So far, Venetica is looking like a terrific game that deserves way, way more attention than it's currently getting. Why nobody is paying attention is anybody's guess, but people need to keep an eye on this one. I know I personally can't wait to try it out for myself.
Venetica Impressions We check out 16th-century Venice through the eyes of Death's daughter in this upcoming RPG for the PC and Xbox 360.
Announced in May last year, Venetica is an action role-playing game from DTP Entertainment that lends itself to a particularly interesting backstory. Set in the 16th century, it follows Scarlett, the daughter of Death, as she embarks on a quest to save her father from a necromancer bent on total destruction. We found out what makes her tick during this hands-off demo at E3 2009.
![[IMG]](http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2009/153/946567_20090603_embed001.jpg)
Who's Making This Game:
Venetica is being developed by Germany-based Deck 13 and is being published by DTP. It will be available on the PC and Xbox 360.
What the Game Looks Like:
The game has been described as a "cinematic RPG" by its developers, a description that it certainly lives up to with its highly polished environments full of colour. Venetica is set in Venice for the most part, but Scarlett also travels to other parts of the world. In our demo, we were shown Africa, where huge skeletons jutted out of the bright sand, a big yellow sun cast a pale glow over everything, and the rock formations looked positively hostile. The game also incorporates cinematic cutscenes to introduce new enemies and characters.
Venetica's Venice has improved greatly on the real 16th-century city with more dreamlike structures, canals, and dockyards. The game has a day-night cycle that transforms the city from a bright, colourful, and bustling metropolis to a dark and dangerous underworld of bandits and demons. There is a unique aspect to every location visited by Scarlett, and she'll have plenty of opportunities to wander around and explore as the game's world opens up.
What There Is to Do:
Scarlett will be equipped with a main quest that will take around 20 hours of gameplay to complete. There are also 50 to 60 hours of side quests, which the total being upward of 100. The main quest consists of four chapters, each with its own individual boss fight. Scarlett will be able to pretty much go anywhere she pleases, leaving no stone unturned or door unopened as she searches for power upgrades and experience points. She will also be able to interact with her environments and climb houses, swim canals, and crawl through the dungeons underneath the city.
Like in most RPGs, Scarlett will be able to choose how she interacts with other characters in the game. Acting morally or immorally will produce different endings, as well as shape her experience throughout the game's story. Players can also choose to use offensive or defensive tactics, collecting different powers and weapons depending on the path that they've chosen. In our demo we got a glimpse of Scarlett's greatest defensive power, the twilight skill. This slows down gameplay and lets her retreat or reposition herself without being seen by her enemies. A skill meter appears at the bottom of the screen whenever Scarlett uses this skill to indicate how long before it runs out. All of Scarlett's powers are in some way related to death, and consequently the twilight skill will also give her the power to resurrect herself and others as the game progresses.
How the Game Is Played:
This is a single-player RPG with a very basic control scheme that varies from the PC to the Xbox 360. Our demo was on the PC, but we are told that the Xbox 360 version of the game looks almost identical save for the control scheme and menu layouts.
During the game, players can bring up the main menu, which includes tabs to all of the relevant inventories. There is a quest book that lists the main quests and possible side quests, a diary for game hints, weapons and armor inventory, and a consumables inventory (treasure, health items, and so on). While you're playing, a map will appear in the top right-hand corner, and the health and magic bars will appear on the top left. Scarlett can call ravens to show her the way to her next quest if she gets lost, something she can do by simply assigning this skill to a shortcut menu on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. This menu can encompass anything in her inventory, including weapons, skills, and consumables. Players can assign their chosen items and simply press the corresponding numbers when they want to bring up something during gameplay.
Scarlett's inventory also shows her acquired skills, including attribute points; skill points, such as physical skills for combat and weapon expertise; and mental skills, such as sucking the life out of enemies and performing tricks that include aging her enemies so that they become slower in combat. Scarlett can acquire more than 45 skills in total throughout the game.
