Rocksmith Review – Guitar Made Truly Easy

With the arrival of “Guitar Hero” franchise, guitars stepped into the limelight of the gaming world, and music driven by six-strings once again gained significant momentum and prominence in the musical world.

But while that was great for the music industry, and while a portion of GH players actually grabbed a hold of actual guitars, some folks gave complaints about the game still being just a video game, and not something that actually develops musicality.

And that's where Rocksmith steps in! This game takes the concept to the next level, but instead of putting button jams as the main thing, its primary goal is to teach the user how to play the actual guitar.

This item comes with an actual guitar – with strings, frets and all that jolly stuff – and is hailed by some six-string aficionados as the best guitar learning software money can buy.

The package includes the game itself, a guitar, and a connection cable.

We decided to test such claims by checking this puppy out. We took it our for a test run, you can check out the full review below.

How To Set Up Rocksmith?

Essentially, this is a video game with a guitar. So we are looking at a CD with the game itself and an Epiphone guitar included in the mix. You install the game just like any other software and then connect the instrument with the gaming machine of your choice through an included Hercules adapter.

The procedure is quite simple and the adapter operates like any other cable plugging into the instrument's output jack and then connecting it to the machine via USB port.

You navigate through the game's menus in standard fashion, and just use the guitar whenever its needed – which is of course most of the time.

Once you start the game, you are kindly asked to self-assess your guitar skill level so the game can tailor the songs for you. If you're a newbie, you'll get four chord punk rock stuff like The Ramones and “Blitzkrieg Bop”; if you're advanced, you'll get the advanced stuff.

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What's The Rocksmith User Interface Like?

The interface is actually fairly similar to “Guitar Hero” stuff, which some call a rip-off, but we say it's a good thing. Of course that the developers were aware of GH, and of course that they are targeting a similar crowd, so why not utilize a similar system?

Besides, it's a guitar learning tool that shows what to play on the screen while the song is being played, there's not a whole lot of room to improvise with this concept.

Anyhow, the big difference is that Rocksmith shows you which frets to press and strum, rather than which buttons to push. So that's it – you go through the tutorials, you select which songs you want to play, you press go and rock out!

The display features a set of six clear horizontal lines at the screen's bottom, each of course representing one of the guitar strings – E, A, D, G, B, and high E. The game utilizes prominent color codes to make it easier for the user to grasp the concept, but you will definitely need to invest a bit of time and develop an intuitive feeling of which color marks which of the strings.

It's not hard and it's much faster than many similar methods, so don't get discouraged!

Is Rocksmith Better Than Learning Through Tabs?

The principle is the same, but there are many advantages to Rocksmith that tabs simply don't have. First and foremost, it's interactive, and it kinda forces you to go through the song.

With tabs, you can find yourself just staring at those letters and not doing anything. With RS, it's like being on a treadmill – it's in constant motion and forces you to keep the pace up. You screw something up – no problem, just keep rocking, keep repeating and you'll get there.

Also, the video game still allows you to fully set your learning pace and analyze your performance more thoroughly. The software registers how well you performed and points out any mistakes you might may have made while playing, and presents them to you in a way that's easy to understand.

This is not something most players – especially newbies – are capable of detecting on their own.

Therefore, when the line is drawn, we are looking at two major up sides – more incentive and push to learn, and getting better evaluation of your performance.

Is Rocksmith Better Than Private Guitar Lessons?

The answer to this question depends on how good your teacher is in getting you motivated to master the guitar, but in general, private lessons are still more effective.

You simply get your own expert for an hour or two, and that's not something a video game can beat.

But – and that's a big but – this does not mean that Rocksmith is worthless. It can still be used as an addition to your six-string lessons and help you become even better. So lessons are better than Rocksmith, but lessons AND Rocksmith are better than lessons alone.

Are There Any Down Sides?

The down sides of Rocksmith are similar to down sides of guitar tabs. While we are without a hint of doubt looking at a highly effective tool for learning how to play songs of various genres and styles on guitar, it still doesn't force that development of general musicality.

What we mean by that is that similar to tabs, you are taught to play in a big of a robotic way. You know which frets to press, where to strum those strings and everything you need for the given song, but you are not taught that wide musical vocabulary that enables you to fully master the fretboard, make your own music and express yourself on guitar.

Look at it this way – you will know how to play the songs, but you won't learn how to improvise and adapt yourself to any given chord progression.

But it's not that black and white, either. For example, after mastering 15 songs, you will unlock the Scale Runner feature, which will teach you how to run up and down those scales and gain some general knowledge on guitar music that extends beyond individual songs.

So a bit more music theory and goodies like that would have been great. But is this enough to spoil Rocksmith? Of course not, not by a long shot!

Is Rocksmith Worth The Money And My Time?

To answer the big question, yes, Rocksmith gets a thumbs up from us! It's not a gimmick, it's not a time waster, it's a genuine cool tool that will help you learn how to play guitar through your favorite songs.

The company did a great job in combining entertainment with education and we can wholeheartedly say that this is a piece of software any guitarist can benefit from. If you're a newbie or an intermediate player, you will learn something. If you're a pro, you will have fun.

As for value for money, you get a game and a guitar in a package that's well in the “under $75” category, which is indeed a great bang for the buck.

What Do People Who Used Rocksmith say

Most of RS users are quite pleased. Ubisoft boasts the fact that the game was branded “the fastest way to learn how to play guitar” by a variety of studies, but the users are actually quite pleased with this puppy and have shared nothing but kudos and kind words. As long as you don't expect a machine that will do all the finger and brain work for you, you're definitely in for a good time!

Which Platforms Are Covered

Pretty much all of them, really. You can use Rocksmith on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. You can opt for a physical disc of for a digital download or digital code.

Pros and cons of Rocksmith + Final rating

Alright then, let's sum up our conclusions in a brief rundown of good and not so good stuff regarding this game.

Good stuff

• It really is the fastest way of learning how to play guitar
• Incites you to play
• Combines highly entertaining and educational content
• Affordable and fair price
• Real guitar!

Not so good stuff

• Additional accent on theory and developing global music knowledge would have been nice

Final rating: 9.8 out of 10 . Good stuff!

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Conclusion

And with this we have steadily reached the end of our journey, folks! We hope you enjoyed the ride and learned something new about the Rocksmith game. It's now only a matter of determining whether this sounds like your thing or not.

In our opinion, this is indeed an effective piece of software and a tool that can and will teach you how to play guitar as long as you put enough time into it. If that sounds alright, feel free to get one as early as today. Rock on, folks!