When Ubisoft announced they were planning to release Rocksmith, a new music game, I was quite sceptical. The Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises were on their last legs, and it looked the music game genre was set to self destruct. They said this new game would be different, that it would use a real musical instrument and teach you to use it. At the time it was impossible to tell what would result. It could have been a huge gimmicky flop.
Look! Its a real guitar! No compromises here! Gibson makes it!
I had the chance at Microsoft Canada’s X’11 press event to see the game in person for the first time and take it for a spin. My reservations immediately vanished as soon as I started playing. Once you’re in front of your TV with a real guitar plugged in to your game console, you can feel the difference. Once you start to play the game you start to realize that this rabbit hole goes deeper than you had ever imagined.
Lets start with the game interface and controls. The game sets a pretty serious tone right off the bat. It lets you know that the game is all about playing your guitar. It comes with a special guitar-to-usb cable that lets you plug your guitar directly into your game system. As soon as you load up the game you are given a soud-check to make sure you are set up and in-tune. If you get the $200 bundle that comes with the game and a real Epiphone Les Paul Junior guitar it may take you a bit longer. Thats just the nature of tuning a brand new guitar though. The interface is great and really speeds the process up. Its the fasest guitar tuning you’ve probably ever experienced. It couldn’t be more intuitive.
Once thats done the game lets you jump straight into your guided guitar playing experience, playing your first song. There is no superfluous stylization, or tacked-on narrative nonsense. No distracting stylizing. None of that nonsense. Just you, your guitar, and the music. Its very refreshing, frankly. Too many music games tend to drift over the top. This one, is clearly different, and I like that. Its goign to prevent it from feeling dated or corny. It just gets out of your way.
Once you get in to your first song you see a ‘noteway’, not unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Notes drift down the track as you would expect, except you’re playing them on real guitar frets. The colours correspond to the string you play them on. Its a surprisingly intuitive interface that works well on a real guitar.
The game has a built in AI that tracks how you’re playing. If you’re doing well it increases the difficulty. If you’re not doing so hot it eases it up. You can really feel how it keeps things from being too difficult while still trying to challenge you, like a good guitar teacher would. You’re never allowed to get too complacent but simultaneously never have to deal with too much frustration. That precise balance is what keeps the game fun and keeps you coming back for more, rather than give up. As a nice bonus the game records your performance so you can review it once the song is done, and hear where you need improvement for yourself.
As your progress through the journey, the game’s AI suggests which songs and exercises you should go with, giving you a few options catered to your particular skill progression. This is far from one-size-fits-them-all. This is a tailored and personal experience, encouraging growth of your skill-set while keeping things fun and flexible. Featured skills include single-note arrangements, chords, power-chords, hammer-ons, pull-offs, palm-mutes, slides, and all the essential guitarist techniques.
The game pre-loads guitar effects and settings when you play songs too so you’ll always be producing the right sound. A nice feature is the ability to just load up amps and effects in to a free-play mode. It’ll save you a lot of money and hastle messing around with real hardware, thats for sure. Now you can just use your TV as a virtual amp and load the game whenever you just want to mess around and experiment with your guitar and different sounds.
Oh, and if you get the bundle, it even comes with a pretty nice guitar strap to boot!
The music-game is back, but its so much more than a game now. Its a tutor. Its a coach. Its a tool. Its a legitimate accessory to your real musical instruments. This game is sure to make a splash with both musicians and gamers, and may effectively put the final nail in the coffin for the Guitar Hero / Rock Band franchises. It goes so far beyond those that I hesitate to even use them as points for comparison.
I realize I’m gushing about this game but I really do think that you need to take it for a spin if you have even a passing interest in guitars. Rocksmith seems to me like just the start of something that has so much potential. Its sure to go far and I look forward to seeing it grow. Its educational software at its best.
