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Rock Band Rivals review: Score hunting
Rock Band Rivals isn't perfect, but it goes a long way in bringing back the friendly competition that was a hallmark of the glory days of fake plastic guitar-based gaming. Image via Harmonix

Rock Band Rivals review: Score hunting

The glory days of plastic instruments are behind us. There's no doubt that properties like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are less popular than they once were, with those clacky guitar controllers resting comfortably in the closet most of the time. Last year, Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live launched in an effort to revive the genre, and though Rock Band 4 launched without some key features, Harmonix has been supporting the release admirably through weekly DLC, free patches and updates, and added features.

This past week, they launched Rock Band 4's first fully-fledged expansion, along with a large patch to the game for players who did not purchase the expansion itself. Before the game is even booted up, it's admirable for Harmonix to treat the game in this way – it's clear that they view Rock Band 4 as a platform to build off of. They're not going to be releasing yearly sequels, they'll instead presumably be releasing more patches and updates, as well as larger paid expansions like this one. It's great to see that Harmonix is so committed to the product, because it's a great one.

At its heart, the Rock Band Rivals expansion adds 2 new game modes, with the promise of more down the line – including online multiplayer. The first is "Rivals Mode", which is the focus of the expansion. Rivals mode allows players to team up with friends and asynchronously create a crew that takes on rotating challenges to compete with other crews around the world. Players can customize the crew, invite friends, and take on these challenges at their own leisure. The challenges themselves are usually themed (at the time of this review, the challenge involves playing songs with "love" in the title), and scores can be posted in any game mode, so if a relevant song comes up in quick play, you don't have to replay the song in rivals mode all over again.

If it sounds like a simple gimmick, well, it kind of is. But it's also pretty brilliant. If you have friends with the game, it really is a lot of fun to compare scores in these challenges and one-up each other. You can also see exactly how much you and your friends are contributing to the crew as it either succeeds and starts challenging tougher crews, or fails and starts challenging easier ones. It's addictive, and it really harkens back to the competitive nature of the original Guitar Hero games that Harmonix worked on back in the day.


The other game mode is "Rockudrama," a hilarious parody of VH1's "Behind the Music" that follows your band. It's a short mode, but it's full of branching paths, so it's something that's meant to be played and re-played. The writing and FMV is spot on, and the fact that the voiceover calls out players who are doing particularly well or particularly badly is a very nice touch. Expert players will also appreciate the challenges that arise when a band does very well, challenges that bend the rules of the game a bit by introducing disappearing notes or de-activating no fail mode. The stakes in "Rockudrama" are higher than in normal career modes since you can't really replay a show, to say nothing of the fact that the game asks you to wager on your performance before you begin playing. If you bomb, you bomb, and the FMV reacts accordingly. Win or lose, it really is a whole lot of fun, and it's bite-sized for a party night where you have a few close friends who want to sit down and play Rock Band for a while.


Slightly less visible are some under-the-hood adjustments that Harmonix made. Drumming feels a whole lot more precise, and there's much less lag in the freestyle fill sections. That extends to the freestyle solo sections on guitar – there is now very little delay between playing a note in a freestyle solo and hearing it come out of the speakers. There are other tweaks too, like a slick user interface overhaul and a few extra customization items. The game as a whole feels a whole lot more polished and precise with the expansion patch.

It's not all rosy, though. There's one member of the band that's not pulling its weight, and that's the new peripherals that launched with the pack. It seems like a limited issue, and Harmonix is aware of it, but both the drum set and the guitar I received were defective when compared to the older instruments that launched with the game. Again, this doesn't seem to be a widespread issue, but it's worth noting. For their part, PDP, the makers of the new peripherals, have been incredibly helpful from a customer perspective as far as I have heard. They seem committed to helping people with these defective items out, so there's no reason to believe this problem isn't solvable one way or another for folks having issues, but it still bears mentioning.

Now, even if the new peripherals did work perfectly, there's not too much that's new about them that would warrant a purchase from a Rock Band fan who already had the full band kit. The folding guitar is nice and sturdy, and the new drum kit is beefier and springier than the older version, but there's no earth-shattering upgrades here over the original instruments that shipped with the game last year.

The expansion itself is another story, however.

Everything in Rock Band Rivals is designed to foster a spirit of competition, either through the high-stakes Rockumentary mode or through Rivals mode. Whenever a song is played now, players gain XP and level up depending on their performances. Statistics are tracked now, down to how many hammer-on/pull-offs you nailed in a song. You can drill down and see what you're best at, and who among your friends you're better than.

And while it's no longer 2007, playing this game brings back that feeling – the feeling of plugging in two red plastic guitar controllers into a Playstation 2 and challenging your friend to see who could get the highest score in Through The Fire And Flames. And with synchronous online multiplayer coming down the line soon, there's no reason to believe the feeling won't get stronger with more updates and patches. Sure, it would have been nice if the pack launched with some songs included (although, you did get a few free if you preordered it), but even so, dropping thirty bucks on this expansion should be a no-brainer for anybody who still plays Rock Band regularly. And for those of you who don't? Rock Band Rivals offers a great entry point, so you should pick it up too. I promise, it's just as fun as it was back in the late 2000's. Probably even more so.

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