Venetica - PC

If there is one game that falls under the classification of "unjustified scorn" Venetica is probably it. Atari obviously believed Venetica would do well beyond Europe and by all accounts it should have. After some scathing reviews I was afraid to buy the game. Accusations of piss poor graphics and bugs aplenty deterred me from Venetica as if it were a plague ridden leper.When the game was practically "nothing" I took a risk. I invited Scarlet into my home and said "Okay lady, you're on trial. How do you plead?" It was then Scarlet presented the key to my heart. She tearfully recounted how she was slandered unfairly. "If you merely give my game a chance you will not regret it." Needless to say I'm a sucker for big doe-like eyes and pouty lips!As rpg enthusiasts we've put up with a lot over the years haven`t we? I was a person that bought Fable 2 and Fallout 3 at launch and both those titles were buggy as a tick infested sleeping bag. This isn't to say they were "bad games". They just needed more polish! So if you're sensible like me you may beg to ask "Well gee, why does something like Fallout 3 carry a 90 something on meta-critic despite it's myriad flaws whereas Venetica gets crucified and left out for the crows to eat?` The answer is simple. We have nostalgic beer goggles for certain brand names whereas something "new" that pops up out of the blue makes us more apprehensive. It's not fair but it's human nature.In my many hours playing Venetica I've completed many quests. I killed a cultist who turned into a serpentine she-devil with multiple tentacles. I helped a smith from my small home-town set up shop in Venice. I fought a giant lobster "thing" in the sewers. I used my blood tithe ability to sap the life out of a high flying gargoyle within an abandoned house to acquire a crest for a city watchmen who in turn gave me a key so I could open the inner city gate for a wizened female necromancer. Heck, I even fetched some carrier pigeons for a less than reputable inn keeper. Throughout it all I kept waiting for something to break. For that one "mission" to suddenly become undoable. Call me lucky or call me blessed but none of the "rumored bugs" popped up. Sure, one time I got stuck on a ladder and another time the game froze when I talked to a trader but all I had to do to remedy that is "restart my progress" from the last auto save. (Apparently there's also an urban gaming legend "auto saves" don't work in Venetica but so far they've served me well!)Perhaps the biggest problem with Venetica is it can be somewhat picky. For example for my blood tithe ability to work on the gargoyle I had to practically stand right under the creature. When I tried using the same power further off to the side it wouldn't react. While talking to a young fighter who inherited his father's forge it seemed as if options were missing from the dialogue wheel shortly after I said I wanted to help the smith I knew get "authentic papers" to prove his worth. Later when I had 3,000 ducats the other dialogue choices appeared again and I was able to pay the lad off whom was more than happy to give the forge over to my black-smith comrade. Lastly there was my hunt for the "Gripper Queen" (giant lobster thing I mentioned earlier) and though the set markers on my map seemed "wrong" they were actually right. Aka I had to go beneath the bridge and swim around a bit to find the mote into the catacombs as opposed to walking topside. Venetica certainly tries it's damnedest to fool you into thinking it is "broken" but 9 times out of 10 the game is still chugging along smoothly with nary a hiccup!Oh , there are obvious problems though. Certain spoken lines of narration are repeated between conversation flows. The lip synching is barely serviceable. I suppose if you're hung up on "uncanny valley graphics" you might also complain Venetica looks a bit like a medieval 3 dimensional interpretation of any number of Saturday morning cartoons we endured as children. (Remember Dragon`s Lair, Gummi Bears, Pirates of Dark Water, The Hobbit animated movie, Conan the adventurer, and Dungeons and Dragons?) Be that as it may, if you're simply wanting a game that is fun with an engrossing story-line these trivial matters will do very little to deter your enjoyment!For me Venetica is like a Fable game with a more interesting main character. In addition, instead of having to worry about "kingly rulings" or "land-lord property management tripe" I was allowed the privilege to run around akin to a true adventurer with nothing to pull me out of the intrigue. Sure, you can join one of many guilds. You can become a trader too but fortunately you're not forced into playing boring mini games and arranging furniture in miscellaneous hovels merely to make ends meet. I also prefer how Scarlet "talks" to people. You still get to decide if she's kind, cruel, or simply sarcastic yet your choices aren't diluted into random acts of farting, singing, gift giving, and juggling flaming kittens!Starting off the check list of topics Venetica has an interesting plot and mythos. No other rpg has allowed me to be the daughter of Death in a quasi-realistic historical setting. (Fret not. This is divulged very early on. Another-words, I`m not spoiling anything.) Soon I was allowed to enter the spirit world, sap "twilight essence" from slain monsters with my mystic moon blade to store up a plentiful supply of resurrections, and see through the eyes of nearby ravens. As if that wasn't completely awesome already, a varied plethora of necromantic spells and fighting arts began to be unearthed as I traveled from one exotic to the next in search of wise eccentric teachers! Scarlet's tale of revenge, love, and self discovery almost comes off as a European take on old Kung-Fu martial arts films. The "path" is equally important to the destination. Indeed, the more you put into Venetica the more it rewards you in turn.Combat in Venetica is real time. Blades flash with crescent