M9 games was on an upwards trajectory, Art Heist was a massive improvement. With cut scenes, NPCs, an actual plot. Then here comes Venari – Escape Room Adventure, and the progression stalls. Gone is the plot, plot progression and world building seen in Art Heist and Subnet. The game starts off with you flying to an island and you’re looking for an artifact of the Venari people. Who they are is not really explained. The scant notes you find tell you little more than this is a mysterious island. Anyways, you’re dropped off on a lonely island(facing the wrong direction no less), and the game begins.
The game play loop in Venari is: you see a code and you see a puzzle the requires the code. Enter the code into the puzzle, a door opens and you move on. Occasionally you find a box that you open by imputing line directions. This will give you objects that are automatically placed where you need them to be. Aside from the pointless notes, there’s no world building. There are no conversations with the pilot that brought you, nothing. Just puzzle after puzzle, after puzzle. At least Myst has interesting worlds that were built well, this doesn’t even have that. The environment is ruins A and rock tunnel B. There’s no sense of progression towards something, just puzzle after puzzle.
Venari is disappointing to say the least. M9 Games was improving with every entry. Now the progress has stalled and it seems they took a giant step backwards. The game is fine for what it is, I was just expecting more from it than I got. This gets a Your Mileage May Vary verdict, and a seven back-end score.
Overall: Venari is a fine escape room game, but is not what I know M9 is capable of, which is a lot more. Get it if you want.
Verdict: YMMV
| Release Date | 6/21/24 |
| Cost | $5.99 |
| Publisher | M9 Games |
| ESRB Rating | E |
