Comparing Rock Band to Guitar Hero in difficulty
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Nov 15th 2007 at 10:00PM }
Having had significant time with Rock Band on a visit to Harmonix on Tuesday, we can say that when comparing the guitar portion of the game, Rock Band on hard feels close to Guitar Hero II on medium -- except you do have to deal with that pesky orange button, so in essence it feels the same. That doesn't mean that there isn't a challenge in there for the average player, it's just a point of reference for jumping in. Now that's just the guitar, we're not even talking about the beasts of drumming and singing, nor the extreme joy the social interaction of the game provides.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shockgamer @ Nov 15th 2007 10:06PM
And that's why I feel comfortable in letting Rock Band sit in my GameFly queue.
thethirdmoose @ Nov 15th 2007 11:27PM
How do you get GameFly to ship you Rock Band? I thought they didn't ship peripherals?
Shockgamer @ Nov 16th 2007 12:21AM
They don't.
But being I still have my Guitar Hero 2 X-plorer and will have the Guitar Hero 3 guitar, I've all I need to play the parts I want.
Gangsta Smurf @ Nov 16th 2007 7:17AM
So the GH3 guitar will actually work on Rock Band? That's a majour relief as I thought I would have to buy another guitar for, theoretically, the same game.
Victor @ Nov 15th 2007 10:09PM
If GH3 on hard = GH2 on expert
Then does GH3 on expert = stupid?
Because methinks so.
I have a life, and as long as expert isn't 'impossible' labeled expert, I can still have my life and fun playing GH at the same time.
Chris Maguire @ Nov 16th 2007 12:36AM
GH3 on expert is indeed the highest level of difficulty yet seen in the series. It's still beatable, but even seasoned GH2 expert vets will have some trouble.
They put in some devious tricks to throw off expert players, most notably putting black "must strum" notes in the middle of strings of hammer-ons. These actually make it feel a little more like playing a *real* guitar, but they'll break your streaks the first few times through.
The only song in career mode that seems to err on the side of "ridiculously hard" is Raining Blood, but that's largely because the mosh parts have no discernable melody.
jsn @ Nov 16th 2007 7:35AM
I disagree. GH3 is an easier game from top to bottom (compared to gh2), they've nerfed the gameplay to make it easier and tried to compensate by throwing more notes and chords into the game than the songs actually have. Harmonix did a much better job of accurately copying the feeling of actually playing the song, where Neversoft just threw more and more notes in that didn't belong in an effort to make songs harder than they actually are. I prefer Harmonix method myself. Their songs feel like they were made by people who know what it feels like to actually play the song.
Meatstiq @ Nov 16th 2007 8:15AM
Now that they're offering weekly DLC it doesn't sound too ridiculous IMO that they're simply going to give an easier experience so that newer players will conquer the game and if those players decide they want to take it to the next level they'll fork out $15-$20 for a more difficult batch of songs. The hardcore GH crowd will probably do this right off the bat (I'm asking for plenty of MS points for Christmas myself).
Meatstiq @ Nov 16th 2007 8:20AM
Oops, I didn't mean my last post to be a reply to this comment, sorry. But while I'm here I might as well throw in my 2 cents and say I agree with jsn, GH3 is tons easier than GH2, imo. I've 5 starred every song in the main set, aside from Raining Blood - something I never came close to in GH2.
KHCloud @ Nov 15th 2007 10:20PM
It wasn't expected for Rock Band to be easier? Either way I think Easier is better, would be a bitch if I had to get all expert GH3 players in order to play one song in Rock Band. Easier means more accessible and for a party game that's what you want...
jorojoserojas @ Nov 15th 2007 10:30PM
I couldn't agree with you more.
Even with GH, I never really played until I had some friends over. We'd take turns on the guitar, and play a tune or two, but we all enjoyed it together.
Rock Band is the same experience times 4. I think it should be more accessible to more people.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 16th 2007 10:44AM
I could never get through GH2 on expert (institutionalized is impossible), so a slightly toned down expert version is good.
mid90smatt @ Nov 15th 2007 10:24PM
Yeah it was pretty obvious Rock Band was gonna be easier but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. The band is what really matters and everyone is gonna have to play well if you want to succeed.
As for someone commenting that they have a "life" and can't get good enough to play GH3. It isn't that hard to beat the career mode. You aren't gonna beat it one night, you may even need a few weeks but if you can put in a hour a day you'll be solid. GH3 career is far from "impossible".
Sam @ Nov 15th 2007 10:48PM
My biggest fears concerned.
I'm a hardcore gamer who wants really tough challenges, and not a casual gamer who wants "lalala fun". (Just my style, i know a lot of others dont share it but thats how i get mah rocks off).
It took me two short sittings to 4* all songs in GH3 (most of them first time round) and i'm working on 5*'s at the moment.
I'm still going to get rock band as i do love rhythm games and the concept etc, but i'm a tad dissapointed that i'll most likely be left bored and unchallenged unless i'm playing the drums ¬_¬
finnith @ Nov 15th 2007 10:52PM
I find singing exciting.
