First Impressions: Rock Band 2

Filed under: , , by: Grundy the Man


Over the past few weeks I have been saving up all of my spare dimes and nickels in anticipation for the release of Rock Band 2. Unfortunately, with everything else going on around here, the spare scratch hasn't been laying around... that was until yesterday. After counting up all the money I needed, I stomped down to the local Wal-Mart. Like a kid picking out the puppy from the pet store window, tentatively asked the clerk for a copy of Rock Band 2. You should have seen the look on her face when she saw my gallon sized bag full of spare change. If looks could kill...

Well, to make a long story short, I was barely able to drag myself into work this morning. I was red-eyed and unshaven from a long night of rocking out, which inspired one of my co-workers to ask if I had been on a bender for the last week. My response? "Na, I've just been playing Rock Band 2." He grinned knowingly, nodded, and went back to his work.

After numerous hours locked in my man-cave over the weekend, I have come to the realization that I have no longer have any desire to play the original Rock Band tracks. The set list is a mind numbing 80+ tracks of pure rock goodness. There has not been a single song that I have played that has left me longing for the Rock Band of old. To top it all off, "Eye of The Tiger" is the first track in the career mode, which made me feel like a rock god from the first downbeat.

Another area of improvement is the inclusion of an online band tour. While I have not yet tried it, I am looking forward to rocking out with my friends from across the country. Also gone are the days of failing songs while playing at a party full of drunks. The No-Fail mode is the addition that the I have been begging for since the first installment.

Note charts in Rock Band 2 seem to follow the same approach as the original. On expert there is a huge gap between the easiest and most difficult song. There is nothing worse then coming from an easy track, to a song that can induce carpel tunnel syndrome in a single measure. Fortunately, my wife has been anchoring my lackluster performance on Expert lead guitar with her steady performance on bass.

Well, needless to say, I plan on dedicating a ton of time to this game in the weeks to come. You can expect to see my full review in a couple of weeks.

Check out the trailer for Rock Band 2 below:

1 comments:

On November 26, 2023 at 10:37 PM , Wandering Journal said...

Great blog you have hhere