I've finally been able to find time to play again after a busy start of the new year.
And I tried Rocksmith enough now to give a minor review on it.
First, I'm more than happy to say that it actually lives up to my expectations and imho is worth the money. Does it have flaws? Yes. But it's still a valuable investment for mid-level guitarists.
So, what did I like?
- Riff repeater when pressing spacebar is well executed; I like the settings for automatic increase of difficulty and speed if you nailed the passage
- Session mode works incredibly well ... and while it might not be the ultimate tool to generate ideas for new songs, it's still a cool and fun feature if you want to try out some quick & dirty chord progressions or solos; the virtual drummer was a real positive surprise for me! I love how it not only adapts to your playing dynamics, but also actually changes rhythm depending on what you play. Chugging those eights? He starts to pump that basedrum. Playing Triplets or off-beats? The rhythm adapts. The only thing that imho is somewhat missing is the option to "invert" or "hold" the dynamic adjustment of additional instruments. For example, the pad or piano actually getting louder or continueing if I stop playing.
- "Learn a Song" mode is very motivating by guiding you through the sections and adjusting the difficulty depending on your last performance
- the tracking is surprisingly accurate; even on complex chords ... though there's the occasional false positive (as in: you play wrong, but the game doesn't notice). I haven't had a false negative yet, except maybe for slides and bendings (which doesn't matter really, as the game never forces the tracking results on you, except in score attack and arcade mode)
- It's highly addicting. More than just once I just noticed it was 2 AM in the morning when I intended to go to bed at 11. It's been long since I had so much fun practicing
- no noticable audio delay at all (PC version) ... I gotta say this is a real pleasant surprise!
What should be improved for the next iteration of the game:
- The interface and style could look a bit more mature ... while that arcade-esque style fits entertainment games like Guitar Hero, I think it doesn't do the educational value of the game justice. It sometimes makes you feel emberassed for playing it.
- The note highway is an unusual concept for displaying the notes. They should definitely implement an optional more traditional tab scrolling mode in the next version (like Guitar Pro). It took me way too long to get used to it (I mean, damn, it took me 3 full days alone to internalize the different colors for the strings) and let's be honest: there's no real reason for the note highway anyway.
- The Arcade mode is pretty much useless. I mean; I like the idea behind it, but the games I have played yet lacked a clear musical value. For example, I played a game that is meant for practicing scales, but I simply could not figure out how to play it as intended.
- The lessons are only average. I only did a couple of them yet, but it felt like there are way better lessons to be found on all the topics for free on the web. Then again, the game is only 20 bucks without cable, so I didn't have any big expectations here. On the bright side; the note tracking serves as a reminder for you not to practice at a speed that you can not handle yet, which is always good for people that don't have the required patience for practice.
- The song repertoire for the 2014 version is only decent (but still definitely worth the money) ... but that's a matter of taste, really, and there's always new songs as DLC
- The "rookie lessons" imho are a waste of space. It is not recommended to learn guitar through this game alone as it doesn't watch your technique.
- there is a somewhat noticable "visible latency" in the note highway; maybe it's just me, but it seems that the audio is a little ahead of the graphical representation ... which is not that big of an issue, as the only thing that really matters is the audio, but I think it's worth mentioning
Can I recommend the game?
For low to mid level guitarists: Definitely, yes! Seasoned or professional guitarists probably won't want to deal with the note highway concept. But then again, the game is only 20 bucks if you already have the cable and the game is already worth it for session mode alone!
EDIT: Just a recommendation for anyone reading this and probably thinking about getting the game: there's an "invert" option for the string displayal on the bottom of the screen. Flip it! For some reason, the default displays the notes on the fretboard in upside-down order (compared to what you are used when reading tabs), which means the high E is on the bottom line and the low E is on the top. I feel that this is very confusing at first as you are used to seeing the opposite.
