I am a huge music lover; all kinds; I just love it. So even though I’ve never played any of the games from the Maestro series before, when I saw the new release, Maestro: Music from the Void, I just had to give it a shot. I mean, I love mystery and this is starring a detective, and I love music and this has the words "maestro" and "music" right in the title.

I’d be crazy not to give it a shot!

So, the backstory - in Maestro: Music from the Void, you play a tone deaf detective who’s been called in to investigate the disappearance of two children who attend a very elite musical school. Once on scene, however, it quickly becomes clear there’s more going on than just the missing kids (what with the ghostly shadow skeletons wreaking havoc all over the place).

So now you have to find out how to save the missing children and also how to handle the shadows; luckily you're given a clue that leads you to the Maestro’s violin, an instrument that will vanquish the shadows as you search...

Wait, hang on…aren’t I supposed to be tone deaf? Let me check my journal - yes, here it is. Right on the first page: I’m tone deaf.

So why am I playing the Maestro’s violin so well? A notoriously difficult instrument, and there I go, completely in key…That awkward moment when a complete side-comment throws me off my groove when it later goes against something that’s actually plot-relevant… It happens, I guess. 

Anyway, back to Maestro: Music from the Void. Tiny hiccups aside, I did enjoy playing. The plot was interesting, I loved the background music, and I was ok with most of the vocal talent (Voice Over Guy at the beginning did ham it up a bit). The whole thing was also visually gorgeous, so that doesn’t hurt.

One thing that interested me were the "add ons." For example, throughout the game you collect various instruments, and we’re promised that when we collect them all, we’ll get an awesome prize.

I also really enjoyed the musical ghost-shadow vanquishing. It was a little something that most games don’t have that set Maestro: Music from the Void a bit apart. Defeat ghost/shadow things? Don’t mind if I do.

I was less impressed with the puzzles, which were stupid simple in most cases, and the hidden object areas, which felt a little fussy to me. They were the kind where you have to find the object based on the silhouette and then use each item to find/attain the next (which I admit, I prefer over the list o’ crap kind), but I was playing in Casual mode and had a difficult time figuring out what I was supposed to do with which item.

I also don’t care for having to repeat the same scene; if I’ve cleared out the area around the bench, let me move on. Repeating myself makes me cranky, and if you wanted me to get that pot, you should have said so the first time. Still better than the list ones, though.

While I enjoyed Maestro: Music from the Void, it wasn’t really a homerun for me, although I have a difficult time pinpointing why. I liked the plotline, the graphics were lovely, I didn’t hate any of the voice actors, and I adored the background music.

I suppose in a way I feel as though there wasn’t really anything it that stood out as interesting or new; I mean, I liked vanquishing the ghost/shadow things with the violin I shouldn’t have been able to play, but other than that Maestro: Music from the Void just didn’t seem special.

As I admitted earlier I haven’t played any of the previous games in this series, and I wonder if that didn’t affect something…so here’s my question: have any of you played the earlier Maestro games? And if so, what did you think of this one? I’d love to know, so leave a comment and share your experience!