Thank you Creature Label for providing us a review code for the complete edition!

Maestro begins with you on an empty stage whistling and pretending to conduct until a stuffy Frenchman wearing a white wig welcomes you as the new conductor. The odd fellow is named Eric and he will teach you the basics like controlling the tempo and bringing the musicians together with accents and dynamics. You will use your left hand to cue in various sections and fermata (holding/closing song sections). Tapping the podium twice will get the orchestra ready; when you move your hands to conduct the first note, the song will begin.

If you ever wondered how hard it would be to conduct an orchestra, Maestro will give you a taste of what it’s like. There’s more to it than waving around a stick. There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard) and on the easiest there’s not much of a challenge. Unfortunately, I felt like the timing was off on a few of the songs on the easiest difficulty. Easy mode is good for getting a feel for the songs and unlocking more content such as outfits for the orchestra, stage backdrops, conducting gloves, and themed batons.

On the podium is a big book where you'll find the music to choose from, difficulty levels, as well as the aforementioned cosmetic changes. When you select a song you'll get to read an informational piece about the song and its composer. This book has an illustration of the conductor bowing after the performance and he's only wearing a leaf.

After you select a song you'll hand it off to the French gentleman and the performance will begin. Though you can use just your hands, I found the game to be much more accurate when using the controllers. If you miss a note you'll hear an instrument mess up or a woodwind squeak. Upon earning five star performances you'll unlock an achievement for that song.

The base game includes fifteen tracks which has many popular classical songs, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of jazz tracks from the movie Whiplash! You can listen to the soundtrack on Spotify. Here’s the base game tracklist:

"The Ride Of The Valkyries" – Wagner
"Carmina Burana" – Orff
"Danse Macabre" – Saint Saens
"From The New World" – Dvorak
"Messa Da Requiem" – Verdi
"The Dance Of The Knights" – Prokofiev
"The Rite Of Spring" – Stravinsky
"Night On A Bald Mountain" – Mussorgsky
"Caravan" – Ellington
"Whiplash" – Levy
"Sing Sing Sing" – Prima
"The 5th Symphony" – Beethoven
"Swan Lake" – Tchaikovsky
"Figaro’s Wedding" – Mozart
"The Hebrides" – Mendelssohn

There are three themed DLC packs available and I highly recommend picking them up if you like the music within them. Here’s a breakdown of the available DLC:

Doom Bound
Tracklist:
Djawadi — "Main Theme" (from Game Of Thrones)"
Shore — "The Bridge of Khazad Dum (from "The Lord Of The Rings)"
Offenbach — "Orpheus in the Underworld : Can Can"
Shostakovich — "Symphony n°10"
Liszt" — "Totentanz"

Cosmetic Additions:
Altar back drop, bone needle baton, barbarian costumes for the orchestra

Duel of the Fates
Tracklist:
John Williams — "Duel of the Fates" (From Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace).

Cosmetic Additions:
Star Wars themed baton

Secret Sorcery
Tracklist:
"Hedwig’s Theme" (from Harry Potter) – John Williams
"The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" (from Fantasia) – Paul Dukas
"In the Hall of the Mountain King" – Edvard Grieg
"Symphonie Fantastique" – Hector Berlioz
"El Amor Brujo" – Manuel de Falla

Cosmetic Additions:
Coven backdrop, baguette magique baton

The music added into the game is hands down amazing. Sadly, the packs add some dark themes with coven and altar back drops and occult imagery including pentacles. Star Wars fans will appreciate the "Duel of the Fates" song, and who would not want to conduct with a lightsaber? Another moral concern worth noting is that you’ll be served champagne for good performances and will have tomatoes thrown at you for bad ones.

Steam has a demo available if you want to give the game a test drive. If you don’t like the magic elements, I would just stick with the base game for $24.99. The complete edition is a good bargain at $37.22 for everything. The song collection is top notch, and I had a lot of fun playing this. My son who conducts/drum majors in his high school band said that this game isn’t very accurate, but orchestra conducting is a whole lot different than being a high school or college drum major. Games are meant to be fun and Maestro sure succeeds there.