Venetica, an RPG from Deck13

[MicoSelva]

Hey, I have a boxed version this game, actually. Never played it, though. Story of my life.

 

[Konjad]

This game is six years old and yet there's basically no proper thread about it on the 'dex

Venetica is a game I expected to be average at best. Moreover, the first three hours are terrible, you start as a village girl and just follow the corridor, whack some professional assassins, listen to uninteresting dialogues and whack more poor assassins. I was at the point of abandoning the game, because the sole looking at ass and arms of cute Scarlett was not enough to keep me interested.

I just decided to force myself to play it until I get to the Venetica city as the village at the beginning is basically a training. And once I got to the city, wow, what a sudden turnaround.

In the city the game became good out of the blue. Writing wasn't deep but Scarlett got a sense of humour and quests were aplenty and often no more about killing assassins or killing at all. Boring hack'n slash transformed into a role-playing game and the place wasn't so much of a corridor anymore (albeit still somewhat was as the parts of the Venetica open up along with the storyline). The story is bad and some dialogues are cringeworthy, but many of them are decent and usually the writing is okay. Unfortunately, many of dialogue choices are not only fake as to leading to the same outcome but worse - quite a lot of them lead to once short answer until you choose the "correct" one. Kid doesn't want to tell you something? Intimidating him to cut off all his fingers? Trying to be nice to him? Forget it, you can do these all you want, but until you choose "here, have some sweets" option you are getting nowhere...

In spite of the above, the quests make up for it, and so is the setting. Dialogues, albeit with all their drawbacks, are decent enough and the game is just fun. You may enter every single house in the city too, stealing from its residents (for the greater good of course). The city districts vary a lot and there are also catacombs and so on, hence why locations are interesting and have a different feeling to them as well.

Overall, it is a very decent game, definitely worth playing if you enjoy cRPGs. If only the beginning wasn't so bad, the game would probably gain much more popularity. Nonetheless, it is worth to go through the boring start and then find a very enjoyable action role-playing game.

 

[V_K]

It had decent exploration and some nice ideas, like the necromantic skills and having to fit the armor you find, but ultimately cringeworthy writing and arcade-like boss sequences kill most of the fun.

 

[hoverdog]

it's awful. move along.

 

[Jedi Exile]

It's p. good for what it is. I think it is more like an adventure game than RPG.

 

[Doesn'tmeananything]

Overall, it is a very decent game, definitely worth playing if you enjoy cRPGs.

Thanks for the recommendation. I really loved Fallout, ToEE, and JA2, so I'm going to enjoy this game as well!

 

[MicoSelva]

I have a boxed version of this, but I have not played much, certainly not enough to reach the good parts. I bought after reading a favourable review on RPGWatch or maybe GameBanshee. I believe felipepepe recently checked it out for his CRPG book so he has more recent experience with the game.

 

[felipepepe]

It's a fun little Action-RPG, I had more fun with it than with Kingdom of Amalur, Fable III or any Dungeon Siege game. Sadly, it feels like it was butchered mid-development... so many cool ideas are hinted, but used only once, sometimes never...

The whole story is based around you being the daughter of death, and thus immortal. So in combat you can resurrect when killed if a "spirit bar" is charged. It becomes really interesting when a bunch of cutthroats hold a blade to your neck and you can just let them kill you, resurrect & kill them while they are pissing their pants in fear. That felt awesome.

Sadly, it's the only time you use the resurrection power for anything interesting...

Anyway, here's my review for the book, if anyone's interested:

Spoiler

Venetica begins with a rather unique premise: You are Scarlet, a young girl from the small town of San Pasquale. Suddenly, the town is attacked by assassins, your fiancée is killed and you meet with Death itself... Who reveals that he is your father, and that you must help him save the world.

