Review: The Beatles: Rock Band

A Beatles based music game has been a long time coming. In fact, it’s surprised me that it’s taken so long for the scouse foursome to show up in videogame form. Have Harmonix done justice to one of the most popular bands of all time? Well…I think so.

It seems everyone has had some experience, however brief, with a music game. Activision have, most certainly, over saturated the market with their countless (8 by the close of 2009) additions to the ‘Hero’ brand. So much so, they’ve almost become ‘old hat’. With this in mind, I wondered if even such a group as The Beatles could revitalise the genre. Personally, I don’t think there was any chance of that happening. What the fab four have done is create a helluva lot of interest, and rightly so.

Those who’ve played the other Rock Band games will be familiar with the basic idea. You create a band, play songs from a number of different bands and genres, moving from venue to venue, pretty much, whenever you choose. You would assume this would be the same, right? Your assumptions would be wrong. Whilst the basic idea of playing along to the music in a variety of venues stays the same, there’s a lot that makes The Beatles: Rock Band different from the others in the series.

For starters, the game is a linear experience. You start in Liverpool’s Cavern Club and make your way through the, relatively short, career mode until the concert on the roof of the Apple Corps building. Completing all the songs in a stage will unlock the next chapter and you move on. This might come as a surprise to Rock Band players and I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought this new linearity might be a problem. I can certainly see why it could be, the ‘Rock Band experience’, up until now, has had you playing songs over and over as you take your created band through their careers. Basically, there’s a lot of, somewhat forced, replay value with the standard Rock Band game and that isn’t here. However, it doesn’t mean you won’t want to play through the story again. It might be a different experience, but it’s certainly not a bad one. However, if you’re reading this Harmonix, I don’t think a more linear Rock Band 3 would work all that well.

So, the story might be great, but what about the music. Now, whilst I fend off the seething Beatles fans, I realise this might seem like a daft question. The Beatles’ music has been popular for so many years, what is there to question about it? Of course, Beatles fans are going to love the music in this game because it contains 45 of the band’s hits and nothing more. Unlike the band-centric Guitar Hero games, The Beatles: Rock Band tracklist is comprised entirely of Beatles songs. This is probably something to do with the agreement between Harmonix and the various other parties and, personally, I wouldn’t want it any other way. In fact, even as a minor fan of the band, I think I would be offended by the appearance of Blink-182. After all, this isn’t Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

As you’ve probably gathered, The Beatles: Rock Band is for one core demographic. Beatles fans. Music game veterans are rarely, if at all, challenged by this game. That isn’t a knock against the music, it’s just the way the songs are. It might not be seen as a challenge, but it sure is fun. Playing this game solo really didn’t do anything for me. In fact, I was disappointed when playing it on my own. Get someone else involved however, and it’s a whole different ball game. This is probably the most fun I’ve had with a music game in some time. Everything just works really well and is a fantastic multiplayer experience. Combine this with the fact that, pretty much, everyone knows at least one Beatles song and you’ve got an experience everyone can enjoy. With the automatic addition of ‘no fail’ mode to the easy difficulty, no one has to be embarrassed either. That’s right, even your arthritic riddled granny can enjoy this.

Visually, it’s also a step up. The character models look a lot more polished and seem more realistic, despite the cartoonish visual style. Granted, this is probably partially due to Harmonix only having to create a few variations on four band members and not a million different character combinations, but still really well done. The real visual treat comes from the environments. Key environments from The Beatles’ career have been faithfully recreated and are certainly a cut above what were so used to seeing from Rock Band. Before playing, I wasn’t too sold on the whole ‘dreamscape’ idea. It really does work well when the song fits. However, there’s a few of said ‘scapes that really don’t do much and I thought that these might’ve been best had these all played out in Abbey Road Studios.

On the whole, I think The Beatles Rock Band is a cut above most of, if not all of, the other music games on the market. Despite it’s linearity it still makes you want to keep playing and the addition of downloadable content will keep Beatles fans playing for some time. It might not be as much of a challenge as music game veterans would like, but it’s a ton of fun and is bound to introduce a whole new demographic to the music of the fab four.

9.2/10

Secondary Comments – Chris Malley

Being a fan of The Beatles, I couldn’t wait for this game. As some of you might well know, I prefer Guitar Hero over Rock Band, but the fab four have made me jump ship. At least for a little while. For a Beatles fan myself this is almost perfect.

The music is great, the visuals are great (I love the dreamscapes) and, most importantly, it’s fun! I would have liked a challenge, but I didn’t come into this expecting one. On the whole, The Beatles created simple, catchy, pop tunes to be enjoyed by the masses and Harmonix have done just that.

The story mode can be completed fairly quickly and it’s far more fun in multiplayer, but I love it and I think anyone who plays it will too.

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