What They Say:
Venetica is a visually stunning RPG with a cryptic storyline that mixes emotions and action in a unique, living, free-roaming 16th-century world.
What We Say:
We were strongly impressed by the game's detailed environments and combat sequences but a bit confused by the story.
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E3 09: A first look at Venetica
![[IMG]](http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/134977-ven.jpg)
RPG Venetica is one of those games I've always been interested in, yet kept forgetting due to its obscurity. Whenever I see it, my eyes light and my ears perk. It's just a shame I don't get to see it often.
That's why I double-took when I was heading towards Southpeak to punch someone in the face and realized that I'd just walked past a tiny little alcove where Deck 13 was playing Venetica with no fanfare whatsoever. Once I'd concluded my business, I swiftly returned to check out the game in action.
I was very encouraged by what I saw. Hit the jump to read about my first glimpse of the game.
![[IMG]](http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/134977-e3-09-a-first-look-at-venetica/01-620x.jpg)
Venetica, despite having a graphical style that closely resembles Fable, is far less of an action adventure than I had anticipated. The game instead takes its cues more from Diablo than your typical action game, with a far-placed camera, dungeon-crawling, item and stat management, and loot. It has an interface that grind-heavy RPG nerds will find instantly familiar, which took me by surprise.
Combat is more involved than your typical Diablo game, with main character Scarlett able to perform combos and have access to an incredibly vast range of magical attacks. While I never got to see her special skills, it Scarlett possess some amazing sounding abilities, such as the power to age enemies and reduce their combat prowess, or distract them with ghostly images of their dead ancestors. It sounds like Venetica will go beyond your usual fire/ice/lightning magic tropes that are so often found in RPGs.
The most important of Scarlett's abilities, however, is her entry into the Twilight realm. The game's heroine is the daughter of Death himself, and this grants her access to a ghostly land of the dead. While in the Twilight realm, enemies will be unable to see her, allowing her to walk past enemies and maneuver herself into an advantageous position. She only has this power for a limited time though, so she must make good use of it.
![[IMG]](http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/134977-e3-09-a-first-look-at-venetica/02-620x.jpg)
Scarlett can also resurrect herself when killed, provided she has Twilight power left. She'll return to life in the Twilight realm, and will be able to phase back in at a location of her choosing. During my walkthrough of the game, Scarlett was killed, then resurrected behind the enemy that finished her off, allowing her to seize back the momentum of the fight. It has a Soul Reaver quality to it, and should be a very interesting addition to the game.
It would appear that, like any good dungeon crawler, loot is an important part of the experience. Enemy corpses can be searched in classic fashion, and weapons can be taken from their cold, dead hands. Having access to a variety of weapons is important, since you'll need a good heavy weapon to break down doors, and a lighter one to take on fast enemies. There's plenty of armor to collect as well, and any equipped clothing will appear on Scarlett's character model. So many RPGs fail to put equipped armor on characters these days, and it really should be the standard.
When not in dungeons, there will be towns and villages to wander around in, Venice being the principal location. Deck 13's stylistic portrayal of Venice is very visually striking, and the graphics are looking really good at this early stage. The framerate seemed a bit choppy, but I imagine this was quite an early build, so that can be forgiven. I'm told that Venice will not be the only location of the game, with Africa being mentioned as another key environment.
![[IMG]](http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/134977-e3-09-a-first-look-at-venetica/03-620x.jpg)
I've also been told that hundreds of quests will be available in the game. The main story campaign will take about twenty hours to complete, with the optional side quests bumping the time up to around the fifty hour mark at the time of writing. There are also plenty of hidden areas to find, some of which will require Twilight power to uncover.
So far, Venetica is looking like a terrific game that deserves way, way more attention than it's currently getting. Why nobody is paying attention is anybody's guess, but people need to keep an eye on this one. I know I personally can't wait to try it out for myself.
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The End!
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