Rock Band 4 Gameplay And First Six Songs Revealed
By Fraser G.
Harmonix have unveiled Rock Band 4’s gameplay for the first time, in addition to revealing a small part of the in-game track list.
The first six songs were announced earlier in the day, favoring a more-traditional feel for the franchise compared to the initial Guitar Hero Live list, which appears to be branching out a little wider with its musical styles. Check out the list below.
- Avenged Sevenfold – “Hail to the King”
- Fleetwood Mac – “You Make Loving Fun”
- Jack White – “Lazaretto”
- The Killers – “Somebody Told Me”
- Spin Doctors – “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”
- The Who – “The Seeker”
IGN also hosted a one hour livestream of the game, featuring a four-person band performing a number of songs. Footage of the game resembled the classic Rock Band style, without any radical changes to the formula. Some of the new features which were shown included an improved vocal harmony system, a different approach for tackling drum fills, and the ability to change difficulty mid-song.
Earlier in the month, we learned that Rock Band 4 will have an exclusive Gigs mode (which Harmonix have re-named to Shows), and this was also shown in the stream. This mode contains some unique features, such as offering the ability to vote on the next song in the playlist. Instead of just picking a song however, the game will quiz the group as to which style of song they would like to play, for example – a 90’s song, or a song by Tenacious D.
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Another exciting feature showed how the vocalist can banter with the audience in-between songs. The game offers suggestions to shout to the crowd, and they will respond accordingly. We should hear more about the Shows mode over the coming weeks, as it will be a key aspect of the in-game campaign.
Interestingly, it was revealed that the demonstration was being played with PS3 controllers, although both Harmonix representatives were unable to confirm any backwards compatibility options at this time. They were also hesitant to mention too much about DLC, aside from the fact that they are working hard to bring as much previous content as possible to the game.
At first glance, Rock Band 4 doesn’t look a whole lot different from its predecessor, although I would question whether it needs to be. It looks fun, the new features look like good additions, and we have yet to hear anything about the (apparently) hefty Campaign mode. Harmonix’s commitment to previous hardware and DLC is commendable, and they will be hoping that the tried and tested formula will win over the gaming audience later this year.