I've got a fever, and the only cure is... keyboard. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=23378 As we approached the playable Rock Band 3 demo, I knew that I had to try the keyboard controller. When a Harmonix rep asked the crowd for singers, I volunteered on the condition that I could stay on stage for the next group as well (which would include Jared and Neal from NWR). Both the audience and I had to suffer through Smash Mouth's "Walking on the Sun" (certainly not my choice), but the sacrifice gave me an opportunity to walk over to the keyboard before the next group was even on stage.
The new controller is a two-octave MIDI keyboard, with a plastic neck on the left side. The neck is apparently used in "keytar" mode, as it includes a short touch pad, but I played horizontally on a normal (if miniaturized) keyboard stand. The keys are standard width and have a nice amount of action when pressed. In mechanical terms, the controller feels just like my $200 full keyboard back home. The only difference on the keys themselves is a tiny ridge on the edge of certain buttons, ostensibly to denote the colored groupings of keys.
In normal mode, you can press any key within one of those colored groups to hit a note in the song track. There is also a way to use five adjacent white keys (middle C through G) as the five colored notes, allowing for guitar-style play. In fact, you can play guitar parts on the keyboard in this way. But for my one chance with the new controller and interface, I had to go for Pro mode.
In the keyboard's Pro mode, both white and black keys across the entire controller are used. The on-screen colors merely denote the group of keys you should use -- but the detailed note highway shows exactly which key should be pressed. As noted, I have a large keyboard at home and can play very easy scales, chords, and melodies. I can even read simple sheet music, though slowly. None of that mattered in the demo, even though the controller felt similar to my own keyboard. Pro mode destroyed me, even on the medium difficulty level.
The problem, or maybe the fun, is that pesky hand-eye link between what you see on the note highway and what your hands should do in response. The keyboard pro mode interface is so complex, especially when chords mix white and black keys, that I couldn't keep up with the pace of "Bohemian Rhapsody". It felt like playing the original Guitar Hero for the first time, and I suddenly remembered going through a process of building that mental connection, learning the basic finger positions, and developing pattern recognition. It's going to take practice, just like it did with guitar (and drums). The keyboard controller is so accurate that I'm sure piano players will learn it faster, but everyone will be challenged by the new interface, regardless of experience. This levels the playing field and presents a real change to the Rock Band gameplay, even for players who have mastered earlier games. I feel humbled by the demo, yet very eager to try again and eventually develop my keyboard skills, both in the game and on my actual instrument.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Rock Band 3 (Read 1254 times)
