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
