Venetica - Review @ Strategy Gamer

[Dhruin]

Venetica has been reviewed at Strategy Informer in an article that praises the city design of Venice and the general combat system but notes a lack of polish. The issues obviously take their toll, because the score of 6.5/10 seems low for most of the text. The summary:

And the good bits, for all their worth, are just that; good, but not classic. The combat engine is satisfying but could have used a little more refinement, the plot is entertainingly designed but occasionally told by characters that are a bit dull, and the overall impression is of a game that just needed a little more focus, money and time. Regardless though, there's enough here to keep you entertained for a short adventure, but don't expect anything revolutionary from Venetica's well-worn but rambling path.

IGN also has some "new" gameplay footage, for those hanging in for the NA release next year.
More information.

 

[Anderson]

Hmm. Somewhat discouraging, but not unexpected. I await further reviews.

 

[Garrett]

strange, venetica is an excellent game, but it seems, no matter how good a german game is, us always rate it mediocre

 

[bemushroomed]

yeah, american games are always rated higher. If Oblivion was a polish or german it would have been rated 6 or 7/10 instead of 9 or 10/10 on most/all sites.

 

[azarhal]

6.5/10 is way too low for Venetica, but it's closer to an adventure game, then an action RPG.

I would give it a solid 8.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Are they used to so much action that everything containing less action suddenly becomes/appears to be dull ?

 

[KasperFauerby]

Based on the german demo I would also give it at least 8/10.

I just installed the english version yesterday, but didn't get to play it yet. It took a while to install, so I had time to read through the manual. Judging from that, there are actually quite many aspects to this game. CRPG mechanics, exploration, treasure hunting, thieving, canals, roof tops, taverns, guilds.. It all sounds quite exciting actually!

 

[DArtagnan]

Well, a bit low perhaps, but I wouldn't give it more than 7 - personally.

 

[Anderson]

strange, venetica is an excellent game, but it seems, no matter how good a german game is, us always rate it mediocre

I wonder if it is this particular site. I don't know, but a site called "Strategy Informer" might have a bias toward strategic games, the ones an obsessive compulsive would like, and an intolerance for technical imperfections. Venetica doesn't seem like that; it seems more along the lines of something like an unpolished Fable. So perhaps other US sites will view it differently. I'm just speculating...

 

[zakhal]

Perhaps its just lack of marketing? Well-marketed games tend to get better scores even if they are only average as games. And un-marketed average games can get worse scores even if they dont deserve it. German games have always had poor marketing.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

If so, then it is the marketing that makes a game "top or flop" ?
What a bias !

 

[crpgnut]

Another kicker would be whether it is multi-platform. I'm not following Venetica but does it have PS3 and Xbox 360 ports? If not, it won't get as much attention in the States. American AAA titles are almost always on more than one system. Many, many German games are not translated well and this will hugely affect the score. If a game isn't developed in English, it seems to lose at least a point when rated here. It's a big reason why I like RPGWatch. I get to hear about games even if they're not heavily advertised.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Yes, there are console ports. But I don't remember whether they are already there in he US, too.

Many, many German games are not translated well and this will hugely affect the score. If a game isn't developed in English, it seems to lose at least a point when rated here.

This is basically the reason of my ranting about the English language being so dominant in gaming - and in computing in general.

The Cynic in me throws in the word of "patriotism".

 

[crpgnut]

Well, the English language is the most dominant in the world. It makes sense that it's also the most dominant in games. We Americans are too lazy to learn other languages, so everybody else had to learn how to speak with us Hmmm, United-Statesians/Brits? A lot of Canadians speak two….

Okay, I'm gonna ramble so feel free to ignore:

Why are games and such predominantly English? More people outside of native speakers know English than any other language. Depending on who's numbers you want to use, English is spoken natively by about 328-350,000,000 speakers. This is tiny in comparison to Mandarin Chinese which is spoken by 800-845 million.

However, Mandarin isn't spoken as much outside of native speakers. Only about 179 million people speak it as 2nd/foreign language. The English language is spoken by 550 million as a second/foreign language. This makes English the most obvious choice for any game to be translated. If you take Internet users only, the percentange goes up exponentially. I can't find the report atm but it's ridiculoous the percentage of daily internet users that read English.

