Review: Gamers, fear the overpriced track pack

The one thing I always wished “Rock Band” was more metal. The series has been superior to Activision’s “Guitar Hero” in every way imaginable (presentation, gameplay, style) except for the track selection. Yes, “Rock Band” has many more songs with updates coming pretty much weekly through downloadable content (DLC), but not everyone has access to the music store. So Harmonix has put together a stand-alone expansion, “Rock Band: Metal Track Pack,” to please the metal head inside all of us.

“Metal Track Pack” is Harmonix’s third genre-specific disc, the first two being country and classic rock. The collection features 20 songs, with artists from different periods of metal from the classic (Judas Priest, Motorhead) to the contemporary (All That Remains, Children of Bodom) and a sampling of the in between. Standout titles include “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine, “Two Weeks” by All That Remains (a lot of fun on vocals) and I Mother Earth’s “Levitate.” While I appreciate bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Lamb of God being featured, “3’s and 7’s” and “Laid to Rest” have been featured before in older “Guitar Hero” titles.

If you’re an active user of Harmonix’s music store in the full version of “Rock Band,” there’s not much to see here. Of the 20 songs, only six are new titles that cannot be currently purchased in the music store (“Bulls on Parade,” “Hair of the Dog,” “Killed by Death ’08,” “Levitate,” “Master of the Universe” and Transmaniacon MC”). I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually end up there, so it may be best to pick and choose what you want in the store, rather than shell out $30 for the disc. Sure it would cost more to buy them one by one, but not all the songs are worth playing (like the tracks from In This Moment and Hawkwind).

Since the pack is a stand-alone, it loses some of the “Rock Band” touches that make the full titles so great. Create-a-rocker is not a feature, but you can still play “Band Tour” mode – the game will just give you four of the pre-made characters. All 20 of the tracks are available to play out of the box in “Quickplay” mode. The venues are recycled from the first two titles so the presentation is the same – when it comes down to it, you’re paying for the songs and nothing else. The game also comes with 12 new Achievements in the Xbox 360 version, totaling up to 250 Gamerscore points. 

The Good: Some fun songs like “Killed By Death ‘08″ and “Bulls On Parade”

The Bad: Most of these are already available for DLC

The Not-So-Metal: In This Moment. I mean technically they are, but they’re not very good.