by Nick Caramico

At a time when the rhythm game genre may be stale, Rock Band 3 brings a fresh new take on how you can interact with music through a video game. With the addition of Keys and Pro Mode, You can actually learn the basics of how to play a real instrument. Where Rock Band 2 brought needed improvements over the first game of the series, Rock Band 3 redefines the very genre.

With Harmonix taking about 2 years to make this game, you can really tell the detail that went into it. It is totally redesigned over its predecessor, and in all the right ways. The menus are well organized and visually appealing, dropping in and out of play is easier than before, and sorting through the 2,000 plus available songs has never been easier.

Gameplay

By now, everyone should know the basic gameplay of any music game. In Rock Band 3 the normal 5 color lane style play returns, with tighter timing and responsive hammer-ons and pull-offs. What makes Rock Band 3 so innovative in the gameplay area is the addition of “Pro Mode”. For the new “Keys” peripheral, the standard play is available where a player only uses 5 Keys. Where the new peripheral really shines is in Pro Mode, where all of the keys are fair game. When playing Pro Keys, the player is actually hitting the correct note that the original artist played. So in theory, you could learn a song on Pro Keys in Rock Band 3 and then sit down at a real keyboard or piano and the notes would be correct. Pro mode has different difficulties as well so while there is still Easy-Expert, there is also Pro Easy-Expert.

When using the Keys for the first time it will feel like the first time you ever picked up a guitar controller back in the first Guitar Hero. There is definitely a lot to get used to with Keys, but it’s hard to deny how cool it is when you nail a song on Pro Keys. Pro Guitar is much more complex, making a whole new system of displaying notes and chords. For even someone who knows how to play the real guitar, it would certainly take a lot of time to get used to the way the game displays it.

Menus and Organization

One of the biggest downfalls of Guitar Hero is the cluttered menus and lack of sorting through songs. With Rock Band’s music catalogue increasing exponentially, things needed to be done a little different. There are very detailed sorting options in the Quickplay mode which make finding the exact song you are looking for very easy. You can sort by things such as Genre, Decade, Song Length, and Keys Support, among many others. This is especially helpful if you have a full band so you can sort out which songs have keys and harmonies support so no one is left out.

There is a constant menu on the bottom of the screen that will let you drop in or out, sign in to Xbox Live or PSN, calibrate the system, turn no fail on or off, and basically any option or modifier you can think of can all be accessed quickly while not interfering with the normal menu. For example, if you are picking a song and someone wants to change their character, you dont have to back out of the song selection screen. Each person can control their own settings without having to quit or make everyone wait. This is a huge improvement in a group setting where people may be constantly pressting buttons.

Road Challenges

Instead of a true dedicated career mode, Road Challenges let your band progress from a local band to worldwide stars in a much less structured fashion. While the RB2 World Tour was very linear, there is so much more to do with Road Challenges. There is much more to accomplish that would keep you coming back and wanting to get a better score or play more songs than there was wit the World Tour style that got stale once you beat it. There are little challenges with each setlist such as maintaining a note streak or deploying Overdrive a certain amount of times that get you more points, unlock new clothes or venues, and let you advance in the story. These challenges give you “spades” as well as stars which get added up for your total song score.

There are also a large amount of “Goals” to achieve. You can view what you have already accomplished and whats still left to do. From the goals menu, you can jump right into a song that would fulfill that specific goal, no more jumping around from menu to menu finding the right song or remembering what goal you wanted to do.

Trainers

With the new peripherals comes a greatly expanding Training session. For Keys, you can actually learn the basics of the piano. Things such as finger placement, chords, and scales are all addressed in the Keys trainer. This part of the game is very detailed and it will be hard to jump straight into Pro Keys without checking out the very helpful trainer. For Pro Guitar or Pro Drums, it explains all the new features and gets you started with those instruments. Overall the trainers are immensely detailed and you could truly get the feel for a new instrument with them. You could spend hours having fun and learning to play a new instrument with this game.

Hardware

The new Keys peripheral is really top noch. MadCatz took over the hardware development for this release and that gave Harmonix more time to focus on the very polished software. The Keyboard has great response and the individual keys have just the right resistance and feel to them. The Keys can be worn with a strap “keytar” style or on a stand, lap, or table as a regular keyboard would. The actual keyboard buttons do not control anything in the menu, so you have to use the dedicated A,B,X,Y buttons on the top rather than the corresponding color key.

The new Rock Band 3 cymbals allow for the drummer to play Pro Mode as well. In Pro Drums, the cymbals are actually differentiated from the pad with a new circular gem rather than the traditional rectangle. The cymbal quality is a giant improvement of the RB2 cymbal kit. The RB3 cymbals are sturdy, responsive, and feel like the attach better to the drum kit.

Visuals


While most of the characters and venues you have come to love from RB2 return, the graphics in Rock Band 3 are leaps and bounds better than any other rhythm game. It looks much more realistic and detailed down to the stains on some characters pants. New music video style venues are added and are really second only the The Beatles: Rock Band animations. Characters appear to move more naturally and interact with each other in a less robotic manner.

Instead of still loading screens with song facts on it, Rock Band 3 uses short cutscenes involving your band doing different activities such as catching a bus or subway, loading a van, or walking down the street. The more you complete in Road Challenges, the more cool band animations and cutscenes you get. Until you unlock more venues in Road Challenges, it is likely to see the same animation over and over, but at least it is more visually appealing.

Wrap Up

Whether alone or at a party, Rock Band 3 delivers so much content it’s hard to put it down. Whether its unlocking new outfits for you band with Road Challenges, Learning a song on Keys, or browsing the expanding music store for new songs, there is so much to do in Rock Band 3. The trainers section add hours of potential play time and it does it in a fun way. The 83 song setlist is just incredible and spans many genres and decades. Every aspect of RB3 integrates previous downloadable content and exported setlists from RB1, RB2, Green Day, and Lego Rock Band seamlessly. If you like music this game is a must buy. Rock Band 3, while not absolutely perfect, is certainly the most detailed music game ever made.