Venice 2089 - First Look - What happens when the tides change in Venice?

The year is 2089, and climate change has changed Venice’s canals as we know them. The once-thriving tourist city has been devastated by the changing tides, and many people have left. Nova’s grandfather is still there though, Venice is the city he loves, and she’s there to visit. She has her own room, in a cool houseboat on top of his apartment. I’m not sure that’s ever explained in the demo, but it’s an interesting way to live.

Nova wants to get away from life, and Venice seems like a quiet place to escape to. There’s just that pesky issue of the changing tides, which change the city’s landscape entirely. In the demo, you will play two days in Nova’s life; One at low tide and one at high tide. It is amazing how much difference this makes to navigating the city. By the end of day one, I was confident in navigating the city but completely lost when the tide rose. It’s an interesting way to keep a game location fresh.

Fortunately, Nova has a cool hoverboard to zoom around the city, making travelling fun and easy. Collect rings (Sonic style) to get sweet speed boosts and a rainbow trail. These are especially useful for doing some jumps and grinds while exploring. Nova doesn’t spend all her time hoverboarding around the city, though. She also helps out the locals with tasks they need completed, like finding new ice cream flavours or putting up fliers.

With a great art style and dynamic soundtrack, Venice 2089 is fun to look at and listen to. It was cool to notice how the music changed based on what you were doing in the game, mostly related to the hoverboard, though. It will be good to see this expanded on in the full game.

Overall, I had a fun time in the Venice 2089 demo, though for something listed as story-rich on Steam, there wasn’t getting a lot of story. Hopefully, this is also expanded on in the full game because, while hovering was fun, and it was nice to meet the locals, it does need more story to keep it entertaining.