Preview Venetica is visually enticing, but the story seems shallow

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Venetica

<a href="http://www.gameonn.com/2009/09/venetica-preview/">GameOnn say stuff</a>:
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<blockquote>Look out, Assassin’s Creed, there’s another game whose character will be busting up Italy, and it’s called Venetica.
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Gameplay consists of that of a standard action RPG. You’ll be able to travel all across Venice (and even one area in Africa) to open treasure chests with maps and upgrades, manage your skill points, and customize your character to either be offensive or defensive, based on where you invest the skill points you earn. There will also be branching skill trees and mission trees, providing even greater depth when it comes to figuring out how you’ll be playing the game.
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[...]
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Also unique to the game is the Twilight realm, a spiritual world where ghosts and demons reside. Scarlett will be able to access this realm and converse with the souls of the dead whenever need be, which has been used in few other games before Venetica.</blockquote>
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Game comes out sometime this year.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">GameBanshee</a>

 

[Forest Dweller]

I haven't heard of it before now therefore it must suck.

 

[bhlaab]

"Offense" and "Defense" dont sound like two incredibly distinct character classes

 

[GarfunkeL]

Developers have also announced that there will be four chapters for sure, and a boss for each chapter. The main quest will supposedly be about twenty hours, as well, while side quests will total up to around fifty. The game’s story will be relatively linear, though it will be governed by a generic karma system which comes via speech options. The ending, too, will be different based upon whether you’re good or bad, and it seems there’ll be no middle ground to stand on, so either wear your hero cape or grow an evil moustache.

Reminds me more of Fable than Assasin's Creed.

 

[Gorath]

I've already finished Venetica.

It's exactly the other way around:
Story, many dialogs and some of the NPCs are interesting. The visuals are quite pleasing at first glance, but if you look a little closer you see minor glitches everywhere, low res textures, some texture flickering (only without AA) and a generally low performance, maybe due to the open source engine they used.

The game itself is good. 30 hours of quality entertainment. Very nice dungeons, not much cannon fodder - even lesser critters can hurt you - a dynamic and direct combat system, and quests inpired by the adventure genre.

 

[Forest Dweller]

How does it rank by our rpg standards?

 

[MetalCraze]

Shit out of 5.

 

[Kron]

It's disappointing to see people being concerned about the shallowness of the story and making no comments about the depth of the gameplay. Seeing a rich storyline is refreshing, but the mob out there is just missing the point, games are not movies.
The gameplay will most probably be fucking shallow, and that's what should be preoccupying.

Take JA2 as an example. Story certainly isn't a wonder, but it doesn't stop the game from being very good.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Take JA2 as an example. Story certainly isn't a wonder, but it doesn't stop the game from being fucking awesome.

Now it's right.

 

[Kron]

My mistake.

 

[HiddenX]

Gorath said:

I've already finished Venetica.

It's exactly the other way around:
Story, many dialogs and some of the NPCs are interesting. The visuals are quite pleasing at first glance, but if you look a little closer you see minor glitches everywhere, low res textures, some texture flickering (only without AA) and a generally low performance, maybe due to the open source engine they used.

The game itself is good. 30 hours of quality entertainment. Very nice dungeons, not much cannon fodder - even lesser critters can hurt you - a dynamic and direct combat system, and quests inpired by the adventure genre.

and I totally agree - played through it in 40 hours - nice game recommended for adventure/rpg fans.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

When it's available in humane language?

 

[HiddenX]

hey the germanic language is humane, too

this trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB2P4AWy0to

says October 2009 for the english release.

 

[Morbus]

hey the germanic language is humane, too

I don't think any non-latin language that's not english qualifies as humane...

I mean, I'm not trying to be completely racist, but german is just ichgmrmashmashsmashkillmurderheichfuhrer! Finnish is just gibberish, even if it's pretty nice sounding. Russian and the like is also all about kamikvarikmicnovicmaviknocktockfock... Afriacan languages aren't many, and the only one I know sounds like animals in the trees. Asian languages are just so... hum, how should I say... retarded in terms of grammatic, they may be considered human, but not modern in any sense XD

Anyway, when is the english version supposed to be released?

 

[Gragt]

Barbarbarbarbar!

 

[Jim Cojones]

Take JA2 as an example. Story certainly isn't a wonder

Wrong. If the game was changed into a set of linear missions and the plot was told through cutscenes/text, explaining how the mercs had to capture an airport to be able to order better weapons, capture mine to be able to afford that weapons, how they trained local citizens to form a militia, how one group has been captured and other one went to free them from prison etc. then the story would be good.

Instead of that every of these story elements are told through the gameplay which is by far more interesting way of story-telling for an interactive medium. You don't need a cutscene to told you why do you capture this strategy point - you can expect what kind of reward you will get (and it's a real reward, not just an information in another cutscene but without impact on next missions like in almost every strategy game).

And the game allows you to change the story every time you play. It can be a story of few extremely experienced mercenaries or a story of a bigger group that with high death rate. It can be a story of a careful planning and capturing strategy points in order to prepare to the final attack or a story of more dangerous approach; a quick rush to the capital city. Isn't that wonderful?

 

[Kron]

It most certainly is.

 

[1eyedking]

Wrong. If the game was changed into a set of linear missions and the plot was told through cutscenes/text, explaining how the mercs had to capture an airport to be able to order better weapons, capture mine to be able to afford that weapons, how they trained local citizens to form a militia, how one group has been captured and other one went to free them from prison etc. then the story would be good.

Instead of that every of these story elements are told through the gameplay which is by far more interesting way of story-telling for an interactive medium. You don't need a cutscene to told you why do you capture this strategy point - you can expect what kind of reward you will get (and it's a real reward, not just an information in another cutscene but without impact on next missions like in almost every strategy game).

And the game allows you to change the story every time you play. It can be a story of few extremely experienced mercenaries or a story of a bigger group that with high death rate. It can be a story of a careful planning and capturing strategy points in order to prepare to the final attack or a story of more dangerous approach; a quick rush to the capital city. Isn't that wonderful?

LARPER FAGGOT DETECTED

 

[Jim Cojones]

LARPER FAGGOT DETECTED

Strong words for someone who claims "The Witcher is an intelligent game". Would be even stronger if they made any sense.