Bullet Witch has something for everyone. If you like zombies, it has plenty. If you like explosions, it has that too. It even has something for people who like girls in leather and schoolgirl outfits. About the only thing Bullet Witch doesn’t have is great gameplay. Now, this doesn’t mean that Bullet Witch is a bad game since many of its elements are pretty good. Rather, Bullet Witch is a disappointment since these components never come together the way they should.

Bullet Witch shows off a real mix of current gen and last gen visuals. Some of the game’s best moments come when setting off massive, staged explosions or while using some of the more spectacular spells. At the same time, these moments bring about shaky framerate issues.

If it is any surprise, Alicia’s character model has received the most attention, and looks really good. Then there are the zombies and soldiers you come across that are way too generic looking. The same goes for levels, which are big but at the same time all look the same.

Sound is loud and great until you get to the voice acting. None of the characters come off as very likeable and they tend of overact.

Story is irrelevant. All you really need to know is that the world has gone to pot; Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies; the dead rising from the grave, earthquakes, volcanoes... dogs and cats living together -- mass hysteria. As it turns out, the only person who can stop it is a leather-clad woman in black wielding a broom-shaped gun and magic.

Gameplay is about as straightforward as it can get; playing as our leather-clad heroine, Alicia, much of your time is spent navigating linear paths through a city dominated by weapon-wielding zombies. Your goal in each level is to hunt down creatures called Walnut heads, which are big floating brains that sound a lot like Cousin It if he were played by James Earl Jones sucking helium. After finding the Walnut heads, it is your job to kill them, unlocking parts of the level that were, until now, blocked by colored walls. The whole thing is like something out of a 90’s era FPS and would get really boring were it not for the magic system.

Though limited at first, Alicia’s powers are unlocked by spending skill points. These include the ability to summon as wall for cover, a telekinetic push and the ability to summon a flock of crows. Later on, she can also unlock the ability to summon Tornados, Meteors and Lightning. These latter two powers are, as you would expect, pretty powerful. The trade-off is that you need to aim them, which is a little harder than you’d think. Still, the damage is enough that you probably won’t notice that you’re off the mark.

Spells are fun to use during the game, and it is only after you start using them that you finally “get” Bullet Witch. At the same time, spells aren’t integrated into gameplay all that well and are rather finicky. The telekinetic push only works at certain distances and can only move predetermined items. While you can push a water tower down the street with on telekinetic push, the same exact power can’t be used on a lowly grunt. The unpredictability of spells goes much deeper than this. More than once I used a telekinetic push with the intent to pushing something in front of me, only to push something behind me.

Problems like these are what ultimately kill Bullet Witch. I can stand the visuals not being up to par, but the gameplay lacks direction and just seems thrown together at times. Even the areas that seem intricately planned never seem to work out the way they were supposed to, instead leaving you to try and improvise a way out. I’ll never fault a game for including improvisational play, after all that’s what makes games fun, but when it feels forced because the “real” way is broken – then we have a problem.

As far as length, Bullet Witch is about as long as Alicia’s pleated skirt. The entire game can be completed in short time. In its defense, more levels are supposed to be available for download, though as far as I can tell none have popped up for download yet.

Bullet Witch jumps between balanced and unbalanced with each new encounter. In the moments where the gameplay works, Bullet Witch is a lot of fun. Again, these are the moments where it is easy to see where the developers wanted to take the gameplay. However, moments of broken gameplay outnumber the working ones, making for an awkward playing experience.

There is no one area where you can really point out as being at fault. Rather than being one big problem, little nagging problems plague Bullet Witch. The A.I. is stupid. Sometimes they’ll attack on sight while at others, you can walk right next to someone and they won’t notice. The slow A.I. is “balanced out” by having enemies pop up behind you, even if you previously cleared the room. This only compounds the already hard-to-handle combat controls. Other problems include poor checkpoint placement, unpredictable spell effects and even the occasional clipping error.

Even though the spells bring a slightly different dimension to gameplay, Bullet Witch is a standard, no-frills third person shooter. Alicia’s main weapon is her gunrod, which has three forms. The first and most used form is the machine gun, which sprays bullets all over the place. Then there’s the shot gun, which is great for up-close combat and a sniper rifle. All gun types have their use at particular times, but I tended to just hurl cars (when I could) or run up and beat enemies with melee attacks.

Aiming takes some time to really understand. Bullet Witch uses the now familiar dual-analog setup. One stick moves, the other aims. Though it feels familiar, at the same time it feels very, very different. The targeting reticule feels too low, making it hard to aim. Clicking the right stick pulls the camera into the over-the-shoulder style that is currently in vogue, though even this doesn’t feel right.

One of the better mechanics Bullet Witch introduces is its health and magic gauges. Both gauges recharge over time, similar to the shields in Halo. The difference is that both gauges include a small bar that indicates the maximum level these can recharge to. The bar can only be moved up by shooting enemies, preventing you from simply hiding behind a wall and waiting until everything recharges. This introduces a fun dynamic which, again, is made disappointing due to directionless design and little errors.

Casting spells is more trouble than it is worth sometimes. Pulling up a spell requires that you hit the right bumper to bring up a casting wheel, at which point you can press one of the face buttons to cast the spell. To get to more powerful spells, you need to hit the bumper multiple times while at the same time trying to avoid taking damage. If you do manage to get hit, the wheel automatically closes and forces you back to the beginning. Once the spell is cast, you then have aim it and hope for the best.

I really, really wanted to like Bullet Witch and on some level I actually did. Gameplay and mechanics are faulty, but it is very easy to see where the development team wanted to take the game – they just never reached that point. At the same time, the flawed gameplay and the game’s repetitive nature aren’t worth paying full price. Bullet Witch is a rental at best, and a buy only if you can find it on sale.