Why don't you?
jsn @ Nov 16th 2007 7:37AM
you actually think you're going to 5* expert in rock band first time through? If you couldn't do it in Gh3, the easiest game in the series to date, you won't do it in rock band. You won't be bored..
bounchfx @ Nov 15th 2007 10:39PM
because we all know the game was made with the hardcore in mind...
this is why we have dlc people. have you freaking heard those metallica songs that are coming!
ffs, they are insane!
ColossalHat @ Nov 15th 2007 10:39PM
I have to strongly disagree with their comparison between GH2 and 3. GH3 is a joku up until the 6th or 7th set. With the hardest songs up to that point being "Welcome to the Jungle" and another who's name I can't remember, I'll get back to it in a bit. But, until the last set, the game is probably roughly equivalent to GH2 on hard.
The difficulty just explodes in the last two sets though.
dp @ Nov 15th 2007 10:51PM
Why are GamesRadar's videos never fucking working on my PC?
jestergoblin @ Nov 15th 2007 10:57PM
Well, the guitar hero franchise focuses on songs for guitar and rock band focuses on songs for four people.
I'm okay with the guitar parts not being as challenging, seeing as GH3's chords are dumb beyond belief.
Joe @ Nov 15th 2007 10:58PM
I've played GH3, both the demo and the Wii version. I beat GHII Expert, and I beat Jordan, but GH3 Expert is fucking ridiculous. Absoultely fucking stupidly crazy.
Synner @ Nov 15th 2007 11:03PM
I only played 2 songs on the BB demo of rock band, but I liked it immensely better than GH3. I find the notes and progressions in GH3 to be disjointed, and the songs not a lot of fun to play. I was playing it tonight and I swear one song was a Red+yellow about 35 times in a row. where is that fun?
I am thinking of selling my GH2&3 on ebay so I can pick up a second rock band guitar, because that feels less cheap and toy-likethan my explorers.
Your Ad here 555-1923 @ Nov 15th 2007 11:14PM
As long as it isn't harder than playing a real guitar count me in.
jesus_bon_jovi @ Nov 15th 2007 11:23PM
I still dislike the Rock Band guitar that stupid swivel switch strum bar sucks. The guitar controller and the drum controller were both broken when i went yesterday to tryout the demo again.
baby sea tuna @ Nov 16th 2007 8:20AM
Buncha savages in this town, huh?
colin @ Nov 15th 2007 11:26PM
i don't get the rationale for the difficulty ratings. in ghii, i could 5 star the first few hard songs before i could even 4 star "institutionalized" on medium
Spacemarinekilla @ Nov 16th 2007 12:13AM
If that was really expert Reptillia on RB then that was pretty lame.
I'm not sure why expert RB Lead Guitar has to be less difficult than GH3, you can always difficulty down if you want to play with your friends. Christ, I'm probably going to be bored on most of those :/.
ogvor @ Nov 16th 2007 12:20AM
While drumming is exactly the same as playing a real drumset (I play drumset) I can attest that it is a little unforgiving. You have to be very exact in your timeing, and unless you have the timeing of a metronome, it's going to be really hard to get a prefect on the drums.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 16th 2007 11:06AM
As it should be. Most non-musicians, and many non-drummers think keeping a beat is just banging on a drum. Maybe us drummers will get a little more respect after this game is loosed on the masses.
SOLIDAge @ Nov 16th 2007 12:33AM
Umm
in case no one else noticed this, they aren't comparing the same thing...
When it's Cherub Rock, rock band is clearly playing the Bass part, not the lead guitar like GH3 is. You can tell by the notes that they miss when playing it result in lack of Bass being played...
at least compare the same parts.
Otis Whitaker @ Nov 16th 2007 12:59AM
I frigging hate the community of music games. If it's not trail blazingly difficult, they don't want it.
What the hell is wrong with you people?
It's okay to have challenges, yes. But just because something isn't insanely hard doesn't mean it can't be fun, and if it has to be insanely difficult for you to have fun, you have issues.
These people have ruined the DDR community, the Beatmania Community, practically all of the bemani community, and now, the GH community.
Granted, now, I'll at least give the Bemani community one thing.. at least on the DDR side. It has a lot less jerks, and people are a lot more open.
Whereas GH has garnered a lot of beer-and-chips morons who like to insult everyone who can't play on expert.
Sieged Eagle @ Nov 16th 2007 1:05AM
I've to agree that GHIII's Expert is really stupid. Neversoft is somehow trying to push our limits, but in a very hard, tumbling way. Hell, if you want proof just check the songs of the final tier. Raining Blood and One have a retarded chart (and by that, I mean exagerately hard), and there's a 100% chance that TTFAF is never FC'd because the chart is impossible.
Then again, we wouldn't want a game that is too easy to beat because most gamers are always looking for something challenging, but hell, I think GHIII went too overboard with the difficulty and made it more stupid than challenging, and this is coming out from a fan of the game...
