Unraveling the Terrors: A Dive into Venture to the Vile (PC)
Unraveling the Terrors: A Dive into Venture to the Vile (PC)
Publisher: Aniplex Inc
Developer: Cut To Bits
Genre:
PEGI:
Comments:
Having played so many Metroidvanias in the last few years, I have encountered both similar and unique features of this very popular genre. Coming into the gaming industry with an original idea must be very challenging, so when I say that Venture to the Vile is a very original take on a Metroidvania, I definitely mean it. Immerse yourself in a twisted dark fantasy game where you venture into the unknown, utilizing your logic skills and navigating the challenging 3D world within 2D spaces. Developed by Cut to Bits and published by Aniplex Inc, this Memorial Day Weekend (or this weekend), you should be picking up this obscure, whimsical Metroidvania and immersing yourself in the utmost charming experience of a game.
I knew this game was dark, but I didn’t really understand what I was getting myself into until I actually began playing the game. I don’t usually play horror games, and just last week I was trying to find a horror game that was at least manageable for me to play. So when I started playing Venture to the Vile I realized that I already had the perfect horror game. It isn’t scary, like Resident Evil scary, but it did make my heart kind of beat faster depending on the atmosphere, the lighting, and the music of the game. Sometimes there would be an occasional creepy enemy or two that would give me a proper jump scare as well. Speaking of audio and graphics, I have to say that visually, Venture to the Vile was executed exquisitely, taking inspiration from the works of Tim Burton. The game was created in this 2D to 3D setting, and as you explore the map you uncover layers after layers of beautifully designed areas with secrets and puzzles. Besides the frame rate dropping in certain areas of the game, I was happy overall with the performance. The soundtrack of this game is just breathtaking. Within each environment, the ambience of the music changes depending on the situation. Some of the areas really challenge your mind, between the loud instrumental music and the shadows on the wall, it creates the perfect horrific encounter.
The game reminds me of a popup Grimms’ Fairy Tale. You’re lifting flaps of the storybook, revealing hidden secrets all while discovering all the enemies in the game through a bestiary called the In Memoriam. However, the one drawback from all of this magnificent whimsical enchantment? There is no traditional map in this game. Instead you get this beautiful hand drawn map that shows you the layout of the locations, but doesn’t really tell you where to go, what you’ve missed, and doesn’t give you the ability to pin locations to go back to. That means you are literally on your own. I don’t know about you, but based on my experience in playing multiple Metroidvanias, not having a map like this is actually really challenging and makes it really difficult to be the completionist that I usually am.
The gameplay is quite simple, it is actually too simple. Your hand does the attacking for you. After you consumed some of the vile, your hand mutated and now your hand converts into this thingamabob that slaps around enemies. There are some upgrades in the game that provide precision, but going through the bosses, I used this one simple attack and was able to get through each boss without any issues. I think from where it lacks its offense, makes up for it for its platforming. There is so much platforming in this game, that you will be overwhelmed remembering if you have gone through the area already, if you found everything and if you can get to that piece of rock three layers down.
The best part of this game? The amount of content the game has to offer. I am not even 50% into the game yet, which I am basing it off the amount of hours I put in, the achievements I earned and how many sidequests I have left to work on. This means that you are getting your money’s worth from purchasing a game that has so many hours of content. The game has so many sidequests, that just factoring all of this, plus three different endings, and finding all of the items, this game easily takes probably 20+ hours. I am really looking forward to discovering all the endings of the game and finishing the game to 100%.
Exploring the open-world of Venture to the Vile is really up to how you want to explore it. There is a day/night cycle that actually makes the game even more challenging. Depending on the time of the day, different enemies come out to play. Some enemies are more annoying than others, and you will learn to despise the night time cycle more. There are also sidequests that can only be done at night, so keep that in mind if you’re a scaredy cat like me.
Mutations are also important in the game, remember I mentioned there are upgrades in this game? Well, each boss you defeat provides you with material and vile, new abilities as well as the possibility to upgrade your abilities to make yourself stronger. Always keep an eye out on your Mutations tab to see if you can upgrade any new abilities, as that will get you further in the game and keep you from dying often.
Aside from the map, there is one other thing that truly bothered me and that was that there was no travel system in the game. Instead, an equivalent of a travel system is the sewer area where each tunnel unlocks an area to take you through the interconnected map. The problem is that in order to open up each section of the map through the sewers, it’s already a headache because you have to unlock each area through abilities, jump through spikes and dangerous obstacles and fight enemies, so this already annoyed me. I feel this is where we see some of the originality from the developer and I really appreciated the effort but hopefully, there can be an upgrade, or an item in the future that might help you just travel from tent to tent, like in most traditional Metroidvanias.
Overall Venture to the Vile is a gothically mesmerizing masterpiece and the amazing variety of creations of enemies and bosses and the originality of the environments, takes you away on a getaway to a world of vile and destruction but in the most pleasant experience.
The game was released on May 22nd, 2024 on PC (consoles at a later date). Check out Venture to the Vile on steam and check out Cut to Bits twitter page for more information.
Thank you to Cut to Bits and Aniplex Inc for the Review Code.