Venture to the Vile

• DEVELOPER: Studio Cut to Bits
• PUBLISHER: Aniplex Inc.
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Metroidvania / Platformer
• RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2024
• STARTING PRICE: 24,50 €
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

Venture to the Vile offers a fresh take on the Metroidvania genre. While it incorporates familiar mechanics like unlocking new skills, upgrading weapons, and fighting bosses, it stands out with its beautiful dark world and engaging storyline woven throughout the game. The fantastic art style, music, and varied levels enhance the experience, so it’s not just pure copy-paste. However, three issues prevent it from being perfect and slow down the gameplay.

Our eerie story unfolds in Rainybrook, a mysterious village where everyone wears animal masks. The game begins with our main character waking up on his special mask day. He receives a new mask symbolizing his growth, looking like an adolescent deer with tiny horns. Afterward, your mother informs you that your friend Ella, the girl in the goat mask, is looking for you. You venture into the village to find her. Together, you’ve been setting traps to catch rats for Dr. Crow, who seems to be conducting experiments and urges villagers to use clean energy like batteries or apples.

The story then skips ahead to when the protagonists are older teens. They’re still checking traps, but something has been breaking them and leaving strange fur behind. As night falls and growling sounds grow louder, you rush home. Ella crosses a rickety bridge safely, but it collapses when you try, sending you into a dark, oddly lit underground area. It’s your mission now to find her and save the collapsing world.

Strengths

Firstly, let’s discuss what sets this game apart from others. As previously mentioned, the game boasts incredible visuals and an atmosphere that draws heavily from Victorian England. It’s fascinating how the developers have managed to combine a dark, eerie ambiance with a beautifully crafted world that seamlessly integrates with an intriguing storyline. The game map consists of 5-6 distinct areas, all interconnected by a main sewer system, each featuring unique biomes with notable landmarks. Additionally, navigating through these areas is easy, and the game encourages exploration by allowing movement across different layers, inviting you to discover more and more.

Secondly, unlike other Metroidvanias where characters are either abruptly introduced or only appear after specific tasks, The Venture to the Vile offers a world that feels truly alive. It is populated with eccentric characters that you can interact with, learn more about, and complete side quests for. The game is massive, brimming with content, including numerous optional activities like collectibles and secret bosses. Your progress is marked by the bosses you defeat and the weapons you upgrade. The upgrade system is particularly enjoyable because it involves using body parts from monsters, making each upgrade feel rewarding and never like a waste of resources.

Thirdly, the movement mechanics are good but not the best. The platforming elements are well-designed, providing a balance of challenge and satisfaction. The game also includes a variety of puzzles, ranging from simple button presses to navigating complex paths. As you progress, the difficulty increases, which keeps the gameplay engaging and ensures continuous improvement. Personally, I never found it too challenging to the point of frustration. Instead, the game encourages you to utilize all the tools and abilities at your disposal to advance.

The combat in the game can be hit or miss. Overall, it is one of the game’s strengths since you can also use different skills to fight and its quite welcoming for newer players to this genre. Additionally, the boss fights are particularly diverse, each requiring you to learn its patterns and test your reflexes. For instance, there’s a side boss on the way to the mines that resembles a half-cricket, half-monster. This boss is challenging due to its fast movements, but the more you fight it, the sooner you realize how to defeat it. However, a significant downside of the boss fights is their multiple stages, often lasting through two or more phases, which can make them feel too long. Additionally, the lack of a visible health bar for the bosses adds to the frustration, leaving you wondering, “When will I finally beat it?”

Weaknesses

The game would be significantly improved with the addition of a map or fast travel/teleportation options. Currently, there is no map and no icons indicating where to go, leading to a lot of wandering around, much more than in most Metroidvanias. The only indication of your location is your character icon in a particular region or place, but that’s it. The biggest frustration comes from having to travel back and forth without knowing exactly where to go. Additionally, there are often many enemies along the way, forcing you to either fight them constantly or attempt to dodge and avoid them. When you rest at a tent, all enemies respawn, leading to even more fighting and dodging. While fighting enemies is useful for earning in-game currency and upgrade materials, the sheer number of them makes the constant stopping and dodging more frustrating than enjoyable.

The animation aspect of the game could use some improvement, as movement can sometimes feel clunky. This is particularly noticeable when you are close to enemies; it can feel like you are taking damage even without making contact. This issue also affects platforming elements, where wall jumping can be frustrating. The fighting animations lack proper sharpness, and the hitboxes are imprecise. The controls’ responsiveness is not optimal, which only add to these problems. I had issues with my controller, while the PC controls were faster, but the game still takes some time to properly register movements.

Venture to the Ville features secrets tied to weather and time mechanics, although you cannot change these conditions yourself. Initially, this might seem beneficial, but as you progress, the drawbacks become apparent. For example, some plants only grow in the dark, offering more in-game currency, while others bloom during the day. However, at night, enemies become stronger and take on different forms, which can be very frustrating. The regular monsters you fight during the day become three times stronger at night. Additionally, enemies lack health indicators—not necessarily bars showing exact health, but even a visual cue would help. After about six hits, you start to anticipate when will they die, but clearer indicators would improve the experience.

Certain side quests can be somewhat confusing to solve. After a while, I gave up on them and mainly focused on the main quests. The hints provided are often insufficient, making it difficult to understand what exactly needs to be done. While I appreciate the game showing the percentage of completion and the number of horseshoes collected, I wish it offered more rewarding incentives for completing side quests.

Another frustrating aspect is how slowly your character heals, leaving you vulnerable to enemy attacks during the process. Additionally, controlling the direction of your backstep or dodge move is challenging. Despite its name, the backstep often sends you straight into enemies instead of away from them. The game could benefit from better optimization. I experienced frame-rate drops, particularly in biomes with rain which seemed to cause issues.

Final thoughts - is it worth it?

Throughout the entire experience, I wondered whether this game would be suitable for newcomers or more experienced players in this genre. There are numerous accessibility settings that provide more health and allow the difficulty to be scaled for a more relaxed experience. However, the game becomes increasingly challenging as you progress, which may not be enjoyable for everyone due to the occasional difficult jumps and obstacles.

Overall, the game has a lot to offer. It’s good, not bad, but not perfect either. With many Metroidvanias on the market, Venture to the Vile stands out with its unique elements. However, the gameplay can be quite frustrating, which affects the overall experience. Despite this, for €24.50, I believe the game is absolutely worth it.

Review copy provided by the publisher

3.6