V

Venetica (360, PC)
• Publisher: DTP
• Developer: Deck 13
• Release Date: Fall 2009
• What We Saw:

During our hands-off demo of Ventica we were told that it is designed to be a cinematic RPG that takes place in Venice, or at least a “fantastical” version of it, which I took to mean that it replicates the overall look and architecture of Venice, but that it would not be remotely accurate to the real city at the street level.

In Venetica you take on the role of Scarlet, a seemingly innocent young lass who, as the game begins, is more interested in the affections of a young, noble warrior than a life of adventure. What she does not know is that her father is the guardian of the realm of Death (of whom a new guardian is chosen every few centuries or so) and that she is about to be drawn into his world to aid him in stopping, of course, an evil necromancer bent on stealing Death’s power. As the game begins Scarlet’s love is slain and she is drawn into a conflict that she neither understands nor wants any part of.

The gameplay is third person, over-the-shoulder and features a healthy dose of combat against a variety of enemies. One interesting facet of it is that as Scarlet becomes more experienced she can take on some of Death’s powers, including the ability to walk in the world of death and interact with and seek aid from its inhabitants. These inhabitants include people she’s known and lost, such as the aforementioned dashing young gentleman last seen with a blade in his back. Going beyond that, if Scarlet dies in the game she is allowed to use the world of Death to come back in a safer location as a means of escaping or surprising her adversaries. Certainly, it’s a novel way of dealing with the death of the player character.

The game also features a complete day and night schedules with NPCs that have daily schedules that they follow. Venice itself can be navigated along multiple paths, ranging from street level, to its canals, sewers, and rooftops.

• What We Think:

Todd: The notion of taking on a sweet, young lass of no discernable skills as a protagonist is a compelling one that leaves open a lot of options in terms of character building. What’s not clear is whether or not there’s a logical and believable progression from weak girl to bad ass heroine (the demo I watched skipped forward in time quite a bit) and the fact she spent half the demo spilling out the top of her tattered white dress does make you wonder about the game’s maturity level. (To be fair, in other scenes she is seen in much more suitable attire, including a nice set of plate armor.) I am also a bit wary of the dialog, which appeared cliché during the demo. What was nice to see was the combat, in which the slight Scarlet was able to skillfully wield a blade, but struggled to swing a hefty hammer that was far too big for her.

Ultimately, if the narrative is solid, this could be a great game that deserves more attention than it’s likely to get. If nothing else, though, it does look like Deck 13 is achieving their goal of making this a very cinematic game (in all the right ways).