Atari's Bullet Witch starts out with a lot of promise, but ultimately ends up being just another average shooter with a few awesome moments that gamers will love. The problem is that those moments are few and far between as you kill the same bad guys over and over again and are lead down the primrose path to a big boss battle. You never really get to know the protagonist in Bullet Witch, who is yet another loner with very little to say that's not quite fleshed out enough to be cool. It's a shame really, because the game's story and subject matter could have been downright awesome with some more work and refinement in a few key areas.

In Bullet Witch you jump into the pointy boots of Alicia, a soulless witch with the power to wield magic and a giant broom that serves as a multi-purpose weapon. Besides being useful as a close quarters melee weapon, Alicia's broom can be used as a machine gun powered by magic bullets. Although we never quite understand why, our heroine is on the hunt for demons that have done her wrong. She's also out to save what's left of humankind in this future earth where cataclysm after cataclysm has turned the planet into outhouse. Add to this a portal where demons enter the earth freely and you have the makings for an old time apocalypse of biblical proportions. So off you go, your black dress gently flowing as you gracefully cartwheel and jump out of harm's way, firing your immensely large gun broom at undead and using magic like nobody's business on your quest to right wrongs and exact revenge.

As you battle in wide open environments through cities, suburbs and the forest, you'll have to find the keys that unlock color coded force fields at every turn. These fields are created by a being called a walnut head, which are best described as humanoids whose brains are the size of beanbag chairs with normal sized bodies. They float in the air and have the uncanny ability to lift and toss objects at you with the immense power of their brains. Shooting these guys until they explode will lift the barrier.. which ultimately leads to yet another barrier controlled by some other walnut head. Most of the game is spent tackling this kind of stuff, and while it is certainly a new take on the old action game key hunt of yesteryear, it's still basically the same old gameplay mechanic we've all come to know. Because you have to knock out these barriers -- most of the time in a specific order -- Bullet Witch's gameplay is very constrained and linear. Throw into the mix the lack of enemy variety and you quickly understand that a good portion of the game is pretty formulaic.

The important thing to note is who developed this game because it has a lot to do with what kind of experience it ultimately is in the way it looks, feels and plays. The game was developed by Cavia, a company best known for creating action role-playing game hybrids like the Drakengard series. Bullet Witch borrows its core controls from that game, but adds some nuances of its own like dodging that comes off as a little too poetic and gunplay that feels a little tight and constrained. One of the biggest problems with Bullet Witch is what is supposed to be its main attraction - gunplay. A lot of this may have to do with the cumbersome nature of your implement of destruction, which can be unwieldy at times due to Alicia's small stature and its rather bulky and long shape. Combine that with controls that feel a little too tight, and you get the pacing that this game offers.

Alicia's controls are like a light version of Lost Planet's control scheme, but without all the refinements. You can fix some of this by adjusting your settings but for the most part the pace is really slowed down by it. When you are on the top of a jumbo jet shooting eyeballs you want to be able to turn north, south, east and west on a dime, but Bullet Witch doesn't offer a control scheme conducive to this kind of action.

Bullet Witch isn't all bad though. The magic system in the game is pretty fun to utilize, once you get past the awkwardness of accessing it. To access the "magic wheel" you'll have to hit the RB or LB buttons, then cycle through it and then hit the button that corresponds to the spell you want to use. Keep in mind, you have to do all this in real-time, so while you are fiddling around in the interface, bad guys are shooting at you. Once you learn to accept this and can manage it quickly, the magic in the game can be pretty fun, and at times downright awesome.

There are spells like Will Power, which allows you to push objects like cars, trucks, and other debris at your enemies; there's a spell that impales enemies in a certain area with thick and deadly spikes; and then there's the more visually stimulating spells that do massive amount of damage like Lightening. While some of the magic isn't all that awe inspiring, a small portion of the spells you'll have access to are incredible and worth experiencing.