Rock Band 4

The gameplay is identical to the earlier games and the visual style is still based on animated characters and environments. One or more players use the instruments and microphone to play and sing through songs by following the cues on the screen. The score is based on accuracy. Certain sections are marked with coloured notes. When these are completed successfully, an Overdrive meter is filled. When sufficiently full it can be activated to double the score multiplier for a short while.

Freestyle solos are a new feature for the game. There are sections with solos for individual instruments where there are no prompts on the screen to follow. The player is entirely free to improvise, but to score there are a few general rules to follow. Using the guitar a blue colour shows the upper buttons need to be used and an orange colour the bottom ones.

In the main career mode a starting band is introduced who needs to make it to the top. Instead of just completing songs to progress, the game presents various options for gigs that hold certain risks and rewards, from the attendance of fans based on the chosen region to the amount of money that can be earned and the opportunities it opens for the future career.

The base game contains 63 tracks, with both new ones and some that were previously available as DLC for earlier games. The game also features a new mode called "shows", as a series of songs broken up in sets. Players can vote on the songs between or during parts of the song when their instrument is not active.