Topic: Venetica -- Update: 6.0 from IGN and GameSpot

[MysterD]

NEW - 1-29-2011:
IGN -> PC Review - 6.0 (out of 10).
GameSpot -> PC Review - 6.0 (out of 10).

OLD:
PCWorld -> Hands on impressions w/ Venetica for X360.
RPGWatch -> Atari will be publishing Venetica in North America for January 2011.
Official NA Website -> Venetica.
A new RPG called Venetica is coming to the PC and X360 in 2009


Screens

[Quemaqua]

Hmm... sort of uncompelling screens, but also kind of different and potentially interesting.  I'll be curious to see more of it certainly.  The protagonist has a pretty unique look to her.

[MysterD]

To Que:
Yeah, the screens were technically okay, but the artistry looks cool.
And but I found entire the premise interesting, too.

Trailer
Here's a brand-new trailer for this Venetica game
Game looks better in motion than it does in screenies

[gpw11]

CAn you even call that artistry?  I mean it looks really really generic.

[Quemaqua]

I'll reserve judgment until I see something that doesn't have a fucked-up aspect ratio and isn't ten pixels across.

[MysterD]

IGN preview from the Leipzig GC 2008
Screens galore on RPG Watch

[gpw11]

You know what this looks like?  That horrible RPG for Xbox that had the guy in the jetpack and the four playable characters.  Except that one had potential.

[Xessive]

You know what this looks like?  That horrible RPG for Xbox that had the guy in the jetpack and the four playable characters.  Except that one had potential.

Sudeki?

[gpw11]

Yes, and rereading my post, I don't mean to say this doesn't have potential, just that I was really pumped for Sudeki.

[Quemaqua]

No offense, but there's something off if you thought Sudeki had potential.

[Xessive]

I definitely see the resemblance between Venetica and Sudeki. I think it's the slightly disproportionate characters with slightly enlarged cartoon-like heads. Like Jack Keane. Everybody knows the Japanese & Koreans do that style the best!

Sudeki was meh. Playable for a bit. I liked many of its ideas, it just didn't execute them very well. It kinda felt like an ambitious yet undercooked Fable.

Didn't the same people make Kamino? Looked like the same art.

[gpw11]

No offense, but there's something off if you thought Sudeki had potential.

It had potential in that it might have actually been a game to breath some life into the otherwise stale and 99% boring console RPG genre.  4 playable characters with different play styles and you can switch between them on the fly, the rest being controlled by AI.  There was some potential there for sure.

[Quemaqua]

Well, maybe in that mechanic, but the game looked like stock boring RPG crap pretty much from day one.  At least I thought so.  Chick with giant tits, dude with crazy purple hair... meh.

[gpw11]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong - the style of the game was retarded and as generic as you could get without basing something on Dungeons and Dragons, but I thought it would be fun....I was totally wrong.

[Quemaqua]

Don't feel a lone.  I know a lot of people who were disappointed by it... I think especially because at the time, there were next to no good RPGs of *any* kind on the Xbox, purple hair or otherwise.

[sirean_syan]

Dude. Giant enemy crab and giant hammer. There's gotta be some potential.

[gpw11]

Yeah, but Vagrant Story had both those things and that game was meh....................













AHAHA.  Just joking BEST FUCKING GAME EVER!!!

[MysterD]

New GameSpot preview

The city of Venice is not the postcard that you may be used to. Venetica takes place in a parallel universe in the 16th century, and the canals and streets are filled with secret passages, and enemies. During the day, citizens will chat with you and offer information in addition to side quests. At night, bandits and more supernatural enemies take over. The day-night cycle lasts only about 15 minutes, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to wander Venice at the time of day that you prefer.

Venetica encourages exploration as every door can be opened and every home searched for secrets, says developer Deck 13. There are two sections to Venice. We saw the prosperous area where most of the upper class citizens live, defined by large palaces and bright open spaces. A second more ominous area called the dark streets offers greater challenges. Two separate factions inhabit the city and you can choose to do quests for either faction. Of course, it wouldn't be Venice without gondolas, and the romantic boats serve as Venetica's automated transport system. Sadly there will be no romantic crooning from the gondoliers. O solo mio!

[Quemaqua]

15 minute night/day cycles?  That seems... weird.

[MysterD]

15 minute night/day cycles?  That seems... weird.

Short, if you ask me...

[MysterD]

IGN
IGN has a very short E3 2009 preview on Venetica.

GameSpot
GameSpot has a good deal of E3 2009 impressions on Venetica PC.

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.

Stay tuned to GameSpot for more on Venetica. It's scheduled for release later this year on the PC and Xbox 360.

[MysterD]

System requirements for Venetica - PC Version

Minimum:
Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or Vista, Pentium® 4 CPU 2.4 GHz or comparable CPU,
1024 MB RAM for Windows®XP, 1536 MB for Vista, 2048 MB for Vista 64,
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256 MB RAM or comparable graphics card,
DVD-ROM, DirectX® 9c-compatible soundcard,
10 GB Harddiskspace

Recommended:
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista, Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8200 2,6 GHz or comparable CPU,
2 GB RAM for Windows® XP, 3 GB for Windows® Vista,
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or comparable graphics card with 512 MB RAM,
DVD-ROM, DirectX® 9c-compatible soundcard,
10 GB Harddiskspace

[MysterD]

GamesCon 2009 Trailer for Venetica.
Deck 13 shows off some gondolas and canals -- and how Venetica can use them in the game.

