The Darkside Detective - Review

A number of years ago I went to Dublin for a Gaming Convention, a big part of that was Irish Developers showcasing their games.  One of my favourites was Spooky Doorway's The Darkside Detective, a fun point and click mystery adventure.  I kept meaning to play it but in honesty, I just kept forgetting about it, until now.


Soup. It is wondrous stuff if you're not sure what to eat or you're feeling under the weather it can really help.  One of my favourites is chicken noodle, it's hearty and real comfort food.  Playing The Darkside I found myself asking was this my comfort food?

Story


The story, or, rather the cases follow the adventures of Detective Francis McQueen and Officer Patrick Dooley.  They, or more correctly Detective McQueen help investigate the paranormal mysteries of the small town of Twin Lakes.  There are six cases and three additional bonus ones, with fun names like 'Malice In Wonderland', 'Tome Alone', 'Polterguys' and 'Loch Mess'.


Overall the cases are fun and have some great stories.  Being a point and click adventure most of the gold is in the dialogue. Some of my favourites include: 'why is there a hobo dripping all over my carpet','ah, come on now Detective, you're hardly going to arrest the weather' and a flaming trash can that says 'help me I'm on fire!'.

Visuals


The Darkside Detective is pixilated fun, it works really well, especially with it being a tongue in cheek mystery game.  While you might not expect much from 8-bit style adventure the visuals can often be quite stunning.  In particular the colourful lightning vortex, the Darkside train station and the Mayan Pyramid.


Overall the visuals manage to be simple, stunning and fun!


Music 

If you have ever wondered what the X-Files Music crossed with a chiptune would sound like it, it may sound something like The Darkside Detective.  It works really well and it's clear that composer Ben Prunty had a lot of influences for the eighties and nineties. Ben is an American composer who created the soundtracks for FTL, Colour Sky, Chromatic T-Rex, and Fragments.


The score runs a little over an hour and features some great tracks, my favourites include 'A Town Unlike Any Other', 'Happy Retirement', 'BETI', 'Smyth's Graveyard' and 'Revenge Of The Don'.


Overall a great soundtrack that really helped in making the game special.

Gameplay

The Darkside Detective is a classic point and click adventure.  What I liked about it most was its accessibility, what I have found in the past is that occasionally point and click games can be overly convoluted.  I have found some to be a little overly complicated with the puzzles and found myself asking 'how the hell was I supposed to figure that out?'.  The Darkside Detective allows you to enjoy it without having to spend to much time scratching your head.


Outside of solving puzzles there is some fantastic dialogue.  There are a lot of pop culture references throughout the game but instead of feeling clunky and overused they made me smile.  There are even jokes about the game itself and they work so well.


Overall the gameplay is a lot of fun and only a few times was I left feeling a little confused.




Final Thoughts 

So, after eight hours how did I feel?  Pretty good!  The cases were fun as were the characters you interact with.  The visuals and music work really well in creating the mysterious feel of the game. The gameplay is simple and fun, managing to move away from some of the more frustrating point and click adventures.  Overall this one gets a solid 4 out of 5

Lollipop Chainsaw - Review

I like most types of games, with the exception of maybe sports.  I really like when I find games that are off the wall, crass and not afraid to take risks, naturally I like Suda 51 games.  In particular Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw.   I recently decided to replay Lollipop Chainsaw, and below is what happened.


I like the occasional lollipop, that's not a euphemism.  I think it's because it reminds me of being a kid again, and enjoying being childish, I mean I still act childish now but not as much.  Chupa Chups is one of my favourites, I like the cola ones the best.   Playing Lollipop Chainsaw I found myself asking was this my cola flavoured lollipop?

Story

Juliet Starling is your average high school cheerleader.  Well apart from the fact she is a zombie hunter along with the rest of her family.  She has a regular popular high school boyfriend Nick...well sort of.  Due to a recent run-in with a zombie and a little ritual magic he is now living life as a head who now hangs off Juliet's hip.   Juliet with a little help of her family and Nick must save their town from the apocalypse.

Overall the story is a lot of fun, it's crass, and has a lot of subtle and not so subtle sexual innuendo.  It doesn't pretend to be more than it is and that's what makes it perfect and thoroughly enjoyable.

