Rocksmith Bass DLC Review

It’s been a while since I raved about it, but I’ve still been playing Rocksmith steadily. (Honestly, the biggest problem I have with the game is that when I’m playing it, I don’t want to stop. It has a tendency to eat up all my time. I still just adore it.) If you weren’t aware, yesterday they released a huge update to the game–for $30, you can add bass to your options for everything. New challenges, new versions of all the songs–everything. You can use a guitar to emulate a bass, or (if you own a bass, like I do) you can hook up your bass to the game.

Since I’d been feeling somewhat guilty that my electric guitar was seeing all the action for the past 8 months, leaving my bass to gather dust, I jumped at the opportunity, slapped $30 down, and dove right in last night.

What did I think?

Well, I got blisters on three of my fingers from all the playing yesterday. I didn’t pack for my trip like I was supposed to–and I had an awesome time. 🙂

Of course, I’ve always been kind of a bass guy. Bassoon in high school–and bari sax. I love me some bass parts. Rocksmith fills that itch tremendously well. I also discovered that I’ve gotten tons better at bass in the time since I’ve been playing Rocksmith. Some of the parts are just plain easier–I was sight reading songs and scoring 115,000 points or more on my first time through. I got double encores with ease. It was really nice to see how far I’ve come, since when I got Rocksmith back at Christmas, I had to really struggle just to make it through the basic version of “Satisfaction”.

Without doubt, Rocksmith has turned me in from a guy who dabbles on the guitar into a guy who can actually play the guitar. I’m by no means a pro yet–I’d still classify me in the novice stage, although maybe I’m getting close to moving up to intermediate. For example, I can play most of “Sunshine of Your Love,” but I get lost in the solo still. (Lots of bends.) But when I first got the game, all I could do on the guitar was strum chords–slowly. The game has been a huge boost to my playing skills, and it’s hands down the most fun way I’ve seen of learning the guitar.

I tried out some of the more complex songs, and I’m happy to say that the bass parts are well done in them, too. It’s not all just quarter notes, if you know what I mean.

Now I just need to get an extra cable, so I can hook up the guitar and the bass at the same time, and either rope Denisa into playing with me some (she took guitar along with me back in college) or getting TRC in on the action. (Probably in a year or two)

In short, if you’ve already bought Rocksmith and want to have more fun with the game, you need to buy this downloadable pack. I can’t vouch for the guitar emulator, but I know I’m going to be playing both guitar and bass for a long time to come.