Venetica - Gold Edition

I wanted to play this game since it came out. And I finally got the chance to do so in the end of 2021. Venetica is a psudo open-world action RPG that came out in 2009. For its release year, Venetica looks and feels kind of dated. Although the game offered players a few open areas to explore, they are more like different levels, you need to progress through the main storyline to unlock them. The combat is very basic hack and slash. There are four different weapon types with different play styles for players to chose from. Some enemies will require player to use certain weapon types to effectively defeat them. It's kind of annoying blocking is assigned as a 'skill' in the same category with magic attacks. Which makes it not as easy to perform if you're playing with keyboard. Fortunately you rarely need to block enemy attacks if you're playing on normal or lower difficulties. For higher difficulties, enemies simply delt more damage and have more health. The enemy AIs stayed the same braindead with all difficulties. You can simply lure enemies one by one and kill them off most of the time. Boss fights also do not feel too creative either. Each boss fights feels more like solving a puzzle. You either cannot deal any damage to them or you can kill them easily once you figure out the right method. As for the story, Venetica isn't too bad but it certainly lacks meaningful player choices compare to other RPG titles. Also there are a few cut scences got overly reused to the point they makes you want to skip them. There are two endings for the story, but they don't feel too different from each other. Overall, not a bad purchase for $2.99. But there are many better games out there to play

The game starts off with promise however fails to hold attention due to repetitive nature of the quests and dungeon crawling elements. The side missions are quite creative and believable and environments are visually quite interesting and interactive during exploration. Unfortunately, gameplay becomes monotonous when navigating your way through Venice undergoing petty tasks to progress the storyline. Venice itself is the main location of game and once there most of the games missions are based within the city itself. Sadly, there is simply not enough variety to keep the player captivated on a long term basis. I have played this game in multiple bursts and each time i did not necessarily feel excited about jumping back into it and eventually giving up completely and playing other games which offer more playability and fun in the long run.

Venetica has the soul of a point & click adventure game but with the coat of a messy Gothic/Fable hybrid. The city of Venice is fun to explore and has plenty of secrets, but the combat is painfully simple and the RPG elements a complete after-thought. Venetica strenghts lie in the city of Venice itself and its design, the themes of its different zones, the art-style, the weird characters that inhabit it, and the many different choices/paths the player can follow which can affect the story and other interactions. Though the setting and the art-style may be charming, it is a deeply flawed title with tons of jankiness, bugs, incredibly unpolished, which gets repetitive very soon, specially with terrible padding at the latter half. Venetica is a game that makes you constantly wonder what could've been, if it were not for the cut-corners, jankiness all over that end up bittering an overall enjoyable experience. THE GOOD: -Charming art-style. -Venice is fun to explore, full of secrets, paths and choices. -Cool art direction an architecture, Venice is an unique place. -The protagonist is endearing and grows on you. -Plenty of loot & equipment to choose from. -Plenty of choices that affect certain events in the game. -Good amount of content for a first playthrough (20hr main story + a few side-quests) THE BAD: -Unpolished, from animations to sound editing. Very janky and quite a few game-breaking bugs. -Gets very repetitive very soon. -Tons of unrealized potential. -Extreme, shameless padding half-way through.

Unpretentiously creative and fun, easy as fuck, and the MC is a cutie. Just enjoy a classic chosen one story well done, and the good world-building and art direction. The sound could use a little bit polish in levels but everything else is very nice. Art-wise, this is obviously done without normal baking so you'll be seeing pretty much the peak of what raw low-poly asset design can give. Also the work they put into things like transparency and cloth mechanics for this age it turned out relaly nice. And the stylization in the sculpting is not to be ignored as well. Most of the armor designs are a bit ridiculous but whatever, theres definitely a nice concept layer underneath all the assets and levels. Like I said this is no dark souls so just chill back and enjoy the ride, it's a fun time.

When this game was offered at a serious discount, I thought: "Why not!". As it turns out, Ventica is a very good game! Surprisingly so. The story is solid, if a bit cliche. Gameplay is solid as is the challenge. Controls and the hand-to-hand combat style is well done and thought out. Character development is fleshed out to a point that you feel an actual sense of accomplishment. I'm going to refrain from further descriptions because spoilers. Will close with the following thought, Ventica is a fun adventure worth the full price of admission! If you get it at a discount, bonus round! Either way, buy it, download, enjoy!