Visuals


You may expect that a game about zombies and the apocalypse would be quite dark and bleak.  In fact, it's almost the opposite.  The game is quite colourful, well apart from when you take on the bosses who are all evil musicians.   The visuals are in keeping with the fun and silly vibe of the game which is part of its charm.


Overall the visuals manage to blend colourful, dark and fun together seamlessly.


Music 


The music is a blend of 80's and 90's pop music mixed with rock and a little metal.  The composer of the soundtrack is composer Akira Yamaoka.  His works include, Killer is Dead, Silent Hill Collection HD, Shadows of the Damned, Silent Hill 4: The Room, and Sparkster.


The soundtrack runs at well over two hours and apart from the music composed by Akira Yamaoka there is also music by Sleigh Bells, Human League, Joan Jett, Dead or Alive, Toy Doll, Skrillex and The Caradettes.  My favourite tracks include, 'Eat This, Yumil', 'Bowel Purge', '1000 Cigarettes', 'Lollipop' and 'Riot Rhythm'.


Overall a fun soundtrack that suits the tone of the game.

Gameplay

Lollipop Chainsaw is a naughty blend of comedy and horror and has you take control of cheerleader Juliet Starling.  It's a fun hack and slash game which starts with some basics attacks that later grows to slightly crazier attacks.  Juliet has her chainsaw and body to defeat zombies, her secret weapon is her boyfriend Nick.  The aim of the game is to kill all the dark purveyors and eventually the defeat the ultimate evil.   The only real issue it suffers with are on occasion some awkward camera angles.


The game is full of crass comedy and sexual innuendo and some of the dialogue used in the game had me in stitches.  Some of my favourite Juliet lines being, "...you're like a cute little kitten that can't speak Japanese", "...the dumbest, most explodiest birthday cake ever", and "don't be a racist against cows Nick".


Overall it's a fun game and as long as you're not easily offended and enjoy killing zombies you'll love it!




Final Thoughts

So, after little over five hours how did I feel?  Pretty damn good!  It was great revisiting Lollipop Chainsaw and who knows next time I might try to finish it on the Very Hard mode.  The story is fun and often inappropriate, visually it's colourful, musically it's pretty good and the gameplay is lots of fun.  Overall this one gets a solid 4 out of 5

The Quiet Man - Review

I recently received an email from Square Enix, it was reminding that The Quiet Man was being released soon.  I hadn't heard of it so decided to check it out.  It seemed intriguing, the idea of the protagonist being deaf and the only language he knew being conveyed with his fists.  It got released this week and I thought why not give it a go?


I like snack foods, they are not filling but they are tasty.  Naturally, when I see a snack I haven't tried before I get excited.  Snyder's Pretzel Pieces Hot Buffalo Wing Flavour is a snack I tried some time ago, they were...not very good.  I liked the idea but, it just didn't work.  Playing The Quiet Man I found myself asking was this a bad choice of snack?

Story

The story is set in the 1920's and features John Wayne...wait...no...no that's not right.  That's the movie The Quiet Man, my bad.  The game has you play a deaf man called Dane, it seems that he has a troubled past and his present is not much better.  He is on the hunt for a kidnapper who looks like a birdman, who uses a wax seal of himself that looks a cross between the logo for Sonic and Knuckles and a Plague Doctor mask. 

The story has some interesting elements but never quite meets the mark.  The issue of playing a deaf character (and me not being great at lip reading) is that you miss most of the story, some of it you can work out but a lot of it you can't.  Nearer the end of the game things get really weird to the point it felt like the writers got fired and were replaced.  Their replacements glanced over the script and decided to try something out that just didn't work.  Overall a pretty disappointing story.

Visuals

'The Quiet Man is an immersive story driven cinematic action experience that seamlessly blends high-production live action, realistic CG and pulse-pounding action gameplay that can be completed in one sitting' says Square Enix.  Well, part of the statement is true, just not the part that says it seamlessly blends high-production live action with realistic CG.  The live action part looks good but as soon as you take control of Dane it all kind of falls apart.  The parts where you take control of Dane are dull and quite jarring.  In theory, it sounds cool but in practice, the visuals just aren't there.  

Overall the visuals fail to deliver and while the live action parts look good they can't make up for the bad CG.

