Rock Band 4 Getting "Brutal" Difficulty Mode, See It in Action Here Later Today

Is Rock Band 4's Expert mode not challenging enough for you? If so, you may be happy to learn that coming to the music game next week is an ultra-difficult "Brutal" mode, Harmonix announced today.

The note charts are the same as they are on Expert. The twist is that when the notes hit a new, transparent blue bar, they become invisible but you still need to hit them when they come across the strum bar. How far up the note chart the blue bar appears depends on how well you're performing.

If you're doing great, it'll be near the top, which looks punishingly difficult in this IGN video. If you're having a tough time, the blue bar will appear lower on the note highway, but you'll still have to get the timing right.

Harmonix also explains that, if you're playing in a group as a band, everyone must play on Brutal. Plus, no-fail mode is automatically toggled off when playing on Brutal mode.

Brutal Mode comes to Rock Band 4 on December 8 as part of a free update that also introduces another hardcore-focused option, "variable breakneck speed," as well as Fallout 4 costumes, a new taunt feature, bug fixes, and more.

Harmonix will showcase Rock Band 4's Brutal difficulty mode live on Twitch starting at 12 PM PST/3 PM EST today. You can watch the presentation right here in this post.

As stated previously, Rock Band 4 is the only Rock Band game that Harmonix plans to deliver for current-generation consoles. Instead of releasing Rock Band 5 or 6 in the coming years, the developer plans to add new features to Rock Band 4 over time through updates like the one coming next week.

For more on Rock Band 4, check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying.