Venetica begins with a rather unique premise: you are Scarlet, a young girl from the small town of San Pasquale. Suddenly, the town is attacked by assassins, your fiancée is killed and you meet with Death himself – who reveals that he is your father, and that you must help him save the world.

The game is a light Action RPG in the veins of Fable, filled with side-quests to take and moral choices to make, but more focused on story and exploration. Most of the game is spent in a fantasy version of 16th-century Venice, divided into five large districts. Venetica is no Assassin's Creed II, but the team did a great job, filling the city with stunning sights and a few hidden side-paths, while using a colourful art style to compensate for the small budget.

The combat is simple to a fault. There are four weapon types – swords, spears, hammers and the undead-slaying Moonblade. Each one comes with different damage types, combat skills and combos you create by timing your attacks right. Or at least that's the theory, as it's too easy to get behind enemies and stun-lock them by quickly mashing the attack button.

As the daughter of Death, Scarlet also has access to some handy powers. First of those is the ability to come back from the dead. As long as she has enough Twilight Energy, she'll always revive when slain.

As the game advances, you'll unlock new powers, such as the ability to speak with the deceased, see through the eyes of ravens and briefly warp between the land of the living and the realm of the dead.

It's fascinating in concept and occasionally the game allows you to make great use of these powers – like casually letting a robber cut your throat, then reviving and killing him. Sadly, those are very rare; Venetica fails to explore its immortal character and some powers are used only once during the story.