Music 

The game only really features ambient noise, which I suppose makes sense considering you play as a deaf man.  The sounds are created by Human Head Studios sound engineer Jun Soo Noh, I was unable to find anything about his previous work.  There is, however, one song called 'The Quiet' by singer-songwriter Imogen Heap.

Overall there is nothing of note to mention, the closing song isn't bad but feels out of place with the rest of the game.

Gameplay

The Quiet Man is a Single-Player third person experience.  I don't want to start on a negative note but considering the rest of the review, I don't think you will be that surprised.  There is very little actual gameplay and is generally broken in two to three-minute chunks of combat before returning back to more live-action. The combat itself is clunky, attacks won't always connect and enemies getting stuck in doors and walls are commonplace.  Due to the fleeting combat sequences, there is never any time to get proficient in fighting and it often feels like you are winning based on luck rather than skill.  The same enemies will appear again and again and with the exception of 'boss' fights, there is no big change up.  There was a section close to the end where you have to fight off a large number of enemies in a bar, it took me a dozen tries to beat them and by the time I did I was close to rage quitting - which is something I just don't do.

Overall some dull, broken gameplay that needs a lot more work before even being mildly entertaining.

Final Thoughts

So, after three hours how did I feel?  Bad, really bad.  The story started out okay but then lost the thread of itself, visuals...next, music wasn't there and ambient noise was exactly that, the gameplay...just no.  I am unsure as to how Square Enix approved this game but they did.  This one gets a disappointing 1 out of 5

Persona 4 Golden - Review

A good number of years ago I worked for HMV and all was well.  I used to get a great discount and being a gamer this really helped.  I took it all for granted and alas they eventually put themselves out of business.  When this happened I was both sad and unsure as to what I would do next, it was at this point in my life I found Persona 4 Golden.  It helped get me through a tough time in my life and forget my woes.


Jacobs. Mini. Cheddars.  Mini cheesy biscuits, a great snack and you can never have enough of them.  I recently tried a new flavour, Red Leicester, they are a game changer.  They are super cheesy, so much so it feels like my eyes were rolling back in my head. Basically, they are good, really good.  Playing Persona 4 Golden I found myself asking was this super cheesy biscuit heaven?

Story


The story has you play as the high school student Yu, your parents send to you to the quiet town of Inaba to live with your Uncle.  Shortly after you arrive a strange spate of kidnappings and murders occur.  It turns out Yu along with some of his newly made friends might be able to stop all of this from happening.  That is the bare basics of the premise, and honestly anymore than that might spoil it for you.


There is a slew of side missions and activities to complete so you will never be stuck for something to do.  You can hang out with your friends, study, fish, work and that is just some of the things available, all of which have their own stories.


Overall Persona 4 Golden has a really great well-paced story, and anytime you want to take a break from saving the town of Inaba you will find plenty of other things to do.

Visuals


When you are dealing with a handheld console you automatically need to reduce your expectations visually, if for no other reason then the fact they aren't powerful as a standard games consoles.  However, playing Persona 4 Golden my expectations were exceeded greatly.  The cute style of the town looks great and works really in making the various dungeons you will visit stand out more.  As if this was not enough they also have a healthy sprinkling of high-quality anime sequences which look amazing.


The character designs are really cool, especially the Personas you can summon, and some of the enemies look so outlandish, but in a good way. Similar to the story I don't want to mention any of my favorite areas as it is difficult to do so without revealing too much.


Overall Persona Golden is visually impressive and a delight to explore.



Music


The score is like an onion, that has many layers to it.  There is the upbeat pop style layer, the somber layer, and the 'things are getting intense' layer.  This interesting onion is composed by Japanese composers Shoji Meguro and Atsushi Kitajoh.  They have worked on the Shin Megami/Persona Series, Catherine, and Trauma Centre New Blood.  The vocals are supplied by Shihoko Hirata and Rie Kugimiya.  The two of them combined has worked on Persona 4 The Animation, Catherine, Persona 4 Dancing All Night, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Fairytale to name but a few.


The score runs at over two hours, my favorite tracks include...well I didn't list any.  The reason being is that there were so many I liked it was easier to list those I didn't like...which is none.  Overall a fantastic score that I never get tired of listening to.

