Venetica
Main game
3.00 average rating based on 50 ratings
- Developers
- Deck13 Interactive
- Publishers
- Atari, Inc., DTP Entertainment
- Platforms
- PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
- Genres
- Adventure, Indie, Role-playing (RPG)
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy, Historical
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Venetica?
Related Content
Nostalgic adventure
Venetica looks like a cross between Gothic and Fable. The only serious difference is that our main character is a young woman. It's not a very successful game compared to the series of games it was inspired by. It's normal that you probably haven't heard anything about the game. Now, 15 years after its release, there are aspects that are starting to look quite dated. There are many points where the animations and graphics suffer. The best looking character model in the game is, as you'd expect, the character we're playing as, but every other NPC has a very strange and mediocre design. I understand that the game is trying to look a fairy-tale-like, and this gave Venetica a bit of cuteness, which increased my tolerance for its poor graphics. But the animations have very stiff transitions and are blocked by invisible walls. The fact that our character can't jump is also a big drawback. The combat mechanics also seem quite troublesome. All the enemies we encounter do nothing but spam blocks, but when you block them in the same way, it's not as effective. I don't like the block system in the game at all and it seems almost …
Read MoreVenetica looks like a cross between Gothic and Fable. The only serious difference is that our main character is a young woman. It's not a very successful game compared to the series of games it was inspired by. It's normal that you probably haven't heard anything about the game. Now, 15 years after its release, there are aspects that are starting to look quite dated. There are many points where the animations and graphics suffer. The best looking character model in the game is, as you'd expect, the character we're playing as, but every other NPC has a very strange and mediocre design. I understand that the game is trying to look a fairy-tale-like, and this gave Venetica a bit of cuteness, which increased my tolerance for its poor graphics. But the animations have very stiff transitions and are blocked by invisible walls. The fact that our character can't jump is also a big drawback. The combat mechanics also seem quite troublesome. All the enemies we encounter do nothing but spam blocks, but when you block them in the same way, it's not as effective. I don't like the block system in the game at all and it seems almost useless. After blocking, it takes a lot of time before you can counterattack and you end up getting hit. At least in the early stages of the game. Also, your attacks are constantly interrupted by enemies. Even if you level fast, you can't easily improve your character. You have to go to a trainer first, but even then, most skills seem to be closed. I played for about 3 hours and reached level 8, but as far as I can see, there are only one or two skills that I can choose from the skill tree and they are not very useful in combat. Other than that, the story so far has been okay and can keep you curious about the rest, but I don't know how far it can go. The game has over 20 hours of gameplay as far as I can see, but it seemed too long for such a limited and small game. The main story missions are interesting to a point, but the remaining side missions seem to be just fetch and simple puzzles. You can choose not to do them, but then you'll have a hard time leveling up your character and finding the resources to get new equipment. The most important thing that redeems the negative aspects of the game is that at least it has an easy gameplay, so if you have some free time, give it a shot.
Read Less
B grade game, but worth to try
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
Finished it. It is B grade game. Without doubt. Silly story. Silly characters. Sometimes this game try to be serious, but it is funny instead. Messy map. Not very good skill development and equipment system. Repetitive, easy combat. Finished it on hard without problems. Overall, it is hard to say much good about it, if I think logically. Some boss fights were good. But for me, when I play games, sometimes I feel, that the game is empty and soulless, despite excellent graphic and other things. And sometimes the game can be not very good in quality, but I feel, that it has soul and it is fun to play it. And I can say this about Venetica. Not the best game I had played, but interesting and fun experience for me. Worth to try, if you are not against B grade games with a bit outdated graphics.
Played a good 2h of this today, and honestly it has some potential despite a bit of jank.
My first good impression was that this 2009 game has 1440p ultrawide support out of the box, which is not even a given with modern games. Woohoo! Thanks to that and to some smooth framerate, visually it looks pretty nice overall despite its age. The main character's model looks fine, and the NPCs look a bit more cartoony, but not in a bad way.
So far, the jankiest part is the combat. At some point, I was fighting a group of around 5 enemies,, while another group of 3 enemies were having a conversation a bit out of reach behind a low wall, but still very much in line of sight and earshot of my fight. After I killed everyone in the 1st group, I had low health and was destroyed by the 2nd group, which included a minor boss. Luckily, I saved between both groups, so I went back fully healed with a different approach. I got close enough so that only one of the two normal enemies followed me, which I killed easily. I went back to pull the 2nd …
Played a good 2h of this today, and honestly it has some potential despite a bit of jank.
My first good impression was that this 2009 game has 1440p ultrawide support out of the box, which is not even a given with modern games. Woohoo! Thanks to that and to some smooth framerate, visually it looks pretty nice overall despite its age. The main character's model looks fine, and the NPCs look a bit more cartoony, but not in a bad way.
So far, the jankiest part is the combat. At some point, I was fighting a group of around 5 enemies,, while another group of 3 enemies were having a conversation a bit out of reach behind a low wall, but still very much in line of sight and earshot of my fight. After I killed everyone in the 1st group, I had low health and was destroyed by the 2nd group, which included a minor boss. Luckily, I saved between both groups, so I went back fully healed with a different approach. I got close enough so that only one of the two normal enemies followed me, which I killed easily. I went back to pull the 2nd enemy from the boss, but this time I triggered the "There she is!" cutscene. It did not matter, because I was still able to pull that 2nd enemy without the boss following me.
Combat against single opponents is very simple so far, you just click your mouse as fast as you can until the enemy randomly blocks you, and then you press the spacebar to roll to the side and you keep clicking. Sometimes they don't even block you or attack you, you just kill them by mashing the left mouse button. So yeah, very janky, but easy enough and finished quickly enough that it doesn't have time to bother me. It's still early to truly judge it though, so we'll see.
Audio is ok, with mostly good voice acting. My only gripe was a kinda intense waterfall background noise which you hear at some points in the village. It sounds like it's falling on your head, but you can't even see it.
Here's a few more random observations about these first two hours:
- There were a few "morality" choices, but I'm not sure if they have any effect whatsoever.
- One of the first quests you get is to find new clothes for the main character, because her dress is torn after the attack in the intro. You need to get them from the blacksmith who has a daughter around the same age. The clothes you get are pretty cool (the main costume from most screenshots and artwork), but I couldn't help but wonder why the MC only had a single white dress to her name. Maybe I wasn't paying attention during an early line of dialogue?
- The chickens run at a lower framerate than the rest of the game, which is funny.
- There was a puzzle with four switches in the wall to open a fireplace. Logically, I thought "they need to be used in a certain order, there's probably hints somewhere, but I'll try a random order first". Against all odds, I got it right on the first try. Now I'll live the rest of my life wondering "Am I awesome? Or would any other order have worked"?
This is free on GOG for the next 46,5 hours:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/venetica
Mostly posting this so someone might tell me if it is worth installing. :-P