The game is a light action-RPG in the veins of Fable, filled with side-quests to take and moral choices to make, but more focused on story and exploration. Most of the game is spent in a fantasy version of 16th-century Venice, divided into five large districts. Venetica is no Assassin’s Creed II, but the team made a great job, filling the city with stunning sights and a few hidden side-paths, while using a colorful art style to compensate for the small budget.

The combat is simple to a fault. There are four weapon types – swords, spears, hammers and the undead-slaying Moonblade. Each one comes with different damage types, combat skills and combos you create by timing your attacks right. Or at least that’s the theory, as it’s too easy to get behind enemies and stun-lock them by quickly mashing the attack button.

As the daughter of Death, Scarlet also has access to some handy powers. First of those is the ability to come back from the dead. As long as she has enough Twilight Energy, she’ll always revive when slain. As the game advances, you’ll unlock new powers, such as the ability to speak with the deceased, see through the eyes of ravens and briefly warp between the land of the living and the realm of the dead.

It’s fascinating in concept and occasionally the game allows you to make great use of these powers – like casually letting a robber cut your throat, then reviving and killing him. Sadly, those are very rare; Venetica fails to explore its immortal character and some powers are used only once during the story.

Scarlet is the main attraction of Venetica, being a strong and charismatic character while still allowing room for players to role-play her. You’ll be able to choose Good, Neutral or Evil paths, as well as join one of the three guilds in Venice: Warriors, Messengers and Necromancers, each with a unique set of quests.

Unfortunately, while the game works as whole, its parts feel constrained and rushed. Elements such as the combat, the interface, Scarlet’s powers and the consequences for her choices all could use a few more months of polish, and I can’t shake the feeling that features were cut mid-way through development.

Despite these limitations and the poor combat, Venetica is still a charming casual action-RPG and definitely worth a play for fans of games like Fable.

 

[Roguey]

JarlFrank wrote a review.

Looks like typical Eurotrash to me. Shame because I'd like to play an okay-to-good role playing game with a fixed female protagonist, if only because no one's really delivered one before (except Iji to a certain extent)

 

[Jaesun]

Can we just ban konjad from this forum?

 

[Excidium II]

Never played it but your screenshots made me want to.

 

[HiddenX]

JarlFrank wrote a review.

Looks like typical Eurotrash to me. Shame because I'd like to play an okay-to-good role playing game with a fixed female protagonist, if only because no one's really delivered one before (except Iji to a certain extent)

Venetica is not a trash game at all. It's a nice Action Adventure with some role-playing elements. It can be compared with games like Beyond Good & Evil, Wizardry Nemesis or The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.

 

[Ash_Firelord]

I enjoyed my time with it, but if we are being honest I enjoy most RPGs to some degree, so that's hardly a mark of quality.

One thing that bothered me was the broken combat, your spectral / death powers were basically a "I Win" button.

The city, though... Despite being neither very big or open, it did an excellent job of pretending it was.

 

[Beastro]

What the hell am I looking at in the pic?

I see a guys face in the top left corner, but the rest looks like a random jumble or body parts and equipment mashed together.

 

[Konjad]

Can we just ban konjad from this forum?

What's your problem, faggot?

JarlFrank wrote a review.

Looks like typical Eurotrash to me. Shame because I'd like to play an okay-to-good role playing game with a fixed female protagonist, if only because no one's really delivered one before (except Iji to a certain extent)

Venetica is not a perfect game, but it sure is leagues ahead of shit like PoE. At least Venetica devs tried to make the game as good as they could and didn't make a turd riding on nostalgia of many players.

 

[Konjad]

What the hell am I looking at in the pic?

I see a guys face in the top left corner, but the rest looks like a random jumble or body parts and equipment mashed together.

It's a cutscene at the beginning of the game. Yes, broken textures are in the cutscene Though to be fair I think it was the only "broken" cutscene or at least as far as I have noticed.

 

[hoverdog]

Venetica is not a perfect game, but it sure is leagues ahead of shit like PoE. At least Venetica devs tried to make the game as good as they could and didn't make a turd riding on nostalgia of many players.

