Venture to the Vile

Just completed the game with 100% quests and collectibles, so here's my take. It's a surprisingly solid Metroidvania for those who value ambience and art over the more mechanical aspects. It's also on the easier side compared to some of the cult classics, which is a plus as far as I am concerned. [b]TL;DR[/b]: give it a try if you're into this setting. It's decent and has no real roadblocks preventing you from getting to all three endings. A bit rough around the edges, but doesn't punish a lot even with slow reflexes (I should know). It's completable in under 10 hours, but 20 is more realistic. The graphics and sound design may seem janky at first, but you get used quickly. The music is great from start to end. The story is quirky, but ultimately cliche. The writing is just about adequate, but devoid of true gems. Gamepad controls and progression mechanics are the same as in every other metroidvania - if you played similar games before, you'll know what to do from start to finish. What makes it unique? It's [b]2.5D[/b], so it feels different to any sidescroller. Navigation is a bit harder without a proper detailed map, but I found this approach to level design both immersive and practical. A few hours in, you learn to expect transition areas and seek them out. And I think I actually prefer vast vistas rendered with all the monsters and treasure in the background to the old-school 2D metroidvania screens. Check out the Lost Thicket level to see what I mean. The game has a great [b]day/night transition[/b] implemented with gorgeous dusk/dawn colors, shadows, light in windows and the like. For some reason, it is a massively underused and gimmicky feature. Aside from different breeds of monsters coming out at night and some quests being weather-locked, I haven't seen it being used much for anything. Still impressive, though. Difficulty-wise, it's a rare example of [b]an easier metroidvania[/b]. A bit like [b]Bloodstained[/b], but that one just lets you overlevel through the roof, which isn't very satisfying. Here you get several skill trees and nicely balanced, albeit basic attacks. Most combat can be avoided, and you can kill most opponents with a single maxed-out 4-hit claw combo. Ground slam is also a devastating attack. It's much less sophisticated than [b]Hollow Knight[/b] and doesn't have the same scale or depth, but plays almost as well. It's not as fast-paced or streamlined as [b]Ori[/b], but you get an actual forward dash pretty early on, so just hang in there until you do. It's not nearly as relentless as [b]Ender Lilies[/b], because there is no difficulty scaling as the story progresses. Parrying is trivial and effective, just keep in mind that the spark flashes to indicate that you [b]can[/b] parry this particular attack, not the exact moment [b]when[/b] to parry. You lose nothing on death, and save/respawn points are frequent enough. What I especially like as an adult man with responsibilities is how few reaction checks it throws at you. Bosses are more like puzzles, clearly telegraphing all attacks whole seconds in advance and being otherwise very forgiving. If you ever do get stuck, just remember what I said and take a closer look at the arena - you'll figure it out. Most boss battles are over in 3-5 or so tries even without high-end damage upgrades. Platforming is trivial and punishes you with -1 HP at worst. Healing is abundant with tonic upgrades. On the technical side of things, it runs fairly smoothly on a 3070 Ti in 4K resolution. Lots of microstuttering for no apparent reason, but you get used to it. Hope it gets addressed in future updates. Not a single crash or bug in 22 hours, I heard it was worse at launch. Replayability isn't really there, but you may want to come back and get the other endings on the same save (it doesn't get deleted). You can also get 100% quest and item completion without a guide, which is commendable. To summarize: Venture to the Vile is a surprisingly solid entry in the genre. It does most things well enough and is enjoyable to 100%. Not for competitive players obsessed with combat depth, but not everything has to be. It does feel a little unpolished at times, but compensates for it with the unique ambience and art style. Definitely scratches that Hollow Knight itch for me. [b]A deserved 4/5.[/b] Eagerly looking forward to the next game from Cut to Bits with better writing, Platinum Games level of motion fluidity (one can dream) and more inventive uses of the systems introduced here, like the day/night cycle and the 2.5D level design. The potential is definitely there, now let's see it developed further.

