Venetica (RPG)

[Mem]

I received my retail version today and played about 90 minutes or so,the camera angles and control were a bit sluggish but I updated to latest patch version and things improved a lot,the game is a basic budget RPG so don't except Dragon Age quality ,however it was very playable and 100% stable with zero crashes.

I had the game on max detail at 1920x1080 and it was still very smooth,the fighting itself is simple hack and slash with rolls and side steps to left or right ,however you can get new fighting,mage skills later once you find the trainers in towns,each level you get 3 basic AP points to put into things like wisdom,strength,con etc... plus skill points for trainers.

The cinematic intro and voice acting is basic so don't expect anything special there.
You do play the female character on the game cover and nothing else,you do get to decide on some replies to NPCs depending on how you want to play your character ie good,bad ,neutral etc....

The game has basic quests and you can pick some things up like copper ore,herbs as you explore.


Overall I like the game and would say its decent for a budget RPG,certainly not the best or the worst game I have played.

Bottomline if you looking for a cheap basic RPG then its worth a shot.

 

[shortylickens]

Played demo.
Meh.
Controls are horrid and there doesnt seem to be anything special about the gameplay to keep me engaged. Quests and story are quite generic as is the setting. If the interface and controls were better I could tough it out. But theres really nothing here to keep me playing.

 

[Mem]

Played demo.
Meh.
Controls are horrid and there doesnt seem to be anything special about the gameplay to keep me engaged. Quests and story are quite generic as is the setting. If the interface and controls were better I could tough it out. But theres really nothing here to keep me playing.

I must admit I had same issue with 1.01 retail,but the latest patch made a big difference IMHO,not sure what version the demo is but latest patched version is 1.02 .

Release notes on latest patch below.

=======================================================================================
Venetica Patch 1.02
Readme
========================================================================================

1. Patch-Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
Patch 1.02 resolves known issues in Venetica, improves the balancing and
supplies extra optimations.

----------------------------------------------------------------
1.1 Fixes in Patch 1.02
----------------------------------------------------------------
New Functions:

- Screenshot-Function added (F8)
* Screenshots are saved in the subfolder "screenshots" in the Venetica
folder (My documents)
- Quicksave-Function added (two slots: F5+F9, F6+F10)
- HUD (shown on the screen) can now be turned on and off (F12)
- "QuickUse" now functions with all interactive objects, not only on
looting

Graphic-Improvements:

- Texture flickering of objects that are in the background was heavily reduced
- Performance:
* Performance-improvements on activated fullscreen effects
* New, if you use low settings (without full screen effects) appearance is faster
- The lightning effects (day & night) were graphically re-edited:
* the constant, dynamic lightning was improved, most of all the daily routine
in the twilight
* More differences in lightning/coloring during the daily routine
* Adjustments to the full screen effects
* More details in shadow areas
- The graphic effects in almost all the rooms were improved
- Grass is now shown correctly
- VSync is now activated by default
- The weapon is faded out when the player character is faded out
- The weapon is shown correctly when the player character stops/pauses

Gameplay-Improvements:

- General improvements of the camera settings during dialogues and cutscenes
- During quick loot, regeneration will take place automatically
- NPCs will notice the player character sooner when he comes from behind
- Scaling of the input-sensitivity was changed so that now adjusting the
sensitivity of the input (factor 2) is possible
- Skills:
* Path of the Raven
- The speed of the Raven was reduced
- The paths of the Raven were improved
- It is now possible to unmark the manually marked objects on the map
- When entering a level the player character will now be ignored by the NPCs
for some seconds
- The daily routine of the NPCs' in the palace was improved
- The damping of the camera movements when using the mouse was removed
- Fight information which is valid for the player is shown in yellow
- Prey-Reworking:
* The prey that you can find in cases and chests now depends on the difficulty
level of the lock that you have to pick
* Gained items are more adjusted to the player's progress
- The menu will appear faster now when displaying large amounts of created
save games.

Correcting Errors and cosmetic improvements:

- Errors that could appear when using ladders have been corrected
- The rotation of the player character when using doors/beds/ladders is now correct
- Action sounds activated that were missing in some scenes:
* Tavern Ambush
* Tusker's tests
* Akbah
* Fight in the harbor
- Quests general: Quest-Marker improved/fixed
- Quest "The Mining Effort": You receive the correct reward now
- Quest "Let The Games Begin!": The tournament is started correct
- Quest "Poison": Tusker is not taking the fighting position on the ship to Africa
- Quest "Where is The Black Grimoire?": It is now possibly to leave the Mosque
without any problems
- Quest "Rescue from the Tower": Cannot be misused anymore
- Quest "Tusker's Special Friend": is ended in the correct way
- Quest "Explosive Goods": Problem with the guards disappearing sometimes has
been resolved
- Quest "Chasing Bandits in the Outer City": Redundant dialogue was removed
- Quest "Chasing Bandits in the Inner City": Redundant dialogue was removed
- Quest "The Lesser Evil": Redundant dialogue was removed
- Objects used by NPCs are now returned to their correct position
- The damage of the weapons is fully counted
- The player character is not invulnerable anymore after loading an auto save
* "old" Autosaves function correct again
- Conversations in the twilight world are now in the correct speed
- Mouse keys are now editable, for example: you can assign moving forward on the
right mouse button
- 5-Key mouses are now also supported
- The (dependent on direction) selection of interactive objects now functions correct
(dependent on camera when using mouse + keyboard, dependent on player character when
using the Xbox 360-Controller)
- House inhabitants will not discover the player character anymore when she is in the
twilight world
- Skill's:
* Enemies killed with "From Venice with Love" now play the correct animation
- The animations of the palace guards in the Arsenal district were fixed
- Different dying animations were activated again (were de-activated by accident in
Patch 1.0.1)

 

[shortylickens]

Hmmmmm, maybe I was wrong.

