Rock Band 4

The track list that comes on the Rock Band 4 disc is a little light on memorable songs, but thanks to admirable backward compatibility with a huge DLC catalog, Rock Band 4 remains every bit the magical cooperative gaming experience the series has always been. Getting a band together in the living room to rock out creates some incredible moments of musical joy. On top of that, a new career mode injects some fun personality and decision-making, while solos let you express yourself mid-song without penalty. Rock Band still fulfills its potential to make me feel like a superstar musician and, like...

Music-game faithful have had a long wait since 2010’s Rock Band 3. Harmonix set the high-water mark for the genre with that title – even as it became clear that the flood was slowing down – with more instruments and styles of play, along with a huge number of on-disc songs. Five years later, and on new platforms, even Rock Band 4 can’t match its predecessor’s grand ambition, dropping online play, pro guitar support, and keyboards. The pared-back experience focuses on what most players embrace and enjoy. Newcomers will feel welcomed, but for veteran bandmates, this feels like coming home after ...

From 2007 to 2010, music games were all the rage with multiple titles being released each year from both Activision and Harmonix. 2009 alone saw the release of almost 10 Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, so it was no wonder that the genre crashed and burned the following year. Rock Band 3 was the last major release from the franchise and a lot has changed over the past 5 year years. Harmonix is now an indie studio, rock music is even less popular than it was back in 2010, and music streaming has become more popular than downloading. When Rock Band 4 was announced earlier this year, many wondere...

However, any who expected Rock Band to change its identity in the leap from one generation to the next are likely to come away disappointed. For better or worse, this is the Rock Band we all know, and many love, with some small changes to gameplay here and there. Truthfully, Rock Band 4’s biggest selling point is that it’s Rock Band on the new consoles with new instruments. And if that sounds appealing, then you’re bound to be very happy with Harmonix’s sequel.

The parts of the game we fell in love with feel like they’ve gotten a fresh coat of paint, but the feature set, and currently incomplete pieces, feels like a Kickstarter title that didn’t quite hit all of its funding goals. The parts that matter, however, are rock solid, and the new solo improvements are a hit. Harmonix has pulled off some amazing games. While this launch is a rough opening act, the platform is good, the game works well enough, and as soon as my library is back in order I'll be getting the band back together.

While it is not a reinvention of the genre, it is still a solid Rock Band game.

Harmonix has brought the music genre back from the dead with a solid experience in Rock Band 4. All the fun you had with the series is back, with a few extra parts missing this time around. Nothing is particularly new here though, so if you haven't been yearning for the good old days, you might want to wait to see how this new platform develops.

Rock Band 4 is a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, it’s not only a hassle to switch generations due to the fact that so many elements don’t work with the new one, but additionally — Rock Band 3 is still a thing, supports all of your DLC, and has more features. On the other, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this iteration, and for those of you who missed out in the past or have broken 360s or PS3s, you’ll still be able to rock out into the night with friends and have a whole lot of fun.

For the past half decade, the rhythm music game has been as dead as the proverbial dodo. At some point in the late noughties, people decided that strumming a plastic instrument to the sound of Bon Jovi was no longer ‘cool’. God knows why.

Harmonix has restarted the DLC machine and is releasing more tracks to buy on a weekly basis. There is even plans in the works to bring over most “on disc” tracks from previous Rock Band games. This is great news because most of the tracks bundled with Rock Band 4 didn’t strike a chord with me. Specifically, out of the 65 bundled songs, less than a dozen caught my interest.  Thankfully, the catalog of Rock Band songs will continue to grow.

Building on its impressive back catalogue, Rock Band 4 is a rock-solid return for the stalwart music game.

Rock Band 4 is stripped down to the essentials, but despite its leanness, it's pulled off something encouraging: It's made me want to play Rock Band again, even after the dozens of hours and countless parties I've spent with the series. It isn't Harmonix's boldest or biggest game. But Rock Band 4 lays a foundation for Harmonix to move forward.