blurs of reflected light and spells explode forth and crackle around those unfortunate enough to be in the way. Scarlet also rolls around her foes in an attempt to escape their frenzied assaults. Due to its' action adventure roots Venetica is much more enjoyable with a controller plugged into one of your pc ports in my opinion. I gave it a go with the keyboard but it didn't feel right to me at all.My only complaint about battles is mobs of enemies are sometimes more difficult than an actual boss. There's a long portion of the game that can be spent without armor and though acrobatics and blocking do help, it still sucks to take ridiculous amounts of damage from the lowest of scum! Weapons are their own enigmas begging to be mastered. Each one has advantages, disadvantages, and their own skill trees. For example a war-hammer is a "high risk" and "high reward" mauler. If you hit you'll more than likely crush an adversary into jelly but if you miss it leaves you wide open for lethal counter attacks. The war-hammer can also be used to break down boarded up obstructions. To further elaborate my point, some creatures can only be killed with the moon-blade. If you try smiting them with something else they merely get back up again as if you tickled them into a laughing fit with a feather. Keep in perspective you can swing a spear yet lack the knowledge to block with it. Furthermore, if your newly purchased "block skill" isn't assigned to an arrow key on the D-pad it's bloody well useless to you. For many gamers this may seem frustrating at first but once you "get it" these routines become instinctual akin to breathing.Well, there you go. I painted the picture and you're left to decide whether or not it's pleasant to immerse yourself in. Suffice it to say, if you've ever been enamored with character driven action adventure rpg hybrids akin to Fable, Zelda, Soul Reaver, Legacy Of Kain, or Nier "Venetica" is a great purchase!Scarlet, I henceforth judge thee "wonderful" and sentence you to an island paradise inhabited by all the other unsung champions of gaming goodness. Tell Agent Francis York Morgan (And Zach) I said hello!For you ifAgain, if you're not rigidly obsessed with uncanny valley graphics and can forgive a few audio mishaps and minor glitches Venetica is a "perfect pick up" so long as you enjoy action adventure rpgs with moral choices, guilds to join, and multiple endings! The story itself is more original than detractors give it credit for and "the side characters" certainly grow on you and become endearing!Not for you ifRpgs fans are a diversified lot. To certain individuals under this broad classification Venetica may come off as a little too 'stream-lined" and "button-mashy" to be able to hold up against more expansive and complex offerings of this genre. If you prefer meticulous customization, huge sprawling fiefdoms with hundreds of random events outside the main quest, and creating your own character Venetica probably wasn't designed with you in mind. Put bluntly, You're not living your own life in Venetica. Like it or hate it, Scarlet's shoes are tied firmly to your feet. You can determine her behavior to some extent but the things which happened to her are set in stone as her past and there's no way to escape this. If Oblivion is about "the world" being the star attraction Venetica is more concerned with the "characters" who inhabit it. One type of rpg is a survivalist reality show safari and the other type is an interactive dramatic play where the audience gets to vote on what the actors will do next during ballot box intermissions . Both approaches can be fulfilling and both approaches have their faults!Pros+Strong and fascinating female protagonist+ Conspiracies (I love conspiracies)+ Gorgeously rendered environs that include Venice and Africa.+Romance for the female gamers+ Naughty costumes to collect for the male gamers (Though I'll stick with the armor types myself. Survival of the smartest, aye?)+Down to earth and endearing NPCs.+Possibly the best lock picking mini game ever devised!+Many opportunities for branching choices and unique responses.+3 different endings+Fighting each boss in the human world and the spirit world keeps the battles epic and engrossing.+Being a sexy necromancer babe fulfills multiple fetishes at once!+ Weapon types have their own merits and flaws+ Many of Scarlet's "powers" are truly unique and a blast to use on her foes!+Compatible with an Xbox 360 controller hooked up to the pc+Seeing from a bird's eye view is a neat gimmick that is helpful to boot.Cons-There are at least a few randomly occurring glitches such as getting stuck on a ladder or having the game freeze during conversations. (Being able to save at anytime helps ease off the frustration considerably though)-Game is often obscure about telling you exactly what you have to do in order to progress.-There are flaws aplenty in the recorded audio conversations and with the lip synching-Hordes of lesser enemies are more challenging than the actual bosses-Finicky hit-box detection rears its' ugly head during certain objectives (Flying gargoyle I'm looking at you!)-Having to map a "block ability" to the D-padBias OpinionEurope has blessed me with excellent yet under-appreciated rpgs lately. First there was Divinity II: Dragon Knight saga coupled with Sacred Gold and now there's Venetica! It's fast dawning on me always trusting review sites and metacritic is short sighted. To find those "rare gems" we have to dig and follow our own gut. Remember, we're voting with our dollar. There are those moments it pays off big to be a "risk taker". Plodding along as a weak willed sheep following the herd might as well be a bullet in the head of innovation.Tip for the day: When Nox seems to disappear after running away from the "old temple" he's actually retreated to his home. Ignore the faulty map icon and return to his abode. There you will fight two lectors (electric demons) and be able to continue the quest!