Have you ever wondered what little nightmares would be like as a metroidvania? Venture to the vile answers that question and i loved what this entails. I have always prefered the open ended approach of MV's over the on-rails level design that linear platformers use, because this allows for more player freedom. Being able to explore the uncanny and intruiging world of venture to the vile at my own pace was tons of fun. This was in no small part due to the brilliant level design which is undoubtably the highlight and strongest point of venture to the vile. I've played some 2.5 platformers that allow you to go into the background before (airhead, darq, shadow complex, mars 2120) but never before have i seen it done so well. Where the others move you into the layers only by a little, venture to the vile sometimes lets you go as far into the scene as left/right. There's levels where you can see entire buildings in the distance that you letter get to explore the insides of, which then also play on a few layers. This felt a bit overwhelming initally but i quickly grew accustomed to this approach. In fact navigating the world of venture to the vile is made easier by these extra layers as it allows for a great sense of relative position. This is a good thing as the game has at the time of this review no real ingame map, only a sort of general overworld map (which was usefull in its own way, especially in regards to collectibles). The thing is though that i found this game to be easier to navigate than regular 2D MV's, again due to the great sense of relative position. Not only that but the levels just flow incredibly well, and your first romp through each level will be guided thanks to some one way doors, ability gating and puzzles. This also makes backtracking pretty refreshing as there's always multiple paths to take and new ways to traverse with your newfound abilities. You can also find tons of things when backtracking as each MV upgrade is super well integrated into the level design. There's just tons of things to find in venture to the vile's levels ranging from currency deposits and upgrading materials to lore bits and quest items. These quest items especially are quite numerous as venture to the vile features well over a few dozen side quests. It's incredible how much side content there is in this game, there's even a whole level that is entirely optional, complete with a boss fight and all! In fact there were several substantial areas in each biome that were also completely optional with their own boss fights as well. If you just want to do the main story in venture to the vile you can do that in about 8 hours i would estimate, but if you're a completionist you can easily double that playtime like i did. I was utterly addicted to doing every single thing i could in this game, and finding every collectible. Now i must say that for some things i had to resort to a guide as quite a few of the 'hints' are rather obscure, but in hindsight they make sense. Wether or not you use a guide alongside your playthrough or not, venture to the vile has plenty to sink your teeth in. Even if you just do the main stuff the game has tons of amazing things to offer like the aforementioned amazing level design but also some platforming that felt great to engage with. There's a certain weight to it but the character controls felt very responsive and there's even a few chase sequences to put them to good use. Combat also felt rather good to play and while your own moveset is relatively basic the rather large cast of enemies more than makes up for that in terms of variety. Each enemy not only features beautifully grotesque designs but also fun and unique gameplay. With a few exceptions no two enemies felt alike and most of them were VERY fun to fight. This is especially true for the game's bosses which thoroughly impressed me. I'm not exagerating when i say that each and everyone one of them felt completly different from one another and they were all spectacles to fight. What's also spectacular is the overal art style and graphics for the game. I generally prefer 2D ori style visuals or high fidelity pixel art like blasphemous over 2.5D visuals as i most often find them to look cheap (like mars 2120 or 3000th duel) but venture to the vile's levels were gorgeous to look at. This is mostly due to some pretty impressive shaders and lighting effects which make the environments pop. These come into play during the different weather/time of day conditions that venture features. This sounds like a gimmick but they really did change the whole mood of each zone, especially at night time or dusk, which was when the game looked best in my opinion. The weather/time also comes into play in certain quests which added some extra depth to it, although this can be cumbersome to some players. I found the system unique and refreshing for the genre so i enjoyed seeing the biomes in different conditions. Even if the game would not feature this system the variety of environments would still be superb as there's so many different settings. You've got the town, streets, swamps, woods, sewer, mines, harbor and fields. Each area felt so unique in terms of visuals but also gameplay as they each features tons of unique mobs and some gimmicks exclusives to that region, like dynamite in the mines or conveyors in the windmill. Each area was also dripping in atmosphere, especially the hospital/asylum which is where the uncanny little nightmares vibes were the strongest. This was in no small part due to the brilliant audio design and sound effects which created a truly immersive experience. This was complemented by a very fitting soundtrack that further pulled you into this game's world. It's one of the most immersive and engrossing Metroidvania's that i've played so far as i was mesmerized by the world the entire time. Said world tells a great story, especially with some of the notes and environmental storytelling but also with the dialogues and quests. While the overarching plot is a bit cliché the execution was still spot on. Unfortunately the technical side of things is what was lacking the most in venture to the vile as my 16 hours of the game were filled with near nonstop stuttering. I must say that i only have a gtx 1070 which is a rather dated card but it handles most metroidvania's very well so i think it's more to do with a lack of optimization rather than my card. Loading times too were also rather lengty. If you got the room for it i would recommend installing this one on an SSD as there's lots of loading screens to go through with all the interiors and different levels you go through during exploration/backtracking. Still though this rather large negative did not detract me from loving every second with this game as soon as i got to the asylum. In the end i would strongly recommend venture to the vile despite the lower ratings which were mostly accredited to launch issues like bugs/crashes and lag. While the lag is still there, at least for me, most bugs were fixed as i did not encounter any in my time. Loading times were long when they occured but once you're in a level everything is seamless. Seeing all the distant layers with enemies and environments you can later explore is nothing short of impressive, so the little performance hickups can be excused imo. If you like exploring an eerie world and love optional content then this game has plenty of those to offer. The game starts out a bit difficult but the upgrades make a big difference and there's accesibility options to make it easier so unless you're looking for a really hardcore experience there's no real reason not to play this one. I played tons of metroidvania's so far and while this isn't among THE best, it's certainly better than most and fun experience throughout.