[MysterD]

Looks like in some places overseas, Venetica PC is out.
And, it's getting good reviews of there, as well...

[MysterD]

PC Patch #2 News
Here's a list of what Deck 13 has planned for the 2nd patch for Venetica -- which is already out in some places overseas, but not out in USA yet.

Several sites are reporting the XBox version of Deck 13's Venetica has been pushed back to November 27th in DACH. International details are still TBA.

Deck 13 and publisher dtp posted a temporary fix list for the upcoming 2nd PC patch. Checking the list against my own list based on a run through the retail version including the first patch, it seems to be more than complete.

It covers pretty much all known A & B bugs, adds comfort functions (quicksave, screenshot key, HUD toggle, VSync, toggle quicksave, brightness & contrast), polishes the graphics (a long list), increases the performance and fine-tunes several gameplay elements & balancing.

The patch is currently in QA.

EDIT:
Destructoid interview w/ Jan Klose
Destructoid has an interview w/ Jan Klose about Venetica.

Venetica promises varied, interwoven quests, deep combat
5:40 PM on 10.02.2009, Jim Sterling

You know the drill when it comes to dungeon crawling RPGs. Endless hack n' slash action punctuated by fetch/carry quests and trips to the cellar in order to kill 50 giant rats. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of such RPGs, but sometimes I'd like the gameplay to be as deep as the leveling and loot systems. Luckily, Venetica has us covered, promising complex combat and hundreds of varying quests.

"Scarlett can learn lots of new combo moves as well as many other combat tactics," explains creative director Jan Klose. "Although combat is fast-paced and happens in realtime, and although an unskilled player could technically defeat almost any opponent (when having reached a reasonable level), killing an enemy can be very hard if the player does not learn to master special fighting tactics, such as dodging, good timing, the use of the right skills at the right time, and combos.

"It is also important to consider which weapon to use for an enemy, as certain enemies can be defeated much better if you have the right tool in your hand. Even the type of armor you are wearing will be more or less appropriate depending on your enemy.

"... There are only very few quests that go 'Bring me 500 wolf skins,' as we're going to leave that field to World of Warcraft ... All the Venetica quests are tightly woven into the story, and some of them pose difficult moral questions. All in all I would say that the quests are extremely varied with some really unusual tasks to fulfill."

[Xessive]

quicksave, screenshot key, HUD toggle, VSync, toggle quicksave, brightness & contrast

WTF is "toggle quicksave???"

[MysterD]

WTF is "toggle quicksave???"

*shrugs shoulders*
Good damn question.
Damned if I know.

[MysterD]

For those who speak German, Venetica - German Language Demo is out. Almost 1 GB in size.
Also worth noting this about The German Demo -- SAVES in the Demo CAN be used in the Full Version of the game!
I will let you all know when an English demo comes out.

[MysterD]

Patch 1.02 has been released in Germany and besides the usual big fixes and additional game features and whatnot - they have overhauled the graphics engine also.

This game hasn't shipped in USA yet. Localized versions of the game will likely come shipped w/ Patch 1.02 on disc - or whatever is the newest version of the game.

[Xessive]

Sorry for the MysterD-esque revival

I just started playing Venetica. It's not bad.. It's clearly a lower budget title.. Like a B-movie but it's decent so far.. It's basically the poor man's Fable with a Diablo-style skill tree.

It detects the X360 controller and displays its button prompts. I'm pointing this out because I've come across quite a few AAA titles that have botched this for some inexplicable reason.

One other thing they've done quite well is the fluid fabric physics; hair, loose clothes, and flags all move really well.

Considering the modest production value, the game is quite decent.

[MysterD]

I know this been out overseas and all - but where the hell is the NA version of this one?
Deck 13 needs a publisher in The States.

I need a RPG on my PC and NOW.

[MysterD]

RPGWatch -> Atari will be publishing Venetica in North America for January 2011.
Official NA Website -> Venetica.

[MysterD]

PCWorld -> Hands on impressions w/ Venetica for X360.

Now, this is worth noting:
Page 2 of this article is pretty much dedicated to the technical issues they had w/ the X-Box 360 version of this game.

Where's Xessive? I know he tried some of this on the PC.
@Xessive - Did you have many technical issues w/ the PC version of this game?

[Xessive]

Hey, on the way to work can't type too much.

The game was pretty solid in terms of technical performance however I I did have some issues that required me to reload a save i.e. next area not loading correctly or door that should open just doesn't etc. Very few incidents though.

[MysterD]

Sorry for the MysterD-esque revival

I just started playing Venetica. It's not bad.. It's clearly a lower budget title.. Like a B-movie but it's decent so far.. It's basically the poor man's Fable with a Diablo-style skill tree.

It detects the X360 controller and displays its button prompts. I'm pointing this out because I've come across quite a few AAA titles that have botched this for some inexplicable reason.

One other thing they've done quite well is the fluid fabric physics; hair, loose clothes, and flags all move really well.

Considering the modest production value, the game is quite decent.

Does the game play better w/ 360 controller or KB/mouse?

[Xessive]

Does the game play better w/ 360 controller or KB/mouse?

It's alright with both but it certainly feels like it was developed with a gamepad in mind. The controls seem to be close to Fable and Gothic.