Venture to the Vile is an awesome but challenging Metroidvania! The story starts a bit slow but it is important to get an emotional connection with Ella and your role in this crazy world. It managed to give you already a rollercoaster of emotions in the first 30 minutes.
There are so many beautiful and great things in the gameplay of Venture to the Vile. The movement feels really really good, which is so important in an Metroidvania. The upgrade system is nice because you upgrade with body parts from monsters and the upgrades felt like good upgrades. The story and world-building are done beautifully. The world feels alive and intriguing. And last but not least the artwork is just stunning, with so many small details. My only criticism is that walking to another part more on the front or in the back felt a bit weird. It doesn’t match the movement speed of the character, it is slower.
And loved my time in Venture to the Vile! It is such an addictive game. However, I didn’t manage to get far. The second or third boss gave me already a really hard time with the way the pre-fight starts but the real fight was even more challenging. However, I had high hopes to still get through the game because of the accessibility settings which allow you to have more health. After fighting that boss for 1,5 hours or so I finally managed to beat him and got my shiny new upgrade and was well on my way. However, in the area you go next it became quite clear that the difficulty level of the game had increased around that last boss fight and I kept struggling. I’m planning to come back to Venture to the Vile in the future, as it is just an awesome game, but I got destroyed right now and it might just be too challenging of a game for me. (And then there is even an achievement for completing the game in Prisoner’s Garb which will make the game even harder than the normal version.
I hope that what you get from this review is that Venture to the Vile is awesome if you love a challenge. The game is beautiful with a very intriguing story and I can’t stress enough how good the movement felt!
4.5