Gameplay


So...much...gameplay!  Persona 4 Golden is a JRPG, and while I have played a number of RPG's I've never played a JRPG.  The best and worst part of Persona 4 Golden is the amount you can do in it, there is literally so much, in fact, it can be a little overwhelming.


First, you have the combat system, it's turn-based, which is my preferred playstyle with RPG's.  There are good old fashioned physical attacks and Persona attacks.   The Persona attacks can vary hugely depending on which ones you use.  Personas can be collected or fused together to create whatever you need to overcome any enemy.


The biggest appeal for me was all the things you could do when you weren't fighting.  There is making friends and building those relationships, which in turn has a direct effect on the Personas you can create.  There are jobs which can be a great way to make money but also have the added benefit of creating new relationships.  There are clubs like basketball, soccer, and band.   There is fishing, butterfly catching, model making, reading, gardening and those are just the things I can think of off the top my head.


The second playthrough was even more than my first, due to the experience I had gained from the first time around.  Overall the gameplay is fantastic and while the amount of things you can do does feel a little overwhelming it's also nice to always have something to do!




Final Thoughts


So, after seventy hours (on this playthrough) how did I feel?  Awesome.  I loved the story, visuals, music and gameplay.  In honesty, it's hard to fault the game.  I'm already looking forward to the next time I play it, lucky enough I still have Persona 4 Arena, Persona 4 Ultimax and Persona 4 Dancing All Night to play - yay!  This one gets a super solid 5 out of 5

Strange Flesh - Review

Some time ago I made a list of all the games I remembered playing.  Since then I have continued to add to it and I have just hit the seven-hundred mark.  There are highs and lows within that list, good games and bad.  But there are few games that so are so different they are in a league of their own, games like Catherine, Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw, Project Rub, and The Rub Rabbits.  Each of them is quite different from any other games I have played, and I'm now adding Strange Flesh to that list.


I love sausages, more so as I have gotten older, perhaps it is due to the huge variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors available.  They can be simple or diverse and can be a great snack or a meal.  I guess what I am saying is no matter what there is a sausage for everyone.  Playing Strange Flesh I found myself asking was this too much sausage for me?

Story


The focus of the story is Joe, a guy working in an office who is clearly unhappy with his life.  On one fateful night, he finds himself wandering the streets looking for a bar to drink in.  It seems like he won't find one but then out of nowhere a bar appears, the name reads 'Strange Flesh Bar'.  Joe enters and immediately feels uncomfortable as it turns out Strange Flesh is more than just a bar, it's a sex club for men.  Despite feeling perturbed he stays and is silently beckoned over by the bartender.  After receiving a drink on the house Joe starts to divulge his woes while enjoying the aroma of the bartender's cigar smoke.  Shortly after Joe blacks out and the bartender takes over.


The game has you play as the bartender whose role is to help free Joe's mind from all that is holding him back.  In the beginning, things are tame and depict a generally stressed and worn-out man, but as you delve deeper into his mind the true nature of his unhappiness becomes apparent - the repression of his true sexual self, as a gay man. While the deepest levels are inundated with sexually explicit imagery, this simply serves to illustrate how much his repression is negatively affecting Joe.


While it would be easy to dismiss the game as a being a purely sex-fueled game it is about more than that, it's about someone who is unhappy not only because of his job but also because he has repressed and denied himself happiness.


Overall a really interesting story, that isn't afraid to let it all hang out there and take risks.

Visuals


The artwork in Strange Flesh is really cool and it reminded me of Streets of Rage 3.  It's very colorful and over the top, but in a good way.  The bartender himself looks like a cross between The Hulk and the Terminator, which is an interesting look that works well. There are crazy-looking character designs including Columbian Joe, who is Joe crossed with a coffee pot, and fister who is mostly comprised of fists, one of which sticks out of its butt and is used to attack you.


Strange Flesh is never afraid of showing sex of a graphic nature, this is particularly notable in the Den of Lust section.  The background shows different versions of Joe carrying out a variety of sex acts.


Overall the visuals are impressive and while there is no shortage of sex both in the background and foreground it rarely felt overly crass.


Music 


The soundtrack is pretty awesome and has a very electronic sound.  The music is created and composed by Fann, unfortunately, I couldn't find any other information on this person so I am unsure as to what they may have worked on before.

