[Editor’s Note: Be sure to join IGN and Harmonix for the world gameplay premiere of Rock Band 4 in our live stream on Friday, May 15 at 12pm PT/3pm ET/7pm GMT. That's 5am AEST on Saturday.]

see deal Rock Band 4 - PlayStation 4 $59.99 on Gamestop

Many would agree that Rock Band 2 was the peak of Rock Band’s campaign design. Rock Band 4

Loading

“ You’ll – as a band – be able to vote on a setlist.

Loading

“A gig is a new structure that we’ve put into Rock Band 4 to sort of capture the feeling of a live performance,” Lead Designer Chris Foster told IGN. It’s also an incredible way to have an extra layer of fun, or cause tension with, the people you’re playing with.Here’s hoping Rock Band 4 doesn’t cause any band breakups.Essentially, Gigs operate similar to older games’ Setlists, or Rock Band 3’s Challenges. “It’s a series of songs subdivided into a series of sets with set breaks,” said Foster. A Gig we played involved four songs in two sets of two. A set break between each duo had stuff we’ve never seen in Rock Band before.“If you’re the vocalist, you’re able to perform a sort of stage patter…it’s sort of like adding some LARPing to your Rock Band experience,” Foster said. “You’re sort of role-playing a different event that is sort of happening offstage, or got you to the show in the first place inside the campaign, we’re using them to deliver the narrative experience.”So what does that mean, gameplay-wise?“They need to be really fun to play,” Foster said. “Particularly as the crowd is reacting. So, you’ll do your crowd work as a vocalist, the band will play a couple of songs, and then you’ll take another break. And in those breaks, you’ll be able to do a lot of voting. In some cases, there’ll be a set list that is predefined, like in previous Rock Bands. But in other cases, you’ll – as a band – be able to vote on a setlist.”Choices appear between sets, drawn from your music library and the gig’s theme/genre. Bandmates have a limited time to choose the song they all wish to play -- which could lead to interesting, awkward interactions with you band. Your guitarist may decide on a spectacular, fun song the vocalist doesn’t know, or can’t sing to properly. An exhausted drummer can vote for something laid-back, while the rest of his bandmates troll her with a gnarly drum solo track.“It becomes a really interesting collaborative and competitive experience, as you’ll have people say what they want and what they absolutely don’t want,” Foster said. “It’s fun, because when you’re beat-matching, it’s tunnel vision; you’re focused on your instrument, you’re barely aware of other people if they’re falling out or if you can save them. But the moments between songs, we’re able to come up with these other game experiences, and they can be really fun.”

Fighting or messing with your band isn’t necessarily to your advantage of course. You can carry over your multipliers and Overdrive power between songs during gigs, adding a small but interesting extra layer of strategy that can affect your band’s score.

Gigs can be played for kicks in a party setting, for sure, but they’re also core to Rock Band 4’s campaign -- which involves an interesting branching narrative similar to an RPG. We’ll have more on that for you later this month.For more on Harmonix’s upcoming rhythm game, check out Everything You Need to Know About Rock Band 4 , and stay tuned to IGN for more First reveals all May long.

Mitch Dyer is an Editor at IGN. He hosts IGN Arena , a podcast about MOBAs. Talk to Mitch about Dota 2, movies, books, and other stuff on Twitter at @MitchyD and subscribe to MitchyD on Twitch