Review: The Beatles: Rock Band

Posted on 20. Sep, 2009 by Chris Evans in Featured, Gaming, PS3, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360

This is one of the more difficult reviews I’ve sat down to write. As a critic, I always try to avoid preconceptions about games and review them on their own merit. But the truth is, I’ve not looked forward to a game this much in years. For me, 09/09/09 felt like Christmas day as a child all over again.

Regardless of any expectations or hype though, The Beatles: Rock Band is a triumph on every level. Clearly you need to be a fan of the music to really enjoy the game, but if you’re even just a casual fan there is going to be something here you know and love. The game spans the history of the band, from Liverpool’s Cavern Club, on to their first appearance in America at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, their gigs at Shea Stadium and Budokan, then into Abbey Road Studios and finally their last live appearance together on the studio’s rooftop. The subject matter is clearly one that has instant mass appeal, but Harmonix haven’t rested on that alone. This is clearly a labour of love developed by genuine fans and feels as much a tribute to the band as it does a game. The presentation here is easily some of the best I have ever seen in a game. From the recreations of the various locations, to the beautiful Abbey Road dreamscapes, to the clips of real chatter from the band before and after tracks, this is beyond anything a music game has achieved before.

The gameplay itself will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a previous Rock Band or Guitar Hero game, with two notable differences. Firstly, there are no drum fills or bending of notes. Overdrive (here renamed ‘Beatlemania’) is activated on drums by hitting a flashing green note that scrolls down within the beat, but while you can still whammy notes to get more energy from them, it no longer effects the sound. This could be a design choice, or more likely part of the contract between Apple Corps and MTV, but either way it doesn’t really change things all that much. Second, and with far more of an effect on the gameplay, is the addition of vocal harmonies. While they are tricky to get right, they are cleverly implemented to make them accessible to everyone. While there are two or three vocal lines on the screen, each singer is not allocated a certain part meaning anyone can sing any part at any time. In order to get the full multipliers though, you need to be nailing all three vocal parts.

Breaking with the tradition of most music games, the difficulty of the songs has nothing to do with the order you play them in. Some of the trickiest songs (particularly on drums) appear near the beginning, while some of the later songs you will breeze through. As a whole in fact, this is not a difficult game and veterans of the genre will find little challenge. But this isn’t a game you play for challenge or high scores, it’s all about a celebration of the music and having a whole lot of fun at the same time. The only real complaint I have is the number of songs on the disc. 45 tracks may sound like a lot, but when many of them are barely three minutes long, the ‘Day Tripper’ achievement of completing the story mode within 24 hours doesn’t seem quite so daunting. Sadly, I think this is another case of holding content back for DLC rather than include it in the game.

The Beatles: Rock Band could all too easily have gone down the same route as the Guitar Hero Metallica and Aerosmith games, with a list of increasingly difficult songs by a few different artists shoehorned into an existing framework. Here though, Harmonix have given the music, story, style and influence of The Beatles the time and attention they deserve and delivered a game worthy of the Fab Four.

Score: 9.5/10