RISING STAR 2 Review for Steam

If you ever wanted to experience the trials and tribulations of making your way in the music industry and attempting to become a rock sensation, you need to wait another week or two. On August 12th, Rising Star 2, brought to you by developer and publisher Gilligames, will be released as the new RPG simulation on Steam for Mac and Windows.

Now, from the trailers I watched, I was super excited to get a pre-release version of Rising Star 2.  It appeared diverse in activities, interesting in goals, and all-around fun being a teenager finding themselves in this big world.

Boy, was I disappointed.

Perhaps in the next few weeks to come Rising Star 2 will have some additions and/or modifications, but as of now, Rising Star 2 does not provide the fun, and dare I say, high, of emerging as a rock god.

Humble beginnings are expected, and that’s where you start: as a one-person band, looking to recruit and grow your skills. From songwriting in the extra room to running around town doing odd-end jobs, you develop your band slowly. And I mean… s l o w l y. After buying six sets of drumsticks, three guitar strings, and mowing San Francisco’s pubic parks several times, and trashing a few hotels on purpose for six hundred dollars, I still did not get a single gig. I attended many concerts big and small, produced CDs, made t-shirts… and still nothing. Two hours passed, the game had crept slowly from January to March, and despite building my reputation at many bars and with different bands, I still had nothing to my name.

Finally, by hour three, I got a gig! In a month, early April. To pass the time I worked on songs and “rested,” which ended up being an awful idea since apparently, you forget how to play your own songs in just a few days.

The glorious day had arrived – my first battle of the bands, with an almost-full band (only missing a bass guitarist).

And I botched it. The audience hated me, since explaining how the set list worked was swift and only appeared once.

Queue another hour of play, and not another gig came up. It was back to swinging around town pretending my van was a taxi, writing songs no one wanted to listen to, and once in a while doing landscape work in between replacing broken equipment.

If Rising Star 2 wanted to showcase how grueling and difficult it is to become a musical sensation, well, I would say they nailed it. This RPG/simulation takes the simulation aspect very seriously, taking all the escapist qualities a video game usually provides and sticks you in the doldrums of boring life. There are no mini games to keep you going or to improve your skills, besides the “puzzle game” of fitting four pieces together to make a new song. For the gig, you only make a set list and hope you arranged it well enough for the audience to appreciate and expend energy properly. You get to stay in hotels when out of your hometown, but everything stays the same.

In short, Rising Star 2 missed the mark for me. Staying true to the journey of becoming an artist is fine, but taking the snail’s pace of Rising Star 2 takes away the pleasantness of a video game providing an outlet. I don’t need another chore simulator in my life.

Despite this, Rising Star 2 takes even more hits when it comes to graphics and controls. The graphics remind me of when I was 10 sitting at my computer that had a rolling ball as a mouse controller. The concert sequences are all generic and repetitive (including the background music), and when controlling your character in first-person you must click and drag the mouse to pan around the room which I found increasingly frustrating at I continued play. When I clicked sometimes, the curser would also spontaneously transport itself upwards for no apparent reason other than a glitch. I will say that driving the van was fine, as it gave off serious Simpsons: Road Rage vibes, of which I am a fan. (But then again, who isn’t a fan of that game?)

To Rising Star 2’s credit, the first few minutes of play I was impressed. Character generation was precise and very detailed (although the randomly generated NPCs are atrocious – seriously, I never wanted to look at my lead singer due to his awkwardly proportioned physique) and the collection of instruments was fun when I recognized my own drumsticks at the shop. The idea is also great – who doesn’t want to become a rock star? The execution simply failed.

When Rising Star 2 is released, I hope they’ve implemented some improvements, as I believe it desperately needs some. More interaction, less monotony, and quicker progression would all improve gameplay.  Furthermore, the one-and- done tutorials are almost criminal. A “hints” or “help” page would, well, help.

End score: Not Recommended as is, with the hopes of improvements in the future. Extra point for anyone who enjoys grinding hours doing tasks that seem to get you nowhere.

Check Out the Rising Star 2 Trailer:

Rising Star 2 launches for PC and Mac via Steam August 12, 2020. You can wishlist the game right now.