Venineth is a game that's difficult for me to write about because really it feels like two games stacked on top of each other. The first of these games is a hyper aesthetic game about exploring an alien world, and the other is a 3d precision platformer marble game. Unfortunately, the second of these types is both the majority of the game, and not very fun. I would have much preferred a short experience, with a loosened focus on precise jumps. The moments where Venineth gives you a wide open area to roll in any direction you want are by far the best part, as the visuals and soundtrack make the game feel perfect. I especially love the choice to not use any english text in the game, including in the options menu. Venineth runs on Unreal Engine 4, which the devs haven't used to make the game look realistic, but instead hyperreal. Most areas in the game are stylized in a way that doesn't necessarily look realistic, but rather looks like how we emotionally feel when exploring an unknown space. Unfortunately, even the graphics have a few flaws, as quite a few places in the game have either low resolution textures, boiling artifacts, or texture flickering, all of which distracted from the vibe the game was attempting to elicit. Moving on to the precision platformer stuff, I feel that it substantially took away from the experience of the game, as the feeling of frustration from failing a jump distracted from the experience of exploring a strange and alien world, and also many of the smaller details added to make the game look pretty ended up causing the marble to behave strangely in ways that are very frustrating (I had many, many times where I flew off into a pit because of hitting some small piece of angled geometry). Overall the game was interesting, but I wish it had been more focused on the exploration aspects. (6/10)

Venineth is a game that's difficult for me to write about because really it feels like two games stacked on top of each other. The first of these games is a hyper aesthetic game about exploring an alien world, and the other is a 3d precision platformer marble game. Unfortunately, the second of these types is both the majority of the game, and not very fun. I would have much preferred a short experience, with a loosened focus on precise jumps. The moments where Venineth gives you a wide open area to roll in any direction you want are by far the best part, as the visuals and soundtrack make the game feel perfect. I especially love the choice to not use any english text in the game, including in the options menu. Venineth runs on Unreal Engine 4, which the devs haven't used to make the game look realistic, but instead hyperreal. Most areas in the game are stylized in a way that doesn't necessarily look realistic, but rather looks like how we emotionally feel when exploring an unknown space. Unfortunately, even the graphics have a few flaws, as quite a few places in the game have either low resolution textures, boiling artifacts, or texture flickering, all of which distracted from the vibe the game was attempting to elicit. Moving on to the precision platformer stuff, I feel that it substantially took away from the experience of the game, as the feeling of frustration from failing a jump distracted from the experience of exploring a strange and alien world, and also many of the smaller details added to make the game look pretty ended up causing the marble to behave strangely in ways that are very frustrating (I had many, many times where I flew off into a pit because of hitting some small piece of angled geometry). Overall the game was interesting, but I wish it had been more focused on the exploration aspects. (6/10)