character models of the Beatles themselves, going from their clean cut "mop top" boyhood days to the long haired, bearded men they would become at the end of the group's career.
One of the challenges the Harmonix team had in coming up with locales for the band to perform in was the fact that in 1966 the band stopped touring and went exclusively to studio recording. Harmonix knew that players would eventually tire of the studio surroundings and want to see something new so they brought in the "Dreamscapes." These psychedelic scenarios not only provided a way to break free of the studio walls, but also to reflect the bands discovery of the mind altering drugs of the late sixties. The Dreamscapes are visually stunning and at times a bit distracting, especially when you're playing that particularly tough riff but really want to watch the swirling colors of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or blooming flowers of Sgt. Pepper's. This is one of the reasons TB:RB is a terrific game to play with a group. Getting a chance to watch the game being played is often just as fascinating as playing it yourself.
The evolution of TB:RB also brings about some new gameplay elements: most interestingly, it introduces two and three part harmonies. You may think you know the Beatles' tunes, but trying to sing the harmonies may make you feel differently. You realize exactly how complex their music really is when trying to score the double and triple "Fabs" you can get if you hit the harmonies just right. This also allows for additional players to join in making your band contain up to six people or if you're really tricky, you can play and sing at the same time.
Some pre-existing elements of the Rock Band formula have been changed to suit the Beatles format. For instance Star Power is now known as Beatlemania. I also noticed that while using the whammy bar does accelerate your score, it does not actually effect the music in an effort to keep the original music exactly intact. Another twist to the formula are Chapter Challenges which require you to perform all the songs in a particular level back to back to win.
There have also been some overall improvements to the general Rock Band gameplay introduced in this version. Lefty Mode and No Fail Mode are now easily accessible right from the band member choice screen. No more backing all the way out or hitting pause in the middle of a song to access these features. In a nice move for group play, anyone choosing Easy mode automatically has No Fail applied. This is a godsend for more experienced players who want the challenge of possible failure while playing with new players who don't want to be discouraged from playing the game. Also, a vocal harmony trainer and drum trainer are built into the game for getting your songs just right and helping newer players get into the groove.
I mentioned earlier the scrapbook and history lesson aspects of the game. These come in the form of collectible photographs that can be earned by three- and five-starring the various songs. Earning three stars will net you one image and five stars will give you two. In most cases these are rare photos, many of which have never been seen before the launch of TB:RB. After scoring the photos, you can go into a gallery to view them and each one is accompanied by a paragraph of text telling a bit of the history that goes along with the image. Special photos are unlocked for completing whole levels and for collecting certain numbers of photos. Additionally there are special unlockable videos to view and each of the Abbey Road Studio load screens contain rare outtakes of the guys noodling around and talking in the studio.
I have now played TB:RB with quite a few people who have never had an interest in video games or Rock Band up until now. Every single one of them had a fantastic time playing the game, which speaks volumes about the power of the Beatles' music and Harmonix's success in pulling off what at one time seemed impossible. Everyone who worked on this game (and there's a lot of them) put in 110% and in some cases much more - and it shows. TB:RB has set the bar extremely high for future Rock Band games and rhythm games in general. After all, how can you top the Beatles? I don't know, but I can't wait to see what Harmonix has up their collective sleeves next. If it's even half as good as The Beatles: Rock Band, it will be a phenomenal success.
10 out of 10
Help support GayGamer by buying The Beatles: Rock Band from our Amazon store!
Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Reviews, Video Games on 8 September 2009
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: apple studios, beatles rock band, ea, harmonix, mtv games, ps3, xbox 360
Good review. I picked this up at a midnight release and it is every bit as fun and beautiful as I had hoped.
I really love the instruments in this particular set.So i will definitely give this a go, once i save enough money for it.