 

[abnaxus]

The engine used for this game is even worse than Unity.

 

[krist2]

What the hell am I looking at in the pic?

I see a guys face in the top left corner, but the rest looks like a random jumble or body parts and equipment mashed together.

He has a girl in his arms:

 

[Beastro]

He has a girl in his arms:

Yeah I see it now. Still a terrible SS.

 

[krist2]

No doubt about that, at first it looked like a jumbled mess for me to

 

[Ash_Firelord]

Still, props to a game that lets you threaten children with digit amputation.

 

[Goblino]

Still, props to a game that lets you threaten children with digit amputation.

It should only count if you can follow up on that. That brings to mind an idea. What about a spiritual successor to JA2 where you liberate your homeland in Africa, and try to establish a new dictatorship. It could involve anything from using charitable action to win over the villages, or drug running and torture to fuel your war machine. That would be an interesting CnC game. The final chapter would involve you trying to maintain power as dictator while you fight of remnant adversity of a nature that you're responsible for depending on your actions.

 

[Beastro]

It should only count if you can follow up on that. That brings to mind an idea. What about a spiritual successor to JA2 where you liberate your homeland in Africa, and try to establish a new dictatorship. It could involve anything from using charitable action to win over the villages, or drug running and torture to fuel your war machine. That would be an interesting CnC game. The final chapter would involve you trying to maintain power as dictator while you fight of remnant adversity of a nature that you're responsible for depending on your actions.

Issue is setting it in Africa would be a no go.

I bet if Tropico was set there there'd be outrage at it being about dumb, corrupt black people.

 

[pippin]

What the hell am I looking at in the pic?

I see a guys face in the top left corner, but the rest looks like a random jumble or body parts and equipment mashed together.

The poor fellow took "safe sex" a little bit too seriously.

 

[Goblino]

It's not like it would be made by a AAA dev, and getting people to call your ambitious and eye-opening RPG about the struggles of establishing government in the current 3rd world would be the best advertising you could hope for. It's not like RE 5 where it looks like a nigger shooting gallery at the E3 presentation.

 

[Xathrodox86]

Never played it but your screenshots made me want to.

It's nice to see this little gem of a game in the Codex forums. It wasn't THAT bad. Certainly not an A-class title, but still very enjoyable.

 

[Immortal]

Venetica is not a trash game at all. It's a nice Action Adventure with some role-playing elements. It can be compared with games like Beyond Good & Evil, Wizardry Nemesis or The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.

This game is six years old and yet there's basically no proper thread about it on the 'dex

In the city the game became good out of the blue. Writing wasn't deep but Scarlett got a sense of humour and quests were aplenty and often no more about killing assassins or killing at all. Boring hack'n slash transformed into a role-playing game and the place wasn't so much of a corridor anymore (albeit still somewhat was as the parts of the Venetica open up along with the storyline). The story is bad and some dialogues are cringeworthy, but many of them are decent and usually the writing is okay. Unfortunately, many of dialogue choices are not only fake as to leading to the same outcome but worse - quite a lot of them lead to once short answer until you choose the "correct" one. Kid doesn't want to tell you something? Intimidating him to cut off all his fingers? Trying to be nice to him? Forget it, you can do these all you want, but until you choose "here, have some sweets" option you are getting nowhere...

In spite of the above, the quests make up for it, and so is the setting. Dialogues, albeit with all their drawbacks, are decent enough and the game is just fun. You may enter every single house in the city too, stealing from its residents (for the greater good of course). The city districts vary a lot and there are also catacombs and so on, hence why locations are interesting and have a different feeling to them as well.

Overall, it is a very decent game, definitely worth playing if you enjoy cRPGs. If only the beginning wasn't so bad, the game would probably gain much more popularity. Nonetheless, it is worth to go through the boring start and then find a very enjoyable action role-playing game.

Cautiously Optimistic. Might check it out..