Rock Band 4 review: For Those About to Rock, We Salute You!

It's been years since the original plastic instrument era ended. Eventually, the games stopped coming and the DLC releases soon followed. Fast-forward to 2015, where Harmonix wasn't quite ready to hang up its instruments. And just months later, the comeback tour has begun with Rock Band 4.

1, 2, 3, 4!

The first thing to note about Rock Band 4 is that it goes back to the basic idea of just getting together with friends and having fun. In its later days, the series was more wrapped up with overly complicated mechanics or trying to create pro musicians. That's all well and good, but what made Rock Band so enjoyable was its pick-up-and-play element. That atmosphere returns fully intact, right down to the ability to drop in and out in mid-song.

On that note, one of the newest mechanics involves freestyle solos on guitar. On the surface, this looks fairly intimidating, since it introduces several new patterns to recognize. Fortunately, the game starts off with a detailed tutorial and it is highly recommended to guitar players of all skill levels. The tutorial explains the new system succinctly and in a straightforward manner, making it not only easy to pick up but also spelling it out in such a way that it's easy to communicate to a friend.

The one downside of freestyle solos is that it can be disruptive to score chasers. While solos encourage all-out freedom, the game does penalize users by breaking any streak for not following the freestyle patterns. To Rock Band 4's credit, however, this change is not forced on users at all. In fact, this feature can simply be turned off in favor of the old note-tracked solos.

Hitting "Shuffle"

Part of the joy of the previous Rock Band games was discovering new music, but even after a while, it was easy to just settle back into a pattern of just playing a handful of the same songs. Rock Band 4's new Shows mode changes the formula to include a degree of randomness. Players can start with a song selection of their choice, but as a show goes on, band members will be prompted to select from a multiple choice list of categories. They can include a song from a particular year, band, genre, or other random choices. After a selection is made, the game will pull up a random song from that category. It's a good way to throw more songs into a playlist and give bands a chance to discover music they might not have heard before.

Shows are also integrated into the standard Rock Band Tour mode, offering up the same voting system upon hitting various tour spots. The Tour mode also throws in another wrinkle, encouraging bands to change up their initial choices by taking fan requests. The option to walk away is also present, but the crowd will occasionally demand encores, offering up a chance to earn fans or cash good towards instruments or clothes. It's a fun way to mix up the old formula and keep sessions feeling fresh.

Dusting Off the Old Collection

Part of what's making Rock Band 4 such an appealing option for those that own previous games in the series is its support of legacy DLC. Unfortunately, the rollout of previous songs hasn't gone smoothly at all. As noted late last week, the process of recovering old songs is a cumbersome one, requiring users to access the first-party digital stores to download each track one at a time. There are some major issues to be found here, since there's no easy way to organize song searches or sort out which tracks have already been downloaded. While that's mainly a first-party issue, it doesn't help that the in-game shop isn't prepared to make this process easier, only pointing players to bundles that can't be re-downloaded, since old tracks must be pulled up individually. Worse yet, certain songs, even when already purchased for previous-generation Rock Band games, are still showing up as full priced items. This is something that is expected to be sorted out over time, but there's no ignoring that it is a huge launch day issue.

This also puts the kibosh on exporting on-disc tracks from previous Rock Band games to Rock Band 4 for the time being, but that's another conversation entirely.

So how about the DLC tracks that do work? Those actually do go a long way towards helping enhance the overall experience and fit into the interfaces seamlessly. All DLC tracks get integrated into the Shows and the voting system, offering immense variety. Other new mechanics, like the freestyle guitar and vocal solos, are also integrated into these old songs. As much fun as it was to play freestyle on an on-disc track like The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love," these solos have been implemented brilliantly into older tracks like The White Stripes' "Icky Thump."

Party Hard

Like any band's reunion tour, it's easy to get caught up in nostalgia. But Rock Band 4 proves to be far more than that. It's a return to form, putting the focus back on four-player fun without any overly-complicated mechanics. The new additions all focus on just letting loose and having a good time and even those mechanical additions aren't forced. The DLC situation is something of a mess, but those willing to bear through it will have a sure-fire party gem on their hands.

This review is based on an Xbox One retail copy provided by the publisher. Instrument hardware was also provided by the publisher. Rock Band 4 will be available in retail stores, the Xbox Store, and PlayStation Store on October 6 for $59.99. The game is rated T.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?