While many gamers may suffer from sticker shock at the price, you have to keep in mind that you do get everything you need in one box including the game, one guitar, the microphone, and the drums. Heck the drums alone are worth the price tag in my opinion as they are very well made and built to take a lickin'. Made out of rubber pads, aluminum posts, and plastic hinges for adjusting, the drum kit offers durability at a very affordable price. The guitar will get mixed reactions as it is a different model than what GH fans are used to. The guitar itself is larger, has further spread fret buttons along with additional solo fret buttons at the bottom of the neck, and even an effects changing switch. What you don't get is the "clicking" noise from the strum bar, and for 360 owners you are once again tethered to your system with the wired controller (only the PS3 version has the wireless out of the box). It must be noted that the Guitar Hero controllers do work with the game, but you will have to do without the solo buttons. The microphone is your standard fare USB mic, much like the Karaoke Revolution one. As a matter of fact, besides the name Rock Band and the mouth piece being silver, I can't tell the difference. This brings me to the point that most USB mics will work here as well.

So the equipment is rockin', but how is the game itself? In all reality this game is NOT built with the solo experience in mind. Sure there are solo modes, but to be honest I have a feeling they are there to basically hone your skills. The set up is much like GH where you go through a set of certain songs and try to complete them all in order to move onto a new venue and open up new songs 'til they are all unlocked. For the mic and drums, the difficulty is tough at times and will keep gamers coming back to top their own scores. For the guitar parts in solo mode, this is an easier version of GH and by easy I mean you can easily conquer this title on expert if you can beat Guitar Hero on hard. While some gamers will be disappointed by this fact you must keep in mind that the solo missions aren't where Rock Band excels. This game is meant to be played as a band and the depth and complexity of the Band World Tour Mode is a shining example of that.

In Band World Tour Mode you will go from venue to venue trying to earn cash, respect, and fan loyalty depending on how well you perform. You must "mesh" as a band in order to be successful. This means not only doing your part to score points in the song by playing well, but if a band member is lagging in talent; you may have to "save" them if they screw up too much. Each band member has 3 chances to fail parts of the song, but much like in baseball, 3 strikes and you're out and your members will have to try to finish the song without you. The fans are fickle and won't be too patient so if you lose a member, better hope it is at the end of the song or you will all fail the song and lose fans in the process. The only real downer to this mode is the fact you will play the same song multiple times, much like a band that plays different gigs will play the same songs in each venue. It's an authentic idea, but when I had to play "Should I Stay or Should I Go" from the Clash 5 times in an hour, I began to show a little anarchy towards my punk favorites.

Speaking of song lists, there are 58 total songs in the game, and while the number is significantly lower than GH3, the number of non indy songs are only 45. The good news is that more than 80% of those versions are the real deal. The best news of all is unlike the previous 2 GH titles, you will see plenty of downloadable songs each week, and even better, they are incorporated into your song lists in Quick Play and World Tour modes! Now I know there will be some criticisms about some of the really great songs not being available from the get go, but the prices of the songs aren't too terrible and will be well worth the price.

There are also some online modes, but alas the ever cool World Tour Mode isn't available anywhere but local multiplayer. This only makes sense as technology still isn't quite there in order to stream vocals very well, I mean just listen to the delay in chat rooms on Xbox Live and you'll see what I mean. The Leaderboards were not working at the time of this review, so it is hard to say where the online battle of the bands will be won and lost.

For what it's worth I can't really say if Rock Band is worth the price if you are only going to go through it alone, as the game is really made for group activity. I do know that the drum set up is about as authentic as you can get and if you are not a true life drummer, good luck on perfecting the game on hard or expert anytime soon. For the bundle price of 170 dollars you do get plenty of bang for your buck and I can't give Harmonix credit enough for doing what was once only hopeful dream.