Rocksmith 2014 is the sequel to Rocksmith. As its predecessor, it is a music game which uses an actual electric guitar as a controller, but now designed more as a learning tool than a game. The gameplay is essentially the same: notes are shown floating on a board towards an overlay of the guitar's fingerboard near the bottom of the screen and players must hit them as they reach it. The presentation, though, is different: there is no more a "journey" mode where the player progresses through events with set lists organized by difficulty. Instead, the game is guided by "missions", objectives that must be achieved in some of the available modes in the game. These modes are:

• Learn a song: as the name describes, here the player chooses a song to be learnt. Songs can be chosen in no particular order, but the game will recommend songs in a specific progression to help beginners to learn how to play the instrument. The game will also recommend specific lessons or techniques to be learnt or practiced, judging by the players' previous performance. While playing a song, the player can enter a mode called "Riff Repeater", where specific parts of the song can be chosen and repeated until mastery. There are several options in this mode, like setting a starting difficulty or speed; once the player reaches mastery in this level of difficulty or speed, the game will level up, increasing the difficulty or speed. Number of repetitions, error tolerance and the ability of viewing previous mistakes are also available.
• Session mode: in this mode the player jams with a virtual band. The player selects number and kinds of instruments to play with, the music genre, key, scale (pentatonic minor, for instance), tempo and complexity. The game then shows the main interface with highlighted notes through the fingerboard, telling the player what notes should be played to keep it in key and what notes to emphasize. The band has A.I. and is responsive to how the music is being played, so depending on the intensity or speed of the notes being played, it will follow the player.
• Nonstop play: in this mode players create a set list of one or more songs and plays them in sequence, with no intervals between them (except for tuning when needed).
• Lessons: here the player can access lessons from the simplest ones like holding the guitar or the pick to more advanced ones two-hands or harmonics techniques. The lessons are presented in video and then the player must practice what was shown. The game recognizes errors and tells the players where they did wrong and what it takes to fix it.

• Guitarcade: 11 mini-games allow the player to train specific techniques. They are:

  • Gone Wailin', a volume dynamics forced side-scroller;
  • String Skip Saloon, a string skipping game with an old-west shooter theme;
  • Ducks ReDux, a duck shooting fretting game;
  • Ninja Slide N, a game where the player controls a ninja slicing ghosts with slides;
  • Scale Warriors, a beat'em up scales game;
  • Return to Castle Chordead, a chords rail shooter resembling House of the Dead;
  • Hurtlin' Hurdles, a tremolo game with an Olympiad theme;
  • Temple of Bends, a bends platformer;
  • Scale Racer, an arcade racer game for practicing scales;
  • Star Chords, another chords rail shooter, now with a sci-fi theme;
  • Harmonic Heist, a game where the player controls the movements of a thief in a museum with harmonics.* Multiplayer: two players can play co-op in this mode (two Real Tone cables are needed).

• Tone designer: an assortment of guitar amps and pedals is available so players can create their own tone. The gear available ranges from actual manufacturers like Marshall and Orange to fictitious ones designed specifically to the game.