Sieged Eagle @ Nov 16th 2007 1:06AM
Also Joystiq, when is this posting problem going to be fixed...? =/
ryan @ Nov 16th 2007 1:23AM
a good number of the songs on expert in GH3 seem impossible for me to get 5 stars on and even a couple I haven't even beat as of yet and I play guitar hero normally a couple times each week. I also find my fingers hurting after I play for a bit in guitar hero 3 expert which I did not notice as much in guitar hero 2. Totally looking forward to Rock Band and this will make it more fun for me and my friends I believe!
bigsim @ Nov 16th 2007 2:06AM
GHIII on expert is plain retarded in a lot of cases. Chords where there doesn't need to be chords and stupid 3-note chords jumping around, etc. That said, these videos don't show Rock Band on expert, so I don't see how they can present that comparison.
ShortFuse @ Nov 16th 2007 3:19AM
Guitar Hero 3 on expert is A LOT easier than Guitar Hero 2 on expert. They simplified the hammer-on and pull-off so much it practically feels like cheating.
ColossalHat @ Nov 16th 2007 4:17AM
For the most part I agree, until you get to Raining Blood that is.
Werbal @ Nov 16th 2007 5:10AM
Rock Band felt comparable to the difficulty level of the first Guitar Hero when I played it in the store on Hard (Wave of Mutilation and Main Offender).
I don't have a problem with this in the least, considering I hit my peak at around Tier 7 in Hard Mode on GH2 (beat it on hard, but there are some songs I still can't reliably beat on every try). It got to the point where the frustration of doing the songs was outweighing any fun their was to be had.
I get baffled by people who seem to think HIGHER DIFFICULTY = MORE FUN. Some of my favorite tracks from GH1 and GH2 are in the lowest tiers. They're easy, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. You guys can keep Dragonforce, I'll just play "Strutter" again, thanks.
Rhandos @ Nov 16th 2007 8:05AM
FYI, those charts for Rock Band in the videos are on hard, not expert.
Basically, GamesRadar shows the second-last difficulty level and then screams "too easy, no challenge!".
Great job, GamesRadar.
baby sea tuna @ Nov 16th 2007 8:20AM
I'm okay with this. I'd rather it be easier and feel like a rockstar than harder and feel like a complete and utter failure.
Wednesday can't come fast enough!
ScottG13 @ Nov 16th 2007 8:45AM
I prefer "fun" to "hard." I don't play these games for the difficulty, I play them to enjoy the style. I suspect Rock Band will deliver on the fun factor in spades.
serotoninzero @ Nov 16th 2007 9:00AM
In my opinion, expert should be ridiculously hard. The other three difficulties are for people who like 'casual' fun fun time and the expert should be for people looking for a challenge. GH3 expert is pretty easy in my opinion, although I'm stuck on two of the songs on the 8th pier currently, but I made it through the rest in two sittings with maybe failing once or twice.
megaStryke @ Nov 16th 2007 10:12AM
For all the people who complain about the note charts not matching up or there being superfluous notes, how many of you are ACTUAL guitarists who are familiar with the tabs for a lot of these songs and who actually know whether or not certain notes need to be played? Admit that when you first played any earlier Guitar Hero game on a level higher than what you were used to, you found it strange that some songs you became accustomed to playing had extra notes where you thought there should only have been one.
Also, wouldn't Neversoft get some music experts to help out with the note charts or do some of you honestly think they let the shipping department work on them?
Suiname @ Nov 16th 2007 11:25AM
I actually disagree with this statement, at least the guitar hero III portion (since I haven't played rock band yet, I can't speak to it). I feel like Guitar Hero III in general is easier than guitar hero II. It just seems like the game engine is way more forgiving, especially with the pull-off/hammer-on mechanic. It might be because I just put in so many GHII hours that I was starting off with a higher skill level and thus the game seems easier, but I think it's mostly that the game is easier.
darkside @ Nov 16th 2007 11:54AM
I'm on the seventh set on GH3 on Hard and it was like a night and day difference from all of the other sets. I was 4 starring nearly everything up until the seventh set. I've only managed to beat 1 song on the seventh set, it's freaking ridiculous!!!!
Oh yea, try playing the "fast solo" on metallica's "one" on hard. Just on hard, that solo looks like expert on crack....
Mystic @ Nov 16th 2007 12:34PM
This is really disappointing. You would think Harmonix wouldn't do something like this. I am no expert, but I usually played on Hard to have a good time, and Expert to have some challenge. I only got through 3 sets in GHII on expert, but I still enjoyed it. I will miss the challenge. Maybe an update can add ROCK STAR setting.
Md @ Nov 16th 2007 4:49PM
This comparison is ridiculous and misleading. They're looking at the HARD (not expert) charts and then make claims about how difficult they expect Rock Band's expert note charts will be.
After they play Green Grass or Run to the Hills on expert, I'd really like for them to honestly try to say RB expert = GH2 hard.
Kyera @ Nov 16th 2007 6:35PM
Novel concept here. They're not "dumbing down" charts. They're picking different (i.e. not stupidly fast shred fest) songs and making *accurate* note charts. And I can tell you from watching footage on Expert last night, some of the songs are going to be very, very difficult. Green Grass & High Tides looks like Jordan slipped Freebird some roofies and took advantage of her, with the baby popping out nine months later as GG&HT.