Rockbeasts Preview | This is Shaping Up to Be An Epic Good Time
If you’ve ever dreamt of managing an epic band from its first gig to absolute stardom, then ROCKBEASTS from Developer Lichtund and publisher Team17 might be the perfect game for you.
In ROCKBEASTS, you play as a band manager for a new up and coming rock band. Things aren’t super shiny to begin with, since the band is broke and no one knows who they are, but that’s where you come in. In the game, you’ll manage the band’s gigs, activities, set lists and more to get this group of misfits to the top of the charts.
I was lucky enough to be able to jump into a preview build of the game and was more than impressed by how polished the game is already. The game takes place in a Midwestern town called Buxville in 1993. Your new band is down on its luck in terms of money and gigs so your first order of business is to fix that. One of the main mechanics involves picking dialogue options that will sometimes change the outcome of a conversation so you’ll want to be careful what you say to not only your band, but others that you’re trying to work with.
As the manager, you’ll have to monitor four different resources: Health, Mood, Hype and Cash. You can also unlock Focus points which can be used to get a leg up during certain situations. All of these resources must be managed carefully or your band won’t get any closer to stardom. If you’ve got enough points in each resource your band can take part in opportunities that will allow you to generate buzz for the next gig or grab some extra cash.
You’ll have to be careful what you choose to do during the day because your day is split into four segments and you can only perform a few activities before you and your band will need to get a good night's sleep.
Along with managing your band’s day-to-day you’ll also help influence the gigs. You’ll pick which song or songs for the band to play and any specific highlights that they should include when they play. You’ll then perform a pretty simplistic rhythm game earning XP the better you do. If you manage to impress, you’ll also get some much needed cash to help with your band’s future epic endeavours.
ROCKBEASTS managed to impress almost immediately with how great it looks and sounds. And I mean that. The soundtrack so far is truly incredible and made me want to listen to all of my favorite 90s alt rock hits. This is setting itself up to be a must-play title with a soundtrack I’ll be wanting to play on repeat.
ROCKBEASTS does not have a release date just yet, but you can wishlist the game on Steam now.