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Review: Maestro

One thing that really stood out to me when Maestro was announced, was we are getting a rhythm game based around classical music. Which is something different, in what is a popular genre for Virtual Reality. I have now been conducting some classical songs, do I think it will last the test of time?

Release Date: October 17th 2024
Developer: Double Jack
Publisher: Double Jack
Price: TBC
Reviewed On: Meta Quest 3
* Access Provided For Review *

Feel Like A Conductor

In the game you are the conductor, who will be conducting an orchestra across a number of iconic classical and jazz masterpieces. While doing this you will be playing a rhythm game mixing light and strong notes you need to follow with your baton, bringing in sections of the orchestra by pointing at them and requesting a crescendo/decrescendo by raising or lowering your hand.

This will see you conducting seventeen songs in total, including the likes of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Camille Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, Louis Prima’s Sing, Sing, Sing and Richard Wagner’s Ride of The Valkyries. Only a set amount of songs will be unlocked as you start but, they will all be unlocked before you get the bottom of the song list. You will also start with a standard theater, baton and costumes for your orchestra. While playing through the songs you unlock an additional three batons, three stage sets, three looks for your hands and four more stage costumes. These unlocks will cover a New York Street, the French Revolution and a grand hall – with the additional costume being a modern relaxed look.

The majority of the time I played for the review, this was done on normal difficulty, which is very entertaining and makes you feel like a conductor. Putting together the different notes, pointing to the section of the orchestra you want to join in and requesting a crescendo or a decrescendo really feels fluid even on normal difficulty. Moving onto hard difficulty and it really does ramp up, as it starts to add mixing more than one action at time. With you having to manage to hold crescendos and decrescendos notes in your peripheral vision while concentrating on following the flow of the notes with your baton. Personally I found this quite hard to pick-up and still not got this down perfectly in my time trying it for the review – but, the challenge is something that is welcomed on rhythm games.

As someone who shies away from using hand tracking, as I don’t feel the technology is quite there yet because, if you don’t have perfect lighting its easily lost – especially with fast movements. However, I did try a few songs with hand tracking on Maestro and didn’t face any issues. Will it replace using the controllers? For me personally it will not but, I was impressed with how well it worked.

One element of the rhythm game genre that is required is, keeping the game fresh with DLC or cultivating a modding scene for your game. With the game not yet being released it is not confirmed if this will be case with Maestro, I hope this happens to ensure the game retains an audience.

A Beautiful Stage Show

As mentioned previously you are going to get different batons, stage sets, hands and costumes across different settings. Most of the detail has been put into your hands, batons, costumes and stage sets on the standalone version. With the actual character models of the orchestra being passable and not breaking the immersion or overall look of the game. At the end of each song you will face the crowd and bow, the people in the crowd have even lower detailed models – but it’s not often you face the audience so, it does not take away from the game in any way.

Personally I prefer they have done it this way, as looking at the stage sets they look great and little details they have added really drag you into these scenes. For example: burning embers floating across the stage on the Revolution set – this does not only add to the scene but, also looks fantastic.

With the audio the team have made sure all the tracks are at a high quality bitrate – which is what you want with a rhythm game. They mix this with the sound of the crowd either enjoying and being disgruntled at your performance as the show goes on and the sounds from some of the sets. Then between your performances you are joined by an Eccentric French man, who will bring you champagne, roses and/or macaroons depending on the quality of your performance, and also guide you through the tutorial. He is one grumpy person with a sarcastic attitude, and is voiced well to portray the character in the game.

Comfort

The Verdict

The team at Double Jack have managed to make Maestro’s conducting feel authentic but, also kept the game feeling that makes rhythm games so addictive. It is great to see a game in this genre that has chosen to concentrate on iconic classical songs. Then mixing the notes, gestures and hand movements to make a flow that feels so natural to the songs you are conducting. With a good start to the song library mixing classical and jazz masterpieces and the great looking stage sets its a fantastic start to the game – but, the game song library getting extended overtime will be essential. Fingers crossed the team will bless us with more iconic songs and challenges to keep our hand waving at the orchestra, as the game does what it does really well.