Rock Manager

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $4.43

Features:

• Put your new band together from a list of musicians and get them in the studio to record a demo
• Say and do whatever it takes to get them some gigs, arrange a record deal and promote the record
• You've got to use whatever means at your disposal to get your band noticed -- bribe DJs, buy up records to increase demand, and any other tricks you can think of
• Plan advanced marketing plans that take your group from back-alley dives to the biggest clubs
• In the meantime, keep an eye on your musicians and make sure they don't self-destruct!

Accessories:

PC Gamer (1-year)

Customer Reviews:

Keep Your Receipt [Posted on 2003-03-05]
I ran across this game one day had to give it a try. I love simulation games and, in this one, you manage a rock band doing everything from choosing the members, giving them a name, picking the songs, mixing the tracks, bribing radio DJs, scheduling gigs, designing album covers, etc. The first time I played it, it was a lot of fun. I was able to put together a punk band and got them on the Top 10 charts with the song "Kids Gonna Riot". The music you have to choose from is actually pretty good. I find myself humming them. Next I put together an 80s style band and had them play the same song (it sounded just like a New Wave band doing a punk cover). I then got the punk band back together to do a soppy love song. It's fun to hear what can come out of bands playing songs outside their style. The characters are cartoonish and fun with cool accents.

Now, why only 3 stars? Well, after I played it once, the graphics were never the same. They looked like those posters with hidden 3D images. You could kind of make out the characters, but the colors were patchy. When I returned it, I found out that others had problems with the disc. The clerk said if your computer only has the minimum requirements or near the minimum requirements for the game, problems in the graphics and play can come up. My computer is about five years old and just has what is required to play the game. I figure, if I had an updated system, it would be fine. My advice: if you don't have an "up-to-date" system but would like to try this game, buy it from a company with a fair return policy and keep the receipt. I found this game to be tons of fun for the brief time I played it. It's worth the try.

Cute, Entertaining Time Filler [Posted on 2003-10-29]
Rockmanager is a cute, entertaining time filler. Nothing more. The game is short, with only 9 missions and NO "open" play mode, which is really a shame. The graphics are acceptable, the sound is excellent with different songs for your band to play - all of which sound pretty damn catchy.
You select band members for the following areas: lead singer, lead guitar OR keyboard, drums, bass guitar, backup guitar. They are all optional, meaning you can make a band with just a drum, a keyboard, and a singer for example. The people you can choose to hire throughout the missions does not vary too much, although they do all have their own personalities and pros and cons (along with funny little things they say to you). The genres represented in this game are punk, pop, dance, metal, rock, and the ambiguious "other".
Most of the game takes place on this very limited map of a town. The graphics are flat, but not horrendous enough to really bother the eye. Its a bit difficult at first to find all the places you can click on, but once found its disappointing to see how they change very little from mission. There are 6 places you can give concerts, 3 record companies, 4 places you can record, 1 record store, 1 tv center, 1 newspaper, 1 radio, and 2 places you can buy melodies.
There arent that many melodies but they are all catchy and quite fun to mix in the mixing studios. This is one of the biggest catches in the game. I only wish they had explained in detail some of the tools they choose to include - and some obvious sound tools have been left out,
Ar first its great fun - until you figure out how to make money. I abhor sim games that become so linear and predictable that it becomes a series of repeated tasks after awhile. This game, unfortunatley, suffers from that. Fairly early on.
For the price, its a fun little game. Best suited for younger kids though, since its quite easy for teenagers and up. But anyone who likes mixing music would probably get a kick out of it. If your a die hard sim fan give this a try, but if you want something with replay value you are looking at the wrong game.

GRAPHICS: 5 - Acceptable.

SOUND: 10 - good quality

GAMEPLAY: 7 - Fairly easy to learn, but could stand for improvement

PLAY VALUE: 2. The number of times you will play through it.

FUN: 8 - while it lasts

OVERALL: 6.4
Which I'll translate to 3 stars on the amazon system.

A fun and enjoyable game [Posted on 2004-03-01]
I first ever played rock manager when i was 11. (last year,2003). My friend had bought it and said "dude, you gotta come check this game out"!. So i said ok, ill be right over. I already knew my friend had good taste in games because he introdueced me to such games as the GTA series and For instance the sims. So when i got to his house, i rushed upstairs. We turned on rock manager and at first look i said. Oh great, another role playing game. But then i started to get into it. And before i knew it, it was 12 o clock at night and we had been playing it since 4. So.... When i got home the next, I begged my mom to buy it for me, and she did, and so far, it has gotten old or boring one bit. 5 out of 5 for this one. GREAT GAME!

Great while it lasts, but it doesn't last. [Posted on 2004-04-12]
I finished this game the same day that I started it. This was not a day of dedicated gameplay either, although it was a day that involved too much goofing off. This is a short, short game, based around a few simple missions. The missions are a load of fun while they last - I was left wanting more rather than feeling that I had wasted my time. However, once they are done, there is not much point in replaying them. In a way, I was looking forward to finishing the missions so that I could go on to what I thought of as the "real game" - building up a band from rags to riches. However, it quickly became clear that this was a pretty mechanical process requiring few real choices on my part, so that quickly grew dull.

What is good about the game:

The missions are a load of fun. There was as many twists on the basic "build up a band" plot as I could think of.
The various characters have loads of personality and are very funny. The satire is cuts right to the bone.
You get to play around in a virtual recording studio. There isn't much game effect that I could see (apart from whether you decide to use session musicians or not), but its a toy.

What is not good about the game:

Put simply, there are too few choices, which leaves the game somewhat mechanical. For instance, there are only 25 musicians to choose from (fewer the scenarios). The game would easily be much better if the player could make up new ones or audition randomly generated ones. Obviously, such new characters would not the voiceclips and background information that are provided for the characers that come with the game, but replayability counts more than style. Similarly, there is only a limited selection of songs to choose from. Your band can't write their own and if they manage to record all of the genre-appropriate songs on the market, they can never get new ones. Of course, an invented song could not be toyed with in the studio in the same way that the preset songs can, but again, replayability counts more than style. You can design your own album covers, which is fun. I don't like the fact that the game rewards flashier designs over simpler ones because it discourages variety in album covers, but that may be a fair representation of the way conformity trumps innovation in the music business. Apart from choosing the songs and album covered, you can't set an image for the band - it would be nice to have the option of dressing them up like Kiss or down like The Clash and seeing what effect it had on sales.
Once you have your band and your record, there is a mechanical process of playing gigs and paying for advertising. There are very few random events to break up this process, and the way the player should respond to them tends to be very simple. A band member gets bored? But them a present. A media type asks for an interview? Click "Yes". It doesn't require deep thought.

In short, the game would benefit a lot from less flash and more substance. How about random shifting musical trends to chase, at the risk of losing your loyal fanbase? How about competing bands and managers to war with? Even some very simple routines along these lines could make the game so much more interesting.

If Rock Manager 2 ever comes out, then I will want to play it, although I might be wary of paying full price for it. After all, Rock manager *was* a lot of fun while it lasted. The premise is a great one and one that a number of shareware games have worked with with varying degrees of success. One day, there will be a great rock n' roll sim. I have been waiting for it for a long time. I'm still waiting.

Fun game, but not a game you can replay [Posted on 2005-11-20]
This is a great game with a great concept, but you cannot really replay the game. For the price that I see that people are selling it used (about $10), it is worth that. It is somewhat easy, but not too easy. The game was super fun, I just wish it had more depth. I give it five stars for being fun, but only 3 overall. If the game was more expensive, each of those would go down.

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