Venetica

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I'd like to say that Venetica is unlike anything you've ever played, but that's not entirely true. Think Assassin's Creed II (and Brotherhood) + Oblivion + Dragon Age I and II + Legend of Kain: Blood Omen II, and you'll get a clearer picture of Venetica. The graphics are worse than any aforementioned games (and considering LoK: Blood Omen had crappy graphics even for its time, that's really saying something), but it's still a very good game and one of the rarer good RPGs for the PS3. With that said...

The storyline is pretty basic. Scarlett's lover, Benedict, is killed during an attack on their mountain side village, and she can either seek revenge on his murderers or a reunion with Benedict. Along the way, she discovers that she has untapped powers in necromancy.

The battle system is simple, though not too simple. Like in Dragon Age, you can program certain buttons (in this case, the directional buttons) to execute certain spells. You can block and dodge, too, but even so, I find myself just smashing the X button because it gets rid of enemies faster. You can choose which spells/moves you learn, though you actually need to find a trainer in order to teach you instead of simply learning it on your own.

It's a pretty open world. You can wander around, invade people's houses, rifle through their kitchens and take their food. You earn a bad reputation if you get caught stealing, like in Oblivion, and you earn a good reputation when you help on city projects. You have the ability to pick locks, though instead of skill, you rely more on memorization (you'll see what I mean), and you can sleep to pass time (from sunrise, midday, sunset, dusk, midnight, and just before dawn).

I happen to like all of these characteristics, and they contribute to the 4 stars. The reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is, aside from the graphics, the puzzles. Like in the Legacy of Kain games and Assassin's Creed II, there are puzzles. The camera will show you where you need to go and leave you to figure out how to get there. In order to defeat bosses, you need to develop strategies that aren't quite obvious at first. I like puzzles, but these are kind of random and out there.

Then there's just lack of instruction in general. I ran around the water gateway for hours before I realized that I was supposed to use the hammer I picked up some time ago to smash into the wall. The lock picking was also a mystery to me until I realized that the lock picks had a little X, O, triangle, and square on the ends. They were so small and squished, I didn't even think about it.

Anyway, I would recommend it. It's good and entertaining with a few flaws that can be easily overlooked.

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Venetica is rather inexplicable. A mystery wrapped in an enigma. From the start, I was left optimistic about some possibilities yet I was somehow already annoyed. Although worries like this usually sort themselves out pretty early on-This can be for the better (as in Nier), or the worse (as in Last Rebellion)-but the sensation never actually resolved itself. It has its moments of excitement, but I found myself grumbling at my TV just as often.

Let's get the painful bits out of the way first. The graphics on the whole are an abomination by today's standards, and though this alone is no reason to review unfavorably, the technical faults/bugs/glitches/errors are what hurts. Are they directly tied to one another? I have no idea, but combined the effect of each seems amplified and can ruin what might otherwise be rather beautiful scenes, and at other times worry you that your PS3 is having a heart attack.

Some of the less painful bits? The developers have tried to pull off some very interesting things with a creative presentation, but can't seem to make any of the ideas work to their full potential. Quests and other tasks to complete, a battle system that sounds great on paper but results in little more than button mashing, quirky-appearing minigames that are little more than memory tests, and an unbalanced upgrading system are but a few examples. All are a net plus but none stand out as noteworthy or truly unique. The setting and characters are the same, in that they're created in the best of good faith but should come with a disclaimer for confusion or total disconnect.

Bottom line-It lacks refinement, but in a way that leaves the player unclear if they'd rather take a butcher's cleaver in for changes or just a small surgical knife. It lacks the "it" that would make it memorable, though I can't at all imagine what that "it" might be. I can't particularly recommend it to a typical RPG audience or anyone that takes his/her games "seriously", though as a budget title for people with some patience who like the available game previews and videos, it could certainly be 20-40 hours of mostly-enjoyable distraction.

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the game would be fun if it was a lot longer, the game is rather short and they could of expanded so much more on it but they didn't

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this game is very intricate but if you can follow it, you will find yourself in a new and exciting world. I had to use the walk through to discover this wonderful world.

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In a nutshell this game has fallen squarely into the AVERAGE category. It has plenty of shining moments, and just as many deplorable moments.

It can best be described as a Legend of Zelda knock-off; An unlikely hero acquires a weapon and special powers connected with her ancestry/heritage/fate, and sets out to explore an open world, growing her powers and equipment to battle evil. The problem being it feels generally unfinished in every aspect.

Graphics: PS2 models and textures with PS3/360 lighting and effects. Some textures are at such a low resolution I forget that I'm supposed to be playing on the PS3 console. Animations are also a failure as all characters have stiff, inorganic motions, and distant animations are diminished, as in it looks like the programming is cutting every other frame out of the animations so they look really stuttered. BUT the overall visual style is quite pleasant. Some of the designs are nicely stylized and while the graphics do falter most of the time, distant views of the environments are breathtaking. The artistry behind the visuals is just bursting with vibrant colors, a pleasant change from most modern desaturated realistic titles.

Gameplay: Again it's like Zelda, only more skint and barren. Traversing the world map isn't as fun as an open world game should be. The game is not as open and vast as it claims to be. Everything is isolated into "levels", even the "big" city of Venice, making it tedious to do fetch quests and have to deal with five minutes of loading screens for what could've been a two minute run in any other game. Combat is also a dropped ball; The game tries to shake things up with different weapons and combat styles to reenforce that game's RPG combat specialization aspect (Physical attacks or Magic focus sort of thing), but you can really just stick to your starting weapon and upgrade it over the course of the game. There's also some Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Deua Ex dialogue role playing elements where your choices in dialogue can alter the course of the game in some way (there's apparently multiple endings that play depending on your overall playthrough style). All in all the game tries to do too many things at once and falls flat for it.

Story/Characters: Hard to say on this one. For the most part I felt the characters were somewhat bland and not totally interesting. But there were times that I did like certain characters and moments in the story. You play as Scarlett, who is apparently the daughter of Death. Yes, Death. Only it doesn't feel like it's any big revelation, at least the characters certainly don't react as such. This was one of the parts of the narrative and design I found interesting; Rather than her being some random dude who's supposed to be a chosen one, she's really just a powerful being who can use her new found powers as she sees fit (story wise only, the game play restricts it all to combat). Also it's a nice simple and unique design choice for her signature weapon; The Moonblade: basically it's just the blade of a scythe wielded in one hand. A nice slightly original choice of character design. There were some good points in the narrative as well, such as Scarlett seeing the souls/spirits of people who have recently died, her fiance being the most notable. it was a sweet and heartwarming reunion scene when they first saw each other in the Twilight World. But that lovely feeling disappeared when the game plays the exact same drawn out animation when she meets up with him several more time over the course of the story. Also due to the shoddy game play I must admit that the last half of the story didn't make much sense, nor did I care any more, I just wanted to complete the game so I could trade it for something else.

Overall: It has some nice moments, the graphics are nothing special, likewise to the game play. The art style is beautiful, and the characters are nicely designed. But in the end it tries to do too much with too little, and fails to deliver anything substantial.

I don't recommend buying it, but at least rent/borrow it and give it a try.