The soundtrack runs a little over thirty minutes and is made up of fourteen tracks.  My favorite tracks included 'Six Six Sixty-Nine', 'Bartender Lure', and 'Coffee Break'.

Overall an awesome soundtrack that works really well with the game,  so much so that I download it from SoundCloud.

Gameplay

Strange Flesh was created by Greatest Bear Studios, which is comprised of a team of three, Blazing Cheeks, Ursa Maximus, and Fann.  The gameplay goes for an old school beat em' up style which is a lot of fun.  There are your basic attacks, you can jump, grab and then there are the special moves.


The bartender is able to use his cigar smoke in many interesting ways.  One way is to blow smoke at the figments and apparitions of Joe's mind which gets them to fight for you.  If you grab two of them and blow smoke in their mouth they become horny and will eventually get off with each other.  Once your gauge is high enough you can pull off an area attack that downs all enemies.  On occasion, it is possible to dominate the downed enemies and have sex with them.  Each of these actions gives you more submission points.


Joe's mind is filled with many different versions of himself, from simple Disinterested Joe to muscle-bound Fiery Joe.  Everything you encounter is another part of Joe's subconscious, some of them will be easier to defeat than others and the final boss is a little challenging.


Overall the game offers some really fun gameplay, while it is more intense than I would expect in a video game, I can appreciate its relevance and meaning within the context of the story.

Final Thoughts

So after nearly three hours of playing how did I feel?  Good, really good.  The story was interesting, and the artwork was awesome as was the music.  The gameplay was a lot of fun and as a whole, the game was not afraid to take risks and be unabashed.  This one gets a solid 4 out of 5

Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 - Review

It feels like an age since I have written a review, it turns out it has only been two weeks.  I started replaying Persona 4 Golden Week and I am struggling to put it down.  Sometimes though you need to take a break from playing a game so you can play another one.  Recently myself and my Nollsy played Guns, Gore and Cannoli and we had a lot of fun, so when we saw a sequel had just been released we thought hells yeah let play it.


I like cannoli, they work really well with coffee. Wait? What?  I know what you are thinking  I said this only recently.  I did, but this time it's a little different.  Have you ever eaten a stale cannoli?  It looks okay from the outside but on the inside, it's barely filled and is dried out.  Playing Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 I found myself asking was this worthy of the name cannoli?

Story

Vinnie Cannoli is back in the fray and this time it's personal, well it was personal last time, this time it's extra personal.  This time the game is set in 1944, and the event of the first installment has been swept under the rug.  Vinnie ends up getting dragged back to Thugtown and takes a trip to Europe during World War II.

The story is all over the place and not in a comical weird kind of way but just nonsensical. The story has the feeling that you are constantly being set up, which is a little derivative as this was the plot of the first game.  But in honesty it's more than that, everyone wants you dead even though they actually want you alive?!  Vinnie's dialogue is similar to the first game and one of his standout lines was 'some turds are just too big to flush'.

Overall the story is similar to the first game with two exceptions, it doesn't make any sense and also it doesn't make any sense.

Visuals

I have to give props for the visuals they are fun and quite comical for such a dark backdrop.  There is more attention to detail and some of the level designs look great.  My favorites being the Normandy beach landing, the Theater and the Secret Research Base in the woods.

Overall the visuals are improved and only suffer one issue, for some reason this time the camera is panned out quite far.  Great for enjoying the view, not always great when trying to see where you are.

Music 

The score is pretty similar to the first game focusing on a twenties sound.  The score is once again is created by Belgium composer Matthias Claeys who worked on the music for Empire, Siegebreaker, and Coin Army.

The score runs a little over twenty minutes, my favorite tracks being 'Tank Boss Theme',  'Normandie'

and 'Storage Radio Mix'.  

Overall the soundtrack isn't bad but no risks were taken and you would be forgiven for thinking it was the same as the music from the original game.

Gameplay

Sooo, the gameplay.  The first game had a number of issues with the gameplay, it seems like the developer realised this too.  Instead of making minor tweaks they instead ended up doing a 360, you read that right.

The first issue is that it looks like your character is far away, it helps show off the visuals but it is also quite easy to lose track of where you are.  There is now a menu wheel for your weapons, this takes up a large section of the screen and becomes really awkward if both of you are trying to change your weapons.  It's okay in theory but the game is fast paced and having a wheel taking over such a large portion of the screen is crazy.  The game now allows you to shoot and aim upwards, yay!  The only problem is you have one analog stick for movement and another for aiming.   I know what you might be thinking, what's the big deal?  Well for you average release no problem, but for a 2D side-scroller it is needless fiddley and hampers the gameplay.

