14 September 2008
Rock Band 2
What’s most impressive about Rock Band 2, though, is that it doesn’t have to trade on the novelty of new instruments this time. More or less every concern and complaint we had about the original game has been addressed, the new tracklist is very much to our taste (with 20 more free songs to come, remember), and with the rebalancing of difficulty, modes like Battle of the Bands and the No Fail modifier and Drum Trainer, Harmonix has completed the awkward job of broadening the game’s appeal at both ends of the skill spectrum successfully. It’s an excellent, measured sequel that should appeal to all.
(Eurogamer, 9/10)
Rock Band 2 improves in several areas over the original. The track list is better, the difficulty has been bumped up, it’s more accessible, all previously released DLC works from the get-go, and Battle of the Bands is a brilliant online mode. But there’s no getting around the fact that almost nothing was done to the main mode, World Tour. This is still the primary feature of Rock Band and yet it seems to have been neglected. It’s hard to notice the newness when there’s a big chunk of game that is just the same as it ever was. That said, music game fans would be absolutely crazy not to buy Rock Band 2. Even if you hate a few of the songs on disc, you are still getting an incredible deal. It’s less than a dollar a song, with an extra 20 free DLC coming in the next couple of months. That’s just too good to pass up.
(IGN, 9.0)
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