Venetica - Review @ GameSpot

GameSpot has a review of Venetica - for the PC, no less - though the score is still a modest 6/10. The intro provides a summary:

A great introduction is not always a portent of things to come. Venetica begins in the middle of chaos: Murderous bandits have taken their swords to a small mountain village. They move with deadly precision, laying waste to the meager buildings while slaying any red-blooded protector who tries to stem their violence. And just when this vile rampage draws to a close, you find out that the heroine, Scarlett, is the daughter of Death. It's an opening that's worthy of an epic adventure, but it becomes clear before long that Venetica's potential has little chance of being realized. A deluge of repetitive quests weighed down by tiresome combat and a map system that doesn't function properly remove much of the delight from your vengeance-fueled adventure. Because of the problems plaguing the core of this role-playing game, it's difficult to find a good rhythm and enjoy the finer aspects. A strong protagonist whose personality you mold throughout the game is the main draw, and eye-catching sights make it a pleasure to explore this world. Venetica has enough aesthetic rewards to make it worth playing, but you have to put up with lots of gameplay problems before you can experience them.

More information.

… lots of gameplay problems …

I think I played a different game then…

+1

Then again, what to expect from gamespot, name me one RPG they didn't have "gameplay problems" with. Amateurs.

At least they threw the PC version another point, even if he only played it for a couple hours I would guess.

The way Risen was butchered because of the Xbox version still pisses me off.

6 is pretty generous. Venetica is too little too late.

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
The way Risen was butchered because of the Xbox version still pisses me off.

Risen PC@ Gamespot:
"You'll enjoy this fascinating and intricate role-playing game in spite of its troublesome combat and scattered bugs." Score 7.0 (fair)

This a gentle pat on the back, hardly a cleaver out.

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
Risen PC@ Gamespot:
"You'll enjoy this fascinating and intricate role-playing game in spite of its troublesome combat and scattered bugs." Score 7.0 (fair)

This a gentle pat on the back, hardly a cleaver out.

7 is hardly a gentle pat on the back, when shitty hiking simulator with absolutely broken mechanics from roleplaying point of view, like oblivion gets away with 9,3.

Heh, maybe because Oblivion is a ~9 game. Even with a cartload of flaws.

As for Risen, I`m about to start tomorrow. Can we resume this shitty hiking simulator civilised discussion in few days, please sir?

Gamespot is shite.

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
Oblivion is a ~9 game.

Post reported for offensive content .

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
Heh, maybe because Oblivion is a ~9 game.

Not without 100+ mods including the ones that:
1. throw vanilla loot and character progression and level scaling completely out of the window and rebuild these mechanics from the ground up.
2. Add proper lore back into the world.
3. Add some quests, that are actually fun and have different ways to solve them and some actual c&c.
4. Do something about the "wonderful" graphics such as horrible distance textures and hideous faces.
5. Give the game a proper PC UI.
And last i looked these didn't count when reviewing a game.

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
Risen PC@ Gamespot:
"You'll enjoy this fascinating and intricate role-playing game in spite of its troublesome combat and scattered bugs." Score 7.0 (fair)

This a gentle pat on the back, hardly a cleaver out.

I meant in general, not necessarily at Gamespot.

Gamespot is lame, but no lamer than other pop-news sites. In my opinion "better", when I want to read some bubblegum news.

Oblivion had one major flaw, scaling. Rest is arguable/no worse than other games. Apart from that - a stunning open world, without which none of the mods would obviously exist.

But hey, it`s cool to be edgy & slay evil giants like Gamespot/Bethsoft, eh? :P
(by complaining `bout 5 yr old graphics, btw :)

Major issues in Oblivion:

Scaling
RPG system/mechanics
Writing (not all of it was bad, though)
Weak/samey dungeons

Beyond that, though, it was an impressive game in terms of technology. Definitely one of the most immersive games I've ever played.

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
But hey, it`s cool to be edgy & slay evil giants like Gamespot/Bethsoft, eh?
(by complaining `bout 5 yr old graphics, btw

I don't consider them evil giants by the way. I'd say Gamespot is actually one of the most competent sites as far as major gaming sites go. I'd take their word over say Eurolamer any day without blinking an eye. And bethesda has made much better games before and after Oblivion, so i have nothing against them. And by the way those aspects about the graphics that i complained about were complained about days after release too and not only by me. Replacing distance textures and LOD used to be amongst the most popular modding categories before Beth rectified the problem somewhat by introducing a grainy filter on distance textures in one of later patches. And as far as facegen related ugliness goes, this category has seen many mods too over the years, both on textures and on faces themselves.

Originally Posted by tolknaz
And bethesda has made much better games before and after Oblivion, so i have nothing against them.

That`s true. I`m just allergic to when people paint Oblivion sometimes as it was the worst thing since Daikatana. Even if they released it as a bare engine/toolset it would still be worth the money IMO.

Could be, if I was after Morrowind & playing PC version I would be livid too.

Let`s just wait till November , I bet my Xmas presents there will be plenty of reasons to complain when certain Skyrim comes out ;)

What many people lack is balance.

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
That`s true. I`m just allergic to when people paint Oblivion sometimes as it was the worst thing since Daikatana. Even if they released it as a bare engine/toolset it would still be worth the money IMO.

If Oblivion was some random RPG from some random developer I would probably praise it. It's the fact that Bethesda made two brilliant games before it and then stumbled that makes it a disappointment more than anything else.

And then of course the fact that they make what I consider a misstep and are then rewarded for it with higher sales and better reviews adds insult to injury.

If the indications are true and they have removed attributes entirely from Skyrim then there will be many people complaining about that. (including me)

Originally Posted by guenthar
they have removed attributes

What, like Stamina/Luck/etc? Surely not?

I thought Oblivion was as much as TES can take in terms of streamlining. They do that, and I `ll grab a torch & pitchfork too.

Half of the equation of gamespot scores is how the game would actually be received by its readers. In that context a 9 for oblivion and a 6 for Venetica makes sense, might even be generous.

I tried Venetica over a year ago when the english version finally became available and couldn't stomach it past the destroyed village intro, it causes a bad first impression. Controls/camera are wobbly, performance is terrible and the exchange between the protagonist and death was poorly written.

Worst of all though: you're a woman, and not just a fake - i play as butch lesbo to watch her butt jiggle - woman like in bio games but an actual woman with a boy she loves and wants to get married to, right from the start.

I don't enjoy pretending to be a woman, roleplaying and escapism doesn't mean crossdressing for me.