To say that I’ve been addicted to Rock Band since its release last Holiday season would be an understatement. I hit up the drums on a regular, almost daily basis and have bought more DLC than I care to mention. When Rock Band 2 was announced, I got all giddy like a school girl. New songs aside, the enhanced Tour mode and other additions tickled my fancy. Did it all pan out as well as it sounded? Short answer: yes.

Let’s get this out of the way: it’s still Rock Band. The tweaks and updates aren’t Earth-shattering and the game still plays like the original, which is in no way a bad thing. Presentation is almost identical, with the exception of a slightly different combo meter (it’s tilted in so it looks like it’s flat along the note chart). You have some new options available when creating your character as well, but otherwise, the game looks the same as the first incarnation. Quick Play song selection has also been tweaked to look more like the Rock Band Store, showing the difficulty ratings of each song as you go scroll though the lists. For some reason, though, it only shows your highest score for each track and not the number of stars you’ve achieved, which makes it difficult to keep a running tally of how many Gold Star songs you’ve completed.

Gone are the Solo Tour modes of the original, being replaced by a singular Tour which is the evolution of Rock Band’s World Tour mode. You can play this solo or with up to three more friends, either locally or over Xbox Live. It’s a great touch to be able to go through World Tour mode with friends online, especially since it can be tough to find three other friends who can play at your house at the same time (if you even have room for that sort of thing). It’s fairly seamless to have friends hop in, as you just need to back out to Tour screen to add or change band members or back out to the main menu to change to Xbox Live Tour if you’re going the online route. A tip: just play on Xbox Live Tour and don’t invite anyone if you have any thoughts of someone joining you for a song or two (or twenty) down the line. This way, you have less menus to navigate to make the necessary changes. It would have been nice if this were streamlined a bit with only one Tour Mode option where you could add/change band members (locally or online) from within the Tour mode itself. Maybe with a patch, or we might have to wait for Rock Band 3.

Rock Band 2 plays just like you would expect after months of toiling away with the previous version, although the difficulty level has been cranked up a bit. New instruments are available, although your old ones will definitely work. One new feature that I absolutely love is being able to play multiple instruments with one character. In the first Rock Band, you had to create separate characters for drums, guitar/bass, and vocals. No more. If I want to play drums on Monday and guitar on Tuesday, that’s no problem. This leads to being able to pick up and continue Tour mode with your character without any changes. In RB1, you had to go through each Solo Tour by itself, making for some tedious play if you didn’t want to do certain songs with a certain instrument. Another cool feature is that, by exporting your Rock Band 1 disc, you’ll be able to play all of those songs as well as purchased DLC and unlocked Rock Band 2 tracks in various setlists throughout Tour mode. The one downside to this new setup is that it takes longer to unlock all of the tracks than it did with a standard Solo Tour, but you’ll have more fun this way with the variety Tour mode offers.

Rock Band 2 adds Battle of Bands as an option in Tour Mode, giving you a chance to go through various setlists and challenges to determine who’s the best band in the world. Some of the Battle of the Bands events are solo only, but most others can be done by yourself or with a band. There are various ways to prove your skills, such as longest note streak on an expert drum track, most stars obtained in a setlist, or highest total score in a setlist. I wouldn’t recommend going into the highest score challenges alone, as you won’t be able to touch the highest scores on the leaderboards. The Battle of the Bands feature will add even more longevity to an already deep gameplay experience, especially with Harmonix adding new events on a weekly basis.

The last big addition is the Drum Trainer, which puts you through a series of beats or fills to teach you how to be a better drummer. This won’t just help in the game, though, as you’ll be able to get behind a real drum kit and know how to bang out some good sounding beats after going through each of the various beats and fills in the game.  Some of them can be really tough, so you better be able to rock the kit.

Pretty much all of the criticisms of the first Rock Band were corrected here in Rock Band 2. The setlist is very solid, the gameplay is deep and extremely fun, and you’ll want to keep coming back for more. My only gripe with the game is not having an option to unlock all of the songs in Quick Play right away without a cheat code. The No Fail addition is great for parties, but without spending hours with the game to unlock all of the tracks, it’s tough to have friends over to go at it with any of the game’s songs. Otherwise, Rock Band 2 satisfies all expectations and exceeds others. This is a must buy for fans of the genre or any kind of fun gameplay experiences in general.

Overall: 9.5 out of 10

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