 

[Anderson]

Another kicker would be whether it is multi-platform. I'm not following Venetica but does it have PS3 and Xbox 360 ports? If not, it won't get as much attention in the States. American AAA titles are almost always on more than one system. Many, many German games are not translated well and this will hugely affect the score. If a game isn't developed in English, it seems to lose at least a point when rated here. It's a big reason why I like RPGWatch. I get to hear about games even if they're not heavily advertised.

Yeah, it's coming out in the US in January, on the 360. Perhaps PS3 as well, I can't remember.

This review (6.5) is of the PC version. Based on that, I'm cringing at the thought of what the 360 scores are going to be. Ouch.... But hey, if it's not entirely broken, I'm still picking it up.

 

[zakhal]

If so, then it is the marketing that makes a game "top or flop" ?What a bias !

Its nothing new. Well marketed games usually have somthing like 5 point bonus on their
score. Somtimes it can be even more. Som sites have even fired their reviewers because they refused to give better scores due to marketing (gamespot and kane lynch to name one).

Review sites have somthing called score average. If they give too much good scores (for highly marketed games) they need to give som bad ones too to lower their score average. Little marketed foreign games are a good punch bag in that regard. Nobody is defending them (the marketing) so its easy to pinch off number or two from their score.

So far venetica pc version seems to have average critic review of 60-65% somthing. Gamespot has user review average too and its significantly higher going 79% at this moment (8 users giving the game 90-95%). If the difference stays the same when more reviews become available then there is obviously somthing wrong with the critic reviews. Thats atleast how I picture it.

 

[Thrasher]

Almost all review sites are crap. Sorry. Don't pay the numbers any attention. If you can get some objective descriptions (rather than opinionated predilections) out of a review, then you're lucky.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Why are games and such predominantly English? More people outside of native speakers know English than any other language.

I have nothing against games being in English language. I have something against a) its dominance and b) the lack of respect towards other languages by developers. Still in the 90s, a not small part of all games were still devlivered in English.

The dominance of the English language - or rather, the focussing on it - leads to the phenomenon tht we don't know a thing about French or Spanish games - which must exist, I suppose - because no-one scans their web sites for them. e get to know games from these and from other countries only when they have an English-language web site for them. Until that - nothing. The amount of French games covered here at RPGWatch and elsewhere is very low, because of this, I think.

Regarding French developers, I almost assume that they develop primarily for their own markts. The French are as proud of their own language as the U.S. and U.K people are (apart from dialcts and minority languages).

This can lead, I fear, to rather bad translations into other languges, especially into the English languag, which is usually the fist and normally the only language game is translated into. Because of the world-wide dominance.

We have similar examples with White Gold and with other Russian games. What about Hungary ? What about Romania ? What about Turkey ? Italy ? Don't they have game developers, too ?

Meanwhile the English language is a neat too to be understood almost anyhere in this world, it also narrows our views. Countries which do not publish games in English language remain usually just unnoticed. Exept Japan, maybe or other asian countries, which are very important, almost dominant because of their technology.

I wish I'd knew many more languages of this world so I could report what's going on in other countries. I think there might be potential - which unfortunately only people in their own countriesare able to see, as least long as their games (and software in general) is not translated into English.

More languages = more knowledge, imho.

 

[zakhal]

I dont really understand why one would be proud of language. Especially if that just means hostility against other languages especially english that everyone should be able to speak so there is atleast one language we can use to understand each other.

French are pretty fascist in using their language only. Thats not richness but single mindedness imho. Its like the french are jealous of the english or somthing. Its not like their language is going to disappear if they use little bit of english Russians I can excuse for they are bad in english anyway.

 

[fatBastard()]

Alrik: What use is a game in, let's say, Russian outside of Russia?

I know you have mentioned the language issue quite often, but unless you're actually able to UNDERSTAND the language in question, you'll be stuck with piece of software that is worthless to you.

This is not about respect or disrespect for regional languages but about simple practicality. Without a reasonably decent english version, you'll never be able to sell your game outside of your own region. If developers can't be bothered to make a passable english version that I play and understand, then I can't be bothered to buy their game.