Rocksmith 2014

So I've been super excited for Rocksmith 2014 since it was first announced, and more so once they started holding DLC in favor of the new game.  The promises made at E3 were many: improved UI, removing loading times, a solid track list. So how did it fare?

Overall it's a fantastic product, and a huge improvement from Rocksmith, it's more polished, better looking, the UI is considerably better (but not perfect), the track list is solid, possibly the original Rocksmith track list was slightly stronger, but since you can import it for $10, it's not a big deal.  There are new features, such as tone changes mid-song, and many, many more tunings which is a blessing and a curse.

The note highway now has much better marking for which note to play when, and much improved finger positioning notation.  Overall it's a big improvement.  I have a slight bit of trouble distinguishing yellow from orange on it, but overall it's great.  Very nice to get tips on when to position your fingers as a chord instead of an individual note (for songs like House of the Rising Sun), This existed in Rocksmith, but it seems enhanced now.  Outside of the slight problem I have distinguishing color, I think one could say the interface is completely improved. 

The only possible flaw with Rocksmith 2014 that I've found is that it's not really much of a game anymore.  Songs no longer are about score and score multipliers, and while there is a score attack mode, it isn't the core mode of the game.

There also isn't a larger career, which is something I found satisfying as a player.  Overall I feel like they removed one of the big features of the game, which was an excellent progression system.  I no longer feel like I'm progressing in a fictional "rock star" career, this was a major hook which kept bringing me back to the original Rocksmith, and hopefully the frictionless UI in 2014 can accomplish the same result.  I do find it to be a bit of a loss though.

Otherwise the game is fantastic, and I still highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning guitar or bass, so far the DLC has been fantastic, also.