Look out, Assassin’s Creed, there’s another game whose character will be busting up Italy, and it’s called Venetica. Publishers DTP Entertainment and developers Deck 13 first revealed their daring action RPG back in late 2008, at which point the game seemed to be pretty far along in the development process. Now, almost a year later, we’ve reached the verge of the game’s window of release, and tons of information has erupted since that first showing.

Venetica follows Scarlett, a resident of Venice, Italy and daughter of Death himself. Death, in this universe, is not a skeletal spirit who exists forever, but a position filled by mortals elected by an ancient council called the Corpus. The next candidate for the position, Victor, begins studying necromancy and the dark arts, and is exiled as a result. After Victor makes himself undead and unable to be killed by mortals, Scarlett becomes the only one who can put an end to his antics with the powers she inherits from her dad.

Gameplay consists of that of a standard action RPG. You’ll be able to travel all across Venice (and even one area in Africa) to open treasure chests with maps and upgrades, manage your skill points, and customize your character to either be offensive or defensive, based on where you invest the skill points you earn. There will also be branching skill trees and mission trees, providing even greater depth when it comes to figuring out how you’ll be playing the game.

Much like the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 2, you’ll be climbing buildings, swimming through canals, and combating bandits with the best of ‘em. You’ll also have to forge alliances with the two factions that control the dark streets of Venice, which have yet to be named. Combat looks to be reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed as well (or, for some, Batman: Arkham Asylum) so expect to be dodging and parrying for many battles to come. Gameplay videos showed that the fights mostly consisted of standing hunched over and circling the enemy, awaiting an opening to attack from.

Venice looks colorful and splendid, and players will likely be taken aback by the looming structures when you first see them. Developers Deck 13 say that the scaling up of buildings and bridges was intentionally done to create an awe-inspiring view, and it seems to have paid off. The visual style is most akin to Fable 2, the critically acclaimed Lion Head Studios RPG of last year, which is a big plus for fans of that game’s presentation.

Don't worry, you won't be restricted to just the canals of Venice.

Players won’t just be roaming the streets in the daytime, either; the game features a day-night cycle which will last for about fifteen real-world minutes, in which surroundings will change drastically. As the world goes from being bathed in sunlight to drenched in moonlight, bandits and demons replace citizens and civilians. Areas that may be safe to travel to in the day may be a death trap at night, adding a new element to planning when you’ll carry out certain missions.

Also unique to the game is the Twilight realm, a spiritual world where ghosts and demons reside. Scarlett will be able to access this realm and converse with the souls of the dead whenever need be, which has been used in few other games before Venetica. How the twilight realm will factor into the outcome of missions has not been mentioned, but the possibilities are pretty exciting to think about.

Developers have also announced that there will be four chapters for sure, and a boss for each chapter. The main quest will supposedly be about twenty hours, as well, while side quests will total up to around fifty. The game’s story will be relatively linear, though it will be governed by a generic karma system which comes via speech options. The ending, too, will be different based upon whether you’re good or bad, and it seems there’ll be no middle ground to stand on, so either wear your hero cape or grow an evil moustache.

Venetica is visually enticing, but the story seems shallow for a game of its genre. The game’s action seems as though it won’t be too original, which can be both beneficial and detrimental. We’ll reserve our judgment for when the game is released sometime this holiday season for the Xbox 360 and PC.