Players cannot customize the protagonist herself but the game offers an experience point based leveling system that awards skill points and attribute points with each level gained. Skill points allow Scarlett to learn new fighting or magical powers by interacting with certain non-player characters. Attribute points can be used to increase one of four basic attributes that correspond to in-game characteristics, namely "constitution" (health points), "wisdom" (mental energy), "strength" (amount of damage dealt with weapons) and "mental power" (amount of damage dealt with spells).
The protagonist can enter the spirit realm at certain places, allowing her to interact with characters who already died in the real world. Scarlett interacts with non-player characters through pre-scripted dialogue scenes that give players some freedom of choice with regards to her moral choices, allowing them to decide whether to be altruistic or egoistic. Upon reaching Venice for the first time, Scarlett has to choose between joining one of three different guilds, with that choice changing both how the story will unfold and what skills will be available to choose from. The game features a Reputation system that tracks her actions in Venice and reflects her renown in the city. Completing quests often grants Reputation while illegal acts such as breaking into houses or stealing will decrease it. A sufficiently high enough Reputation is required to interact with some characters.
Fights play out by using a single attack button, combined with evasive or blocking maneuvers. However, players can chain multiple attacks to perform powerful combo attacks by timing attacks correctly. Additionally, players can use magical spells called mental skills by using mental energy, the game's equivalent to magic points. Mental energy is also used to power combat techniques called physical skills. Venetica features another type of energy called twilight energy. It is collected by fighting enemies using Death's scythe, called "Moonblade" in the game. Twilight energy also allows Scarlett to access the spirit world, called the Twilight World, which is required to solve some puzzles.
Multiple enemies attack the player at the same time, forcing them to be constantly on the move to avoid being attacked from behind. Fights against the five main villains take place twice, once in the real world and afterwards again in the Twilight World where the villain has turned into a monster. With sufficient twilight energy, Scarlett will enter the Twilight World upon death allowing players to reposition her on the battlefield. If she does not have sufficient twilight energy, she will die and players are forced to reload their last manual save-game since Venetica features neither automatic saving nor respawn points. Even after replaying scenes, cutscenes and dialogue cannot be skipped.
The game's head-up display features a medallion in the upper left corner that displays the current health in red, the current mental energy in blue and up to six segments inside that if filled in purple denote sufficient twilight energy to resurrect Scarlett upon death. In the middle is an orb that contains the player's level and which slowly fills up as they gain experience. In the upper right corner, a mini-map is displayed and in the bottom right corner, a spell bar allows quick access to currently equipped spells.
In typical role-playing game fashion, Venetica offers players the choice of different weapons and armaments as well as potions and items to heal and help the protagonist. Players can find such items in the game world, by defeating enemies and as rewards for completing quests. The game features a main quest line based on the story as well as several optional quests that allow players to gain additional loot. Venetica offers between 25 and 40 hours of single-player gameplay.
Synopsis
Plot
Scarlett is living in the small fictional village of San Pasquale near Venice with her lover, Benedict. The game begins with the village being attacked by assassins and Benedict dying in order to protect Scarlett. On the night after the attack, Death appears in her dreams and reveals that she, who thought herself an orphan, is actually his daughter, conceived shortly before he became Death, granting Scarlett many of Death's powers. He tells her that Victor, the Undead Archon, used a loophole in the rules that bind existence to cheat death and become nearly immortal. Initially chosen to be Death's successor by the Corpus, he instead focused on the forbidden art of necromancy and was cast out. Denied what he considers his birth right to become Death, he swore vengeance on the world. For his plans, he recruited four allies to rule the mortal world as the Undead Five: The Mistress of the Assassin's Guild, Hector of Persia, Princess Chiamaka of Africa and the Doge of Venice. Death informs Scarlett that Victor is seeking the Black Grimoire, a powerful book of spells that would allow him to consolidate his power forever.
Tasked by Death to do so, Scarlett travels to Venice to track down the necromancer Sophistos, the last guardian of the Black Grimoire, to learn whether he destroyed the book as instructed. On her way into the city, Scarlett is accosted by the Mistress of Assassins which she defeats in a duel. She then tracks down Sophistos to Hector's flagship which anchors near Venice. Upon reaching him, Sophistos is killed but Scarlett defeats Hector and sinks his ship. She goes to Sophistos' house in Venice and uses her powers to converse with his spirit there. He tells her that he constructed a furnace hot enough to burn the book but instead opted to hide it, forcing Scarlett to retrieve it. After finding it and battling Sophistos' ghost who objects to the book's destruction, Scarlett manages to destroy the book. Scarlett will then move into the Inner City after deciding which of three guilds to join: The Order of the Holy Seal, a warrior order fueled by revenge that Benedict wanted to join before his death, The Hooded Wings, a guild of discreet messengers, or the Net of the Mask, the necromancer guild Victor was a member of. Depending on which guild is chosen, different tasks have to be fulfilled.