There are now cars featured in the game that try and run you down, they are kind of fun and add a new element.

Boss battles...boss battles are...they are...a little frustrating.  They are generally quite long and have too many parts to them.  I like a challenge, it's fun but the bosses in this game are just annoying.  In Cuphead, for example, they were tough but they were doable there was a pattern to it, but in Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 they were just a pain.

Unusually the game silences all swears and even removes it from the on-screen text.  Except for crap, crap apparently is not a swear word which seems to me like a load of $#*!

Final Thoughts

After what felts like twelve hours but was only about five hours how did I feel?  Disappointed.  The sequel had the chance to really improve on the first game, but it didn't and in many ways went backward.  The story was all over the place, the visuals were good, the music was okay but no great changes and the gameplay, oh the gameplay.  Overall this one gets 2 out of 5

Past Cure - Review

Earlier this year Past Cure was released, which is a third-person psychological thriller.  It caught my interest due to the story.  It got slatted quite badly when it came out, but rarely does something like that stop me playing a game.  I saw it pre-owned the other day and thought to myself, why not take the risk?


I like spare ribs done in most styles.  There is one though that does not really do it for me, which Peking Style.  I like Peking Duck but for some reason, it just does not quite do it for me, even though in theory it should.  Playing Past Cure I found myself asking was this just not a tasty style?

Story

The story sees you follow ex-soldier Ian who has can't remember the last three years of his life.  His brother Marcus has put him up in his swanky beach house to help him recover.  Ian wants nothing more than to remember, mostly because he is having scary ass nightmares and hopes that if he remembers what happened he might be able to get rid of them. The worst thing for Ian is that sometimes the dreams start becoming real and trying to keep sane is a full-time struggle.  Luckily he has magic blue pills to keep things in control.


It sounds like an interesting story, right?  It is but it's told poorly, and it was hard to get invested in Ian.  The ending semi-pays off but in honesty, it's all pig and no bacon (I just made that up, not sure if it works).  Overall it is not the worst story but could use a lot more development.

Visuals 


At first glance, the visuals look reasonable but I quickly realised I was mistaken.  Most of the buildings and locations you enter have a very modern look and feel, very minimalist.  However, playing the game I could see this was less to do with an intended design and more to do with possible budget restrictions.  It looks like a game that was released on the XBOX 360 or PlayStation 3, which would be fine if it wasn't 2018.  The nightmare sequences seem interesting at first but very quickly look dull.


Overall not a very exciting visual experience and is in need of more development.



Music


The score is purely backing music and there is not anything engaging or exciting about it, with the exception of the closing credits song.  The composers are Roman Duda, Charlotte Jacobs, and Jen Paeyeneers.  I was unable to find any real information on the composers or their previous works.


The score has eight tracks and runs at just over forty minutes, the only tracks that really stood out were the 'Atmos Fight' and the ending song.  Overall very underwhelming.

Gameplay


Past Cure is a third-person psychological thriller, which sounds exciting, unfortunately, it is not.  Even basic movement feels clunky and awkward, melee combat isn't fun at all, and the cover system is almost non-existent.  The weapons in the game are not very accurate, often shooting an enemy in the head who was only ten feet away would end up missing him altogether.


Early on we learn that Ian has been experimented on and this has granted him certain abilities.  Time Manipulation, Astral Projection and Mind Blast.  Most of the time these abilities will be used to solve puzzles.  The puzzles themselves feel clunky, but most of the time this comes down to the ability being awkward to control.


The thing that scares me is that Past Cure was released this year and got really negative reviews.  Since then Phantom 8 Studio has released patch 1.05, which makes improvements to story and gameplay.  So the version I played is the improved one?  I'm curious what it was like before then.


Overall some disappointing gameplay that could have been so much better.




Final Thoughts

So, after six-plus hours of playing how did I feel?  Disappointed.  The story had some interesting parts to it but just never quite reaches its full potential.  The visuals, music, and gameplay all feel bland and underdeveloped.  This one gets a low 1 out of 5