Recent reviews by CritMagnet

As a previous owner of the original Rocksmith and the only method I've ever used to learn guitar, I can say that this product is a fantastic and productive method to learning the art of guitar. I am still surprised about how entertaining, motivating and effective this product continues to be where I often choose to "learn" rather than play the rest of my Steam library most of the time. The selection of music is exceptional even though I lament some song choices offered by the artists over some more desirable ones not provided which I would buy in a second and that some great classic bands like Led Zeppelin aren't [yet] offered. Fingers crossed for the future possibility. Until then, I will continue to work on mastering the collection of songs I have acquired so far where I can choose to play at my current skill level for listening enjoyment or turn up the difficulty to push myself to the next level as this product is so flexible in that way. Then, when you add all the other training aids, session mode and other features, it is an undeniable bargain and close to what I would consider a masterpiece of educational entertainment software.

The only disappointment I have with Rocksmith 2014 is that while the product is functionally much better than its predecessor, they failed to transfer some of it's best features IMO to this version and instead replaced them with disappointing substitutes for some unexplained reason. The original version gave you a progression system of playing small clubs and working your way to large concert venues which felt so immersive and rewarding as you progressed but now you play in front of a dynamically growing "crowd" all the time which just doesn't feel as genuine and as motivating for me. Not to mention, the audience in this version doesn't look nor feel like a real audience and worst of all, you don't feel like you are on stage like the original but instead like you are on the floor in the back of the audience which was a face palm and disappointing change. They also got rid of the replay of your performance after the song which seems like a regression in features when I was thinking they should actually allow you to save the replay with or without the original song to document your improvement and best performance. Wouldn't an option to turn it on or off be more reasonable? They also added a few objectively buggy and subjectively worse training aids to substitute for some very functionally useful ones of the original like Scale Runner which I assume was to possibly appeal to the youngest potential users.

Other than these few gripes of losing some cool features of the original, Rocksmith 2014 is a solid and enjoyable product for all ages that can get you up to speed quickly and get you past the doldrums of practice where you will hardly notice the finger pain initiation that comes with the learning of stringed instruments. It has grown to become one of my top choices on what to "play" every time I reopen my Steam catalog and is arguably the most beneficial except to my wallet since it motivated me to purchase another guitar during the holidays. ;)

PS. I play offline so the "Hours Played" in NO WAY reflects the real amount of time I have spent with this "game".

Storywise [based on the intro] is kind of weak IMO but I'm also not familiar with the lore that surrounds it but fortunately that is not a requirement for immersion nor interest once you agree to accept the scenario.

Gameplay and design wise, I find the game to be exceptionally fun. It presents challenge, entertainment and multiple strategic options to get things done. The animations are quite cool and their entertainment never got old for me. The world feels alive and immersive and the design style is higly entertaining with having to discover the Captains controlling a particular area and then investigating to find their weaknesses.

One nitpick I feel is worth mentioning is that the cutscenes don't reflect the outfit that you choose at the beginning of the game thus it kills immersion a bit when they run but it wasn't overly annoying especially when I prefer that to not having the other clothing as an option which I liked much better than the original.

All in all, it's one of the few games I've come across in a long time where my level of appreciation for development design decisions wasn't exceeded by my dissappointment in the games limitations/problems. Moreover, K&M control was done well and all keys are remappable which is an [unfortunately necessary] required accolade to give when most games are designed around a controller these days. As a result of all these positives, I felt obligated to provide a postive review and Kudos to the lead designer and dev team for a solidly entertaining game. Well worth the purchase.