E3 2015 Hands On — Rock Band 4

Rock Band 4

While At E3 I Was Able To See Rock Band 4 In A More Intimate Setting Than Just The Trailer. Here’s My Take On It

The rhythm games are making a comeback strong this year and Rock Band 4 is not going to slouch around and let the others take the limelight it is known for. In fact at E3 the only way to get hands on with Rock Band 4 was to swing by the stages that Harmonix and Mad Catz had set up to play the game on as well as give you that extra feeling of being a rock star again. We are all going to feel this way when October 6^th rolls around and we hook up Rock Band 4 to our PS4 or Xbox One. This isn’t just your good old fashioned Rock Band though as Rock Band 4 is also coming along with a few more updates than just the better controllers and drum fillers during the game.

Unlike the other E3 hands on write ups we’ve had here, for Rock Band 4 we are going to start out with what is basically the same between this version and all of the others that we have grown to love. Okay, really it all does boil down to the basic gameplay that Rock Band is known for only things have been perfected a bit more to make the button presses and strumming tighter and responsive. All of the colors and basic mechanics are the same; except that the pro modes have been removed from all of the instruments except for the drums. This is of course due to the fact that Harmonix found them under-utilized for requiring a whole new controller to access any of them while the drums are…well…drums.

That doesn’t mean that they haven’t tried to innovate new gameplay into Rock Band 4 that we have yet to see in the franchise. One of the bigger, and when at first glance confusing, features is the freestyle solos for the Bass and Guitars during the gameplay. You can see it in action a bit down in the trailer but what this mechanic does is allow players to still hit amazing solos in Rock Band 4 without requiring all of the crazy fast fingers. In fact you don’t even have to do anything if you are not worried about score during these times. If you are though Rock Band 4 has six different ways to keep the score flowing when going into one of these guitar or bass solos during a song. Of course this is an optional feature on top of all of that.

The aforementioned motions can be anything from just strumming to the temp of the song in Rock Band 4 to rocking the guitar as if activating Star Power to just doing quick and completely free-formed button presses based on what is displayed in the track. Like I said it is a bit confusing at first but after a song or two it is a great new feature that lets even the most beginner to Rock Band 4 feel like a rock star all while allowing those Rock Band veterans and musicians have free reign to do what they feel is right to score big and then go home with the groupies. Yes, there are such things as Rock Band groupies. I’ve seen them. I’ve seen others go home with them…

The other main feature that was being talked about, yet not shown, for Rock Band 4 is the new “World Tour” or Campaign mode for the game. It has been stated as being a bit of an RPG in the mix of things for Rock Band 4 where choosing songs, venues, and a myriad of other things can alter how the band progresses through the game’s world. This also leads to different endings for Rock Band 4‘s story so there are many reasons to keep playing this mode over and over and not just staying in Free Play once you’ve become the rock legends that Rock Band 4 will let you become. There was no word on how many different endings or other aspects of the game’s story of sorts but it really sounds like Harmonix is trying something else new for the genre besides teaching people to play great music.

Even though I know I have been writing them, words cannot explain how much fun it was to have Rock Band 4 in hands and getting back into the swing of things with a new title. It sets out to make you feel like a rock god in its own way and I think it will do just that; at least if the franchise’s history has anything to say about it. There are more tracks and information being divulged constantly as well as more about the Mad Catz controllers for Rock Band 4 and you best believe that we will have all of those updates. Keep it locked in here to see how we all will progress to the rock god legend when Rock Band 4 finally releases in October. Hopefully there will be more live events and fewer trailers until then.