Rocksmith 2014 Edition is Ubisoft’s second attempt at a virtual guitar tutor following on from last years well received, but flawed, Rocksmith. Having spent a considerable amount of time with the previous game I found myself giddy with excitement when I learned a new title was being released  as well a promise to fix all the niggling issues that ruined the experience of the original.

I’ve had my ups and downs with learning guitar in my near-30 years on this Earth. At 16 I decided this guitar playing malarky didn’t seem too difficult. So I wandered down to my local store, picked up a relatively cheap guitar and began my adventure as a self-taught rock guitarist. Things were going well until I got home, set up my guitar and attempted to play. Then it dawned on me, guitar playing isn’t easy. Two weeks later I had a guitar gathering dust in a corner, occasionally being used somewhere to hang my clothes.

Later in life I decided on attempting it again but this time I’d be smart, I’d get a tutor. This was much better. I was being shown how to play correctly, learning new techniques and best of all, I was learning songs from some of my favourite bands. It was brilliant. I saw my tutor once every two weeks, leaving his lessons and practicing at home what I’d learned. This lasted for roughly a year until I went through a rough patch in my personal life and had to stop my lessons. Needless to say I was gutted, and though I tried to keep playing but I never kept it up and was left with a lovely looking ornament hung on my wall.

A few years later my love of music and gaming joined forces when Rocksmith was released in 2012. It reignited my love for guitar playing and gave me a great visual learning aid that could teach me new techniques, help me form new chords and allowed me play along to popular songs. I loved Rocksmith and although the confusing menu system and incredibly steep difficulty spike ultimately led me to stop playing, I still think back to it with high regard.

Enter Rocksmith 2014 Edition. Promised all the good that Rocksmith provided with none of the bad. With new modes, a new tagline promoting it as the fastest way to learn guitar and a wealth of new songs and mini-games to play. But is it all it’s cracked up to be? In a word…yes. Rocksmith 2014 Edition is the game we should have had last year. It’s nearly perfect from my point of view, so allow me to explain why.

Now you may get the idea from my above experience that I’m a good, or at least competent, guitar player. Far from it. I know a few things, a basic power chord, what the dots on a fret board mean, how to hold a pick etc, but I struggle to play even the simplest of patterns and chord shapes, especially after a long lay off. Rocksmith originally retaught me everything I’d forgotten from my teacher and, even though it’d been only a few months since I last played, it was a case of reteaching me again when I put Rocksmith 2014 Edition into my Xbox 360.

With the 2014 moniker you’d be forgiven for thinking this is simply an updated version of the previous game. This is a complete overhaul from the menus, the mini-games and the playing style. You’re now given a choice of guitar styles to take. You can be the lead guitarist, focusing on solos and single notes with a few chords thrown in here and there, rhythm guitar, learning chords and taking more of a back seat on some tracks, or the bass guitarist in which you can use a real bass guitar or the game will use a standard guitar and use it as an emulated-bass. Some tracks, such a Jack Whites “Sixteen Saltines”, can only be played as one guitar style. It’s a simple, but effective addition giving the player the choice depending on their musical preference and it can be changed at any point in the game.

Theres more changes too. Gone are the clunky menu and sub-menu’s from the previous title and in their place are large, bold, self-explanatory options to choose from. No longer can you choose a tedious story mode but instead you have several modes. Now you have the options of Learn a Song, Nonstop Play, Lessons, Session Mode, and Guitarcade.

In Learn a Song you can choose any song fem the vast playlist to learn, giving you a simple version of the song that gets progressively harder as you get learn and accurately play along. There’s also challenges to attempt on each song that can range from simply learning a new chord to getting a longer accuracy rating or even learning song riffs until you’ve perfected it. It’s a great way to learn and adapts to how well you play instead of the monumental difficulty spike Rocksmith was known for.

If you feel like challenging yourself further more, then Nonstop play is a great mode for you. Letting you choose a time limit of 30, 60 and 90 minutes the game will provide a random assortment of songs for you to play one after another. Though you can skip them if you want it’s far better to simply go from song to song and get better understanding of different genres. Going from The Ramones to Slayer and followed up by Weezer provide different tempos and subtlety improve your playing by constantly challenging you to adapt and focus.

Beginners should immediately head to the Lessons mode. With both an audio and visual guide you will be lead through the very simplest of guitar lessons, such as how to hold a pick or what parts of the guitar are called, all the the way to difficult techniques as you progress. This is exactly what was missing from Rocksmith originally. An actual teacher. It’s a great mode too. You can revisit each lesson as often as you like, improving your score on the tests or simply to remind yourself of a technique you may not have used to often. I was terrible at bending strings. Revisiting the lesson each time I played has gradually improved it over time and although I still miss more than I hit, it still helps give me that repetition I need to improve. I believe this is the mode that most obviously defines the difference between the original game and this sequel. This is real tutoring. Explaining the basics, showing you techniques, giving you examples and having you replay until you have it mastered.

Session mode is an entirely new mode this year that essentially boils down to a jam session. You can chose a virtual band to join you in free play. Start strumming your guitar and they’ll adapt to join you. It’s a nice idea but still seems quite limited in the play styles your AI bandmates will choose, but could easily be the main selling point for future editions of the game or even DLC. You can also get a friend to join you, jamming together and trying to create some great tunes.

Finally we come to Guitarcade. The mini-game mode that was so hit and miss before and I’m happy to say this has also been revamped with updated versions of previous games as well as brand new editions. These act as fun ways to improve various aspects of your guitar playing from having you play certain frets in order to shoot ducks to strumming chords to destroy zombie hordes. This all feels far more refined and enjoyable now and can really help you move quicker around the fretboard and play faster without having to constantly stop and reassess what your fingers are doing.

What makes Rocksmith 2014 Edition such a success this time around is how the game approaches teaching how to play the instrument. It  holds your hand until you improve and perfect every lesson, song, and technique. Songs will begin with single notes, progressing to simple chords and adding in a technique or two until eventually you find yourself blending them all seamlessly as the game recognises your ability. The song are presented as their real-world bands would play them on the record, so players can take what they’ve learned and practice in their own time, going back and testing themselves against the backing track. It’s true guitar teaching and it’s absolutely fantastic. I only wish an achievement would pop in real-life when I’ve accomplished a whole song through my own amp after hours of practice.

Rocksmith 2014 Edition will also work with any songs downloaded for the previous title as well as import all songs from Rocksmith, though the latter will incur a small fee to do so. These songs have also been entirely reworked giving the impression that Ubisoft feel this is the truly definitive edition of the game done the way they had original intended as there’s no no reason to go back to Rocksmith.

My only real issue in Rocksmith 2014 Edition is the latency issue that still plagues the series. If you are playing on your TV through HDMI you will find the game almost unplayable due to the delay. The menu gives you an option to try and solve that, but it’s never perfect. The only real fix is to play the game through a component cable and if you’re like me, your component cable is safely hidden away in the bottom of a wire-filled mess of a cupboard making it an annoyance that should have been fixed this time around.

Rocksmith felt like it was trying too hard to be a game with guitar teaching elements. Rocksmith 2014  Edition flips that and embraces  its guitar tuition basis and also doubles as an entertaining game. As with learning any new skill, you’ll need patience and perseverance to become a good guitar player. Rocksmith 2014 Edition will guide you and help you learn the basics, but ultimately it’s down to you to practice, try new techniques and challenge yourself and by doing so the results will show for themselves.

Rocksmith 2014 Edition is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Mac. If you still have the previous game the cable will work with this new title. New players will need to buy a real-tone cable which can be bought in a bundle with the game.

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