One of the things Harmonix immediately noticed they could improve was the solo campaign of Rock Band. In the first one you merely played through all the songs, in order of difficulty, until you had finally completed all the songs. In Rock Band 2 you now play through a series of challenges. While it still isn’t much of a difference than the first one, it does feel much more like you are on a Band World Tour rather than on your own solo tour.

Along with getting the single-player to feel more like Band World Tour, Harmonix has put in a great effort to improve the experience of the actual Band World Tour. First off, they have taken out the horrible “leader” of your band, and your character can now play any instrument. Over the course of your experience as a band you will also get the option to hire staff. These staff can improve your ratings in Europe, earn you more money, or just improve your overall PR. While it may be a subtle addition, there were times that I was able to meet certain requirements much faster thanks to these staff members. In what might be a change for better or for worse, the mystery songs will now play songs you have never played before. This does great in terms of keeping things fresh and not repeating songs over and over, but I could see this being a serious problem for some newcomers. The difficulty seems to stay around the level you are, but I did have one occasion when The Trees by Rush came on. Needless to say, I didn’t stand much of a chance. In what may be the biggest addition to Band World Tour, however, is the ability to play with your friends over Xbox-Live. Yes, that’s right. You and your buddies can now finally hop online and go through the entire Band World Tour and Challenges online.

Two drummer specific add-ons that Harmonix decided to include are a drum trainer and a freestyle mode. The drum trainer is broken up into two parts, beat training and fill training, and will improve your drum skills dramatically. With over a 100 beats that can go as slow as 60 BPM (Beats Per Minute) or as fast as 200 BPM, newbies and experts alike will be able to improve their drumming skills. The Freestyle Mode allows drummers to practice some of the techniques they have learned or just create a few of their own. Think of it as an electric drum set that plays through your television.