At the height of its popularity, the music video game genre – most notably Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise and its Harmonix developed offshoot Rock Band – seemed like a license to print money.
Times have been tough in recent years as the market was flooded with plastic detritus and too many entries in the series. The canary in the coal mine all but suffocated when Activision closed their Guitar Hero division early last year.
With many replica guitar peripherals and drumkits now gathering dust in lounges across the globe, it seems like an odd time for Rocksmith to make its debut and recapture the imagination; but Ubisoft – the game’s publisher and developer – are hoping that the sense of distance will distinguish itself apart as the more serious contender it claims to be.
Because Rocksmith is trumpeted as more than a videogame. Its aiming to be something far more ambitious, a game that teaches “anyone” how to play guitar (and bass), rather than simply tapping the rhythm away at coloured buttons to onscreen cursors.
Which has always been the main criticism levelled at the many, many entires in the popular party concept.
Why waste all those hours on high scores and good hand-eye co-ordination at playing rock star when such time and resources could be better spent potentially equate to being one?
Rocksmith does a doable job of bridging that gap, even if its curious mix of interactive tutorial and game mechanics doesn’t quite close it.
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For starters the game (available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC) requires a real-life, six-string guitar to play, using the ‘Hercules’ convertor cable it comes packaged with to turn your instrument into the game’s controller. There’s even a starter pack that comes bundled with an Epiphone electric guitar, turning your TV into a virtual amplifier.
After that, set up is a cinch. In fact, the first hour of the game is extremely impressive. Including tuning your instrument, explaining the fundamental bases, and a very clever sequence which tricks you into playing The Rolling Stones ‘Satisfaction’ before offering an arena-sized celebration as the dulcet tones of the digital instructor intones, “congratulations, you’ve just played your first rock riff.”
Which all sounds like its easier said than done, but the game does a very good job of easing you into things, especially for the novice players its aimed at.That moment you nail Lynyrd Skynrd’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is is one you’ll not soon forget.
Through plain presentation, gentle narration, and visual cues – very much borrowed from the Guitar Hero/Rock Band franchises – you end up playing real, musical notes and chords with proper techniques, as coloured bricks slide towards the screen against a play-along backing of the actual music in an overall structure that also heavily borrows from its forebears.
Rocksmith also boasts ‘dynamic difficulty’, which means that it adapts to your skill level in real time. Struggling with that solo but nailing the verse? Then the game will make the riffs harder and pluck fewer notes for you to wail through the solo, and regardless of your efforts, you can never ‘fail’ a song and be forced to restart.
All of which is in fact a double-edged sword, because while novices will find themselves (hopefully) improving with each playthrough, the game requires multiple attempts at a song in order to ‘learn’ how good at it the player is, meaning those above an intermediate level are forced to endure painfully easy versions of songs and, without a difficulty selection screen, slogging through the same catalogue multiple times.
A good thing then, that said playlist is strong, beginning with basic blues influenced rock numbers, before working through a spate of modern classics (Blur’s ‘Song 2’, Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’), as well as a healthy smattering of iconic acts like Radiohead, Bowie, The Black Keys, and Nirvana.
Which all goes a long way to enabling the player to see beyond the simple building blocks and get down to the business of playing. That moment you nail Lynyrd Skynrd’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is is one you’ll not soon forget.
Aside from simply going through the setlist on their road to virtual global stardom, the player can also earn and unlock a series of minigames based on teaching different guitar techniques like sliding, scales, chords, or hammer-ons and pull-offs in endearing little ‘Guitarcade’ games rather than tutorials.
There’s also a swathe of different virtual guitars, effects pedals, and venues secreted away for enterprising players to unlock, but once again, for those approaching Rocksmith as a gaming experience, they will find that progress is slow as they laboriously work through many playthroughs to earn their bounty.
Another technicality that seems unfair to judge the game by, yet is so crucial to its enjoyment, is the dreaded audio/visual lag.It’s aimed not at complete novices, but the generation of children reared on Guitar Hero
As anyone who’s attempted to play Rock Band: Beatles on their hi-def set-up will tell you, these games have – ironically – a nasty relationship with syncing up with TV systems that use advanced HDMi setups. Technical jargon aside, it means some re-wiring of your home system, or some meticulous tinkering with the in-game options in order to get the timing of what’s happening on screen and what’s being heard to sync up without delay – which is unfortunately enough to sink many people’s hopes to engage with Rocksmith.
Assuming that isn’t a problem, Rocksmith still suffers its own unique pitfalls. In trying to be both a learning tool and an enjoyable entertainment experience, it doesn’t double its strengths, but instead becomes doubly hamstrung by the potential weaknesses of both systems.
It’s aimed not at complete novices, but the generation of children reared on Guitar Hero‘s bizarre notation, mixed with shorthand TAB, creating its own hybrid musical language which exists nowhere other than in and of itself.
As far as taking you from utter beginner to becoming the Jimi Hendrix of the digital landscape, there’s a definite ceiling to how much you can learn before the need to branch out to more traditional approaches surface.
That being said, its premise is highly commendable, and there’s plenty of groundwork and promise here for an impressive, and no doubt, improved sequel, but as it stands Rocksmith is aiming for a niche market and doesn’t even know it.
Will it teach you guitar? Yes, but assuming you can afford the time (and money) needed to get the most out of it. You will indeed learn the basics of rock’s most important and enduring instrument. Just don’t expect it to get you gigs (or laid) anytime soon.
Rating 6/10
“Learn guitar with Rocksmith™.” In stores now, available on Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and PC.