Just finished. It's an excellent game with a deeply layered world that can take a little trial and error to find your way around an area the first few times. The story and setting were engrossing, lovely, and detailed. The music was consistently good and often quite eerie or just slightly disconcerting, fitting the atmosphere wonderfully. It's sad this game didn't get a good amount of attention upon its release. The newer versions have fixed all the quest and optimization problems other people were having and I had a great time with one or two minor bugs through the whole game. The save file is showing ~18.5 hours and 100% completion. Recommended to all metroidvania fans, really. I hope to see the layered 2d plane thing that this game does in more games in the future. It's so cool being able to see objectives and enemies way in the background and work your way there as you proceed through the area. Good stuff! Shame most of the people involved in the creating had to be laid off because of the poor sales. DO NOT FEEL LIKE FAILURES BECAUSE THE GAME DID POORLY This game is a beautifully crafted whole and is easily good enough to overlook any minor frustrations learning to traverse the areas. Loved it!

Found this gem thanks to RagnarRox' video and was really blown away by it. A real intriguing and solid Metroidvania with a cool art style and challenging gameplay. I did not expect to find such a dark story in such a rather cute looking game, but that definitely added positively to the experience. Can oly recommend

Underrated game for sure -- I think it's worth a playthrough! It definitely has it's ups and downs, but overall an enjoyable experience that had pretty decent combat, exploration and story! Would recommend it for sure.

A game that looks great on the surface, but has issues that keep it from being something worth playing. I saw a trailer for Venture to the Vile a good while before it came out, and I loved the look of the game and the ideas behind the story. After having played and completed the game, I unfortunately have to say that it's a let down in every conceivable way. First, the look of the game is very different from the way the game is advertised in artwork. The artwork games it look like this is going to be a stop motion styled game, but it's instead a rather bog standard indie game look. Second, the way they portray the characters and the world makes it seem like there are interesting questions that need to be answered. Why do the people wear animal masks? Why does the MC survive his encounter with the vile, and receive powers from it? What IS the vile? these are things that are really cool bits about the game, but none of them are ever answered. ALL of the interesting bits about the games story are just never addressed, and this really kills the interest in playing the game. Now, you might be someone who doesn't really care about story, it's all about gameplay. Well, the gameplay too is a let down. The game gives you 6 different abilities to navigate the world with, but there is no real synergy between them and they don't really make combat more interesting. In fact, some of the abilities you get will end up getting you killed early on. You will get the ability to tether to certain objects, and you can upgrade it to allow you to tether to enemies. The issue is that this tether pulls you INTO the enemies, causing damage. The same thing applies to many abilities because none of them afford you any I frame. The music and sound in the game is also very odd. The sound effects of most enemies and in game events is either far too low or just missing. Also, there's a moth that sounds like a grown man huffing after a run, so even sound effects that exist and are loud enough don't sound good. The music is nice, but it's closer to ambiance than music, so it's very forgettable. Lastly, an likely most importantly, the game runs incredibly poorly. You'll see in the discussions about the game that people with low end rigs and high end rigs both experience near constant stuttering, and none of the in game graphical options really help. Any time you kill an enemie, it will spawn in the main in game currency. Both when this currency is spawned and when this currency is absorbed by your character, you'll run into a MASSIVE frame drop. Hitting enemies also tends to hit your frame rate. This leads to the game CONSTANTLY being choppy and stuttery. There are people who find it so bad that the game physically makes them sick. It seems that the game has an issue with rendering particle systems (which to be fair are poorly optimized in Unity). I would suggest that the game developers should add in the option to turn down or turn off particles to help with the performance issues, but as it is, this game runs terribly. All told, this game isn't bad, it was fun enough to complete, but with all its short comings, I really think you should avoid this game. This really sucks, because I really wanted to like this game, and it just isn't very good

This game has an amazing potential. Beautiful scenery and character design, a breathtaking mix of Rusty Lake meats Tim Burton and Hollow Knight. The quantity of side quests allows to longer enjoy this world and I absolutely love that it's super accessible with the "more lives" and "no damage" mode so you can enjoy the whole chef d'oeuvre at your pace. I'm looking forward for DLC, I want to keep exploring more buildings and meeting new weirda characters. <3

I feel bad leaving a negative review for an indie dev on a game with not many reviews, but this is a definite no from me. Great aesthetics with an ok story brought down by poor/average movement and combat. It might be ok for a starter metroidvania but those who are familiar with them will get bored quickly and not really find anything new.

This game is so much fun, I am enjoying the variety of quirky characters and seeing their personalities unveil as the story goes on. The world is very well imagined and beautifully executed, with great attention to detail, the issues I had were that it took me a while to get started and a map would have helped navigation.. It is however, highly addictive and I shall enjoy continuing to play!

Recommended BUT... this is an actual hot mess of a game. Game glitches frequently, some mechanics aren't explained, map is ridiculous and combat is held together with duct tape. There's barely any music, the menus suck and the game decided to remove all my healing potency upgrades just because. That said, this has a lot of charm. And it sounds like I should give this a thumbs down but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun with this. If you're willing to put up with enormous amounts of jank then this is a fairly unique metroidvania that has some interesting ideas and passion behind it. I liked all the npcs, I liked the art direction, the sewers and the dungeons. Buy on deep sale if you're curious.