Venetica plays as sort of an interactive story. It is somewhat linear. You can move around a bit but can't get to the next area until you complete the relevant part of the main quest. You can return to previously explored areas though, and enemies respawn if you go out at night so areas aren't "dead" after clearing them.The rpg aspects in V. are not as developed to the extent of a game like Oblivion for example. You can only play the one character and there is no customization available. There are four attributes and the skills are not extensive in number. Optional, side quests are a bit limited in number. On the other hand, you have to find trainers to improve your skills and armor has to be "fitted" by a blacksmith before you can wear it. Those are nice features that add to the sense of realism.The combat took some time to get used to but was ultimately o.k. If you time your hits correctly you can put together a string of different attack moves. Also you need to use the "roll" action to dodge enemy attacks and set up your own attacks. It was an interesting idea to design the game so that different weapon types were more effective depending on the enemy. The problem comes in setting your hot keys for the special attacks. Each of the four weapon types had its own special skill moves. Even the "block" function (default right mouse button) was a separate skill for each weapon type. I ended up having to pause and reset the hot keys every time I switched weapons. It would have been a lot smoother if there was a separate row of hot keys for each weapon type (plus one for when no weapon was drawn). The display could then automatically switch depending on what you were holding.Cons: Voice audio stuttered a few times. Voice acting of generic characters was very repetitive. (Oh! Hello!) Sometimes the background sound effects (like a fountain) were so loud that you couldn't hear the dialogue. Some quest map markers were not accurate. Could have used more humor. Would have like some diversions - gambling or skill games. Unlimited weight - you could literally carry tons of loot. At least have a magic bag of holding to explain it.Pros: Installation was easy. Insert disc, install, play. No STEAM, no online registration, etc. Very stable. I had only one crash in many hours of play. Nice graphics - a beautiful setting. Good voice acting for the main characters. Good sound effects. (I loved the sound of boots on boardwalks) By revealing new areas one at a time the game was kept interesting throughout. Economics were well handled. Magic items were limited (so remained special) and you never had more money than you could use. Difficulty level could be switched midgame. (if you had trouble getting past a big boss for instance)Overall:I would recommend Venetica to any RPG fan or even a more action oriented player. The setting was a nice change of pace from the typical medieval gothic. I wish more game companies would be willing to try games with different themes. Back in the pencil and paper age of RPG's there were games for just about any period you could think of.How about a western? (think Paladin) Ancient Rome? (slaves, gladiators, barbarians)Three Musketeers? If you feel you have to have fantasy elements then how about ancient mythological Greece? Or feudal Japan with mythological elements? Or Sinbad/Arabian Nights? There are all sorts of themes that haven't been explored by the game designers.I personally don't think you need a messianic main story (as does Venetica and most every RPG I've played) to have a good game. Say you were 6 years old and playing in the woods when bandits came through your village and killed your family and neighbors. Now you are 16 and set out to make your way in the world (and get revenge against the bandits who by now have split up into separate gangs). It could be as simple as that. If you have a good combat system (Mount & Blade for example), a good inventory and economics system, and a large area to explore sandbox style, you would have a fun game. The real enjoyment of a good RPG is starting out poor and weak and gradually becoming more skilled and knowledgeable. It is about the journey, not the destination. (just like real life)

With 9-10 hours invested, you finally arrive in Venice. Your achievements: a simple sword move and a spell you can use once in a blue moon. Skills and spells come from teachers you must seek out on repetitive side quests. By the time you have them, they're woefully obsolete. I summoned ravens against two assassins who pretty much laughed them off. The fight came down to the same old dodge and swing.The first boss fight is in three consecutive stages. Though you get to repeat that stage if killed, there is no option to leave the game. Three boss fights in succession is a little much. It was two attempts at stage two that led me to erase the program with no regrets. At close range, you lose camera control; the red target square is overhead, out of reach. Somehow I accidentally hit it, only to get hit in return by a drain strike. There's no point in dancing around this thing for ten minutes, only to have it restore full health at your expense. And watch out for the cliff behind you...Then there's the rapidly dwindling supply of health potions that can't be replaced on this mission.In short, Scarlett is a swashbuckler who dabbles in magic as an afterthought. That's bad news for us spell casters.