 

[you2]

So what would you compare this game to ? Avencast ? Dungeon Siege ? Silverfall ? Titan Quest ? Risen ? Torchlight ? And where would you put it in the pecking order with regards to quality and enjoyment ?

 

[shortylickens]

So what would you compare this game to ? Avencast ? Dungeon Siege ? Silverfall ? Titan Quest ? Risen ? Torchlight ? And where would you put it in the pecking order with regards to quality and enjoyment ?

Its not hackenslash, so Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege and Torchlight are out.
More like a 3rd person Elder Scrolls or Dark Messiah of Might & Magic.

 

[Mem]

So what would you compare this game to ? Avencast ? Dungeon Siege ? Silverfall ? Titan Quest ? Risen ? Torchlight ? And where would you put it in the pecking order with regards to quality and enjoyment ?

Risen/TQ,DS are better games,I would say its better then Silverfall which I could never get into due to horrible camera angles etc..however it plays like Risen gameplay wise but not as good.

End of the day I would rate this game somewhere around 60-68 rating,so you will either like it or hate it.

 

[Arglebargle]

For me, it had the problem of big special boss fights that cascade into other big boss fights, with no saving possible, so you have to go back and trudge through it again and again. Plus being real unclear on how a certain boss type could be damaged. Really dislike the 'die and die again til you figure out the trick' gameplay, so this one got shelved.

 

[Fallen Kell]

japan doesn't do rpgs anymore, just interactive movies.


how about an actual dead genre: space combat sims. last one was what, freespace 2? i'd like a good mech combat game too.

Would love to see Tie Fighter redone with modern graphics, even if they don't change the game storyline/content I would still buy that in an instant. And a real mech combat sim/game would be nice as well vs the last couple which are simply FPS's... Put strategy back in it, make those big mechs feel like big mech (I am still holding out hope for the Mechwarrior/Battlemech reboot which we saw that marketing/concept video 1-2 years ago now....)

 

[Rhezuss]

but that was until I played STALKER, Witcher, Mass Effect and Dragonage. Some of these actually manage to come close to the greatness Planescape: Torment achieved back in the day. That's quite a feat!

We need to talk...

 

[DaveSimmons]

FYI, Amazon (USA) now has the Windows version for preorder, price is $30 and release date is 1-18 / next Tuesday.

The gameplay movie I watched looked entertaining enough, but I have several other unplayed PC RPGs like Drakensang, Fable 1, Jade Empire and piles of console games so I might wait on it.

 

[KaOTiK]

The game does look interesting, hopefully it comes to Steam at that $30 price point. Either way with the backlog I have no from the Steam holiday sale I'm not in a rush to purchase any games when they first come out now (exception being Warhammer 40k games)

 

[you2]

Mem did you play much more of the game? Any updated comments ?

 

[Mem]

Mem did you play much more of the game? Any updated comments ?

I finished the game,its not as long as I thought ,but if you take your time and do most of the quests then you get enough playing hours out of the game,end game ie boss at the end was easy I thought.

 

[Mem]

For me, it had the problem of big special boss fights that cascade into other big boss fights, with no saving possible, so you have to go back and trudge through it again and again. Plus being real unclear on how a certain boss type could be damaged. Really dislike the 'die and die again til you figure out the trick' gameplay, so this one got shelved.

It seems hard at first ,but if you do get stumped you can get tips for each boss fight at their forums here http://forum.dtp-entertainment.com/viewforum.php?f=224 ,so that really solves that issue.

 

[Qbah]

If I'm really enjoying Divinity 2 (The Dragon Knight Saga actually, a remastered Divinity 2 with the Flames of Vengeance expansion - Steam sale FTW!), will I enjoy this game? The gameplay vids look quite similar to Divinity 2. Anyone played both and can comment?

 

[Mem]

If I'm really enjoying Divinity 2 (The Dragon Knight Saga actually, a remastered Divinity 2 with the Flames of Vengeance expansion - Steam sale FTW!), will I enjoy this game? The gameplay vids look quite similar to Divinity 2. Anyone played both and can comment?

I have played the original Divinity 2 game without expansion,however I think you should try the demo,its always hard to judge a game for somebody else.

 

[you2]

You don't sound very enthusiastic. Is two world 2 any better ?

I finished the game,its not as long as I thought ,but if you take your time and do most of the quests then you get enough playing hours out of the game,end game ie boss at the end was easy I thought.

 

[Mem]

You don't sound very enthusiastic. Is two world 2 any better ?

I actually thought Venetica was ok for a cheap budget RPG,I don't like judging games for other people since we all have different expectations,I played it from start to end so that tells you it did hold my interest,if they release Venetica 2 I will buy it ,overall I liked it .

 

[digitaldurandal]

You might be right, I hope you're wrong.

I was talking with the co-author of Zork (and other Infocom games), and asked him if interactive fiction could be commercially revived, don't see why not.

He said he really thinks it's gone for good.

What about Heavy Rain. I would say that is pretty much interactive fiction.