PAX 08: Rock Band 2 Impressions

By George Walker | August 29, 2008

So, PAX hasn’t even started yet, and the powers that be have already started unleashing the awesome. I got a chance to see Rock Band 2 in action at a Pre-PAX party put on by Gamerchix Ooopy and Kiki of The Blue Skittle.

It was fully playable for anyone that wanted to give it a whirl, though this doesn’t appear to be final code as it was running from a dev kit. First of all, the new guitars feel much more responsive. The versions we played on were much crisper than the original Rock Band guitar. Also seemingly improved is the default drum kit (not to be confused with the uber premium drum kit). These drums are wireless. They also sport a metallic foot pedal and a drum surface that didn’t seem to make much extraneous noise at all, though honestly it was hard to judge in the noisy party atmosphere we were playing in.

From a gameplay standpoint, nothing about Rock Band 2 differs much from its predecessor. An interface tweak here or there, but otherwise this is essentially a $60 song pack. Though, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

All in all, Rock Band 2 seems to be just as much fun as the original, but we didn’t see anything that would make it much MORE fun, either. However, this may not have been a final build, so who knows what surprises the finished product may contain.