Venture to the Vile Review

Our creepy tale takes place in Rainybrook, a weird and mysterious village. As soon as you begin, you notice that there is something weird about this place. Why does everyone wear animal masks all the time? The game starts with our main character waking up in his bed, wearing a deer mask. It is apparently a big day; it’s your mask day. As a gift, you get a new mask that represents growing older, so instead of looking like a fawn, it looks like an adolescent deer (a stag) with tiny horns. This is the beginning of a crazy adventure for our young, masked character!

Your mum lets you know that your good friend Ella (the girl in the goat mask), came by looking for you, so you head out into the village to try to find her. The two of you have been setting traps to capture rats around town for Dr. Crow. The reason for the doctor's interest in these vermin remains unclear, but I suspect he is conducting some sort of experimentation. We see him trying to convince the people of Rainybrook to stop polluting the environment by using clean energy like that from batteries or by using apples, which are abundant in the village, as a power source.

There are a few platforming elements that you will encounter on your journey. In some locations, you will need to jump across rocks to get across the water, and if you miss the jump and fall into the water, you will need to start at the beginning of that section again. This happens a lot since the young stag can’t jump very far and can’t always clear the water. Fortunately, jumping isn’t the only move in our character's arsenal, he can also jump back and punch to defend themself. This game isn’t totally two-dimensional; you can also walk towards the background or to the foreground; these are marked with black and white scroll designs to show when that is accessible. Unfortunately, Venture to the Vile does not give you a map to follow, so it’s sometimes tricky to figure out where you should be going, so be prepared to do a lot of wandering.

Once the introduction is complete, there is a time skip to when our main characters are now older teens. They are still checking the traps as they have always done, but something has been breaking them all, leaving a strange type of fur behind. You hear growling, and it's getting dark. The two of you decide to get home as fast as you can. Ella successfully crosses the rickety bridge, but when you try to cross, it breaks, and you fall into a dark and strangely lit underground area. This dark, dimly lit area is known as the Vile, and it is home to creatures with brightly coloured growths protruding out of their bodies.

The visual style of Venture to the Vile has a great Victorian-era feel to it, especially as you explore the village and meet the huge cast of characters, all with unique animal masks and outfits that they are wearing. The colours in the overworld felt muted compared to what you see when falling from the broken bridge and entering the Vile. This area is very dark, but luckily there are plants, like mushrooms, that glow and help light up the areas where it is hard to see. The lighting effects are very well done, and the ambient light makes these claustrophobic areas feel a lot more accessible.



One of these creatures sneaks up on you and grabs your arm. You somehow get away, and the monster runs off, but your arm is now bleeding. You jump up from one rocky platform to the next and get to the surface, where you collapse. Next, we see our character lying on the hospital table with Dr. Crow and creepy drawings on the chalkboard. It looks like your damaged hand has been replaced or mutated into the creature you were attacked by. The doctor informs you that you are the only person to have ever returned from the Vile. You are the only person to ever return, and now that Ella has been missing for a month, it is feared that she has been killed. Our hero is on a quest to find out what happened to his friend and figure out how the Vile came to be and how this infection called “the horrors” can be stopped. While on this journey, as you talk to the remaining townsfolk, you will get asked to search for their friends and loved ones. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m pretty sure that they have been infected by the Vile and are now one of the creatures roaming the village hunting the remaining residents…

The music in Venture to the Vile is really well done. In the beginning, it sounds mysterious, but it changes to dark and foreboding when you are in the Vile with creatures stalking you. The battle music that plays when you are fighting one of the large bosses is intense and fits in well with the difficult battle ahead of you. The game features a kind of voice acting, but it’s more of sing-songy voices instead of clear dialogue. Every character you meet has a unique “voice”, though not in a speaking way.

Venture to the Vile is an interesting metroidvania that is quite different from those I have played in the past. I can honestly say that I haven’t upgraded my body by replacing it with monster parts! This mysterious world takes a little bit of time to get into, but once creepy stuff starts happening, it drags you in. This game is not one of the easiest metroidvania-style titles that I have played, as there are a couple of things that make it feel more difficult. The lack of a map makes this game very challenging to figure out where you are supposed to go. I wish every game would let you mark locations on a map that you want to return to as you upgrade your character! The other thing that I found frustrating was how slowly your character heals themselves while replenishing health; you are totally open to being hit by the enemy, and the other issue was how it’s hard to control what direction your backstep or dodge move goes in. I would assume since it’s called backstep, it would be backwards, but many times I was jumping right into the enemy.

Venture to the Vile is a creepy and atmospheric experience that draws you into a weird and bizarre Victorian-style world. If you like challenging metroidvania-type games, this one is a great one to jump into. Make sure to visit any campsites that you find while exploring, besides saving your progress, your health will be replenished, along with any potions you have. Will you be able to save Ella and solve the mysteries that plague this world?