The trip to Venice has a few bumpy roads - proceed with caution
Story - Venetica's story seems uninspired and unoriginal. It's your typical 'warriors love is killed by a group of mercenaries and the warrior must avenge their death.' In Venetica, Scarlett (who looks a lot like Lara Croft) suffers from the misfortune of watching her lover (Benedict) die at the hands of a group of mercenaries. Soon enough, Scarlett learns that she is the daughter of Death. Being the daughter of a spectre, she can unleash unworldly, ultimate powers at her control. Scarlett learns that it is up to her to save the world from the evil terror that lies before it. Nothing entirely original, although it is different seeing as the protagonist is one of Death himself.
Graphics - Simply put, Venetica doesn't look on par with other PS3 games. Character models look very cartoonish. Backgrounds and scenery constantly pop-in from a distance, making environments look pretty bland. Characters will also walk through doors, or get stuck in some of the games environments.
Sound - Mediocre at best. It's also laughably bad at times.
Gameplay - Many people compare Venetica to 'Fable' which I cannot since I have never played the series. Venetica plays like your normal Action RPG. Let's start with the good:
+You have an assortment of skills and weapons which can be mapped to the D-Pad and if 4 slots aren't enough, you can use the L2 button to shift between sets to slot more commands.
+Numerous side quests are available to add some replayability
+You can choose dialogue options similar to games like Dragon Age Origins
+If Scarlett's health runs low, she can resurrect on the spot (provided she has enough Twilight Energy, which is essentially mana)
+3 Guilds to join each with their own quests and rewards
+While not really open-world, the map is set into several different regions, each with an area you can fast travel to
Now for the bad:
-The gameplay falls down from here. Combat boils down to using the 'X' button repeatedly. The only combos come from pressing X every second or so to execute a different attack, however, it's still the same thing.
-Scarlett can roll, although she moves pretty slowly.
-Combat is very simple - in fact, the only time you may die is if you get grouped by several enemies who kill you before you can press a button thanks to the problematic camera which obstructs your view at times.
-The game is not without its bugs and glitches:
-Your quest objective is not shown on your mini-map, meaning you must constantly bring up the world map to make sure you are going in the right direction
-Sometimes, quests or NPC's are shown on the wrong place of the map or don't show up at all, resulting in frustration and problems if you do not make multiple saves
-Lack of customization
-Frame-rate drops, while not too constant, hurt the gameplay
Final Word - 6/10
On the surface of Venetica, it is covered with bugs, glitches, technical issues and a few design flaws. What lies under it is a decent, enjoyable RPG. There are times when I felt this game was a 9 out of 10, and others where I felt the game was hard to enjoy. Venetica may be worth a look, just as long as you don't expect anything too remarkable.