Rock Band 4 Review on Xbox One

When I first heard that both Rock Band and the Guitar Hero franchise were returning, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. These games had a tendency to be released frequently, and absolutely had a reputation of diminishing quality with each release. I hesitantly gathered the band back together, plugged in all our plastic instruments and nervously booted Rock Band 4 up. Thankfully, with an extended break — Rock Band 4‘s hardcore rhythm gameplay brings it back to the basics and is an absolute blast.

If you’re wanting to rock immediately, Rock Band 4 has the Band-In-a-Box bundle. For $249.99, this massive box contains all of which you need to play: a wireless guitar, wireless drum set, the game, and a wired mic. You can also use most of your old equipment if you still have that lying around. One of the downsides of this franchise is how expensive all of these instruments can get, so if you have some leftover pieces of your former rock glory, use them.

For Xbox One gamers, it’s more of a hassle. If you’re looking to use your Xbox 360 instruments, you’re going to have to fork over additional cash for the Legacy Adapter. You can buy the game and adapter in a bundle for $79.99 but if you choose to buy the Legacy Adapter separately, good luck trying to find one — it’s nearly impossible.

It’s a shame that at launch the peripherals are hard to get a hold of, but at least there are options available. I just wish I didn’t feel like I’m being punished for playing on the Xbox One.

Of course, keeping the game back to the fundamentals, there are some sacrifices. Unfortunately, the career mode in Rock Band 4 is oversimplified. It’s a choose your own adventure that offers little difference. For example, early in the game you can choose to hop in a rickety old van to gain more fans, but the downside is that you could lose out on fast cash. It’s push and pull-like choices, but your decisions really don’t make that much of a difference.

It’s nice to have a campaign but it would have been better to see it more fleshed out. Perhaps with cutscenes or a fun animation to make it less boring. The writing is entertaining, but this doesn’t really fulfill the fantasy of being a rock star. Also minor, but equally frustrating, is the limited character customization, the game does offer plenty of unlockable instruments though, if you’re into that.

It’s not all bad, though, you’ll be barely looking at your characters during gameplay anyway. Even the venues are rarely noticed. In fact, I could barely tell any of them apart. Rock Band 4 has plenty of style, just not a whole lot of substance.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