Hands-on with Rock Band 4

I’m walking away from a hands-on event for Rock Band 4 in two minds. Actually no, that’s wrong, I’m very much of one mind, but I’m approaching it from two different sides: Rock Band 4 feels exactly the same as the old games, and that’s both good and bad.

On the one hand it’s instantly familiar to anyone who played Rock Band or Guitar Hero when they were at their peak. You and some friends each pick an instrument, choose a track and play, tapping buttons as their respective colours appear on screen. It’s exactly what you would expect but that doesn’t make it any less fun, and it says a lot about the pick-up-and-play nature of the game that four strangers can make up a band and play on a stage in front of 30 of their colleagues, with only a little karaoke-esque level of embarrassment.

As fun as it is though, while playing, there was a constant niggle at the back of my mind: why would anybody play this over an older version that you could pick up a lot cheaper? Although I didn’t get a huge amount of time to play, watching the screen as others did, showed a little improvement in graphics, slightly better crowds and sharper notes, but nothing major. This probably wasn’t helped by Harmonix bringing older equipment to demo the game with – guitars from Rock Band 2 and 3, the drum kit from the Beatles edition – so the promised improved peripherals couldn’t be tested.

That old peripherals can be used with the new game speaks volumes about Harmonix’s approach here – Rock Band 4 is for people that already know they enjoy these types of games. Still have your old kit? Then you can happily just pick up the new game and off you go, with previous DLC being brought across as well (in the same console family at least). It may be the ‘same’ game, but it’ll be the very best version of it.

We were told about a few gameplay tweaks though, which could be interesting. Harmonix are keen to let you express yourself more this time around, with more improvisation, particularly in the vocals. It means you’ll no longer need to try and emulate the original band exactly.

Another new feature will be a voting system, where band members can each vote for what to play next, whether it’s a choice of a song, a genre or even an era. Its aim is to shorten the down-time between songs, and make it feel like you really are playing a proper gig.

If you quietly drifted away from music-games but are tempted back then Rock Band 4 could be the game for you. Its vast DLC library – upwards of 1,500 songs – means you’ll be able to tailor your track list straight out of the gate, and because it is basically the same as always, casual players won’t have to learn a new skill set to join in. If you played the old games to death however, and can play every song perfectly on expert, then this might be a harder sell. With Guitar Hero Live striking out in a different direction, will the same old gameplay be enough?