After not visiting the cinema in recent years thanks to the pandemic, I’ve now been eight times in the last three months. One thing that’s bugged me, though, is how the duration of your average Hollywood film is now close to a Bollywood film, but with fewer musical dance numbers to break up the experience. Venba, on the other hand, is a lean experience, lasting about the length of an enjoyable trip to the restaurant. This is ideal, given the puzzles and story both revolve around food.
The story begins in 1988, with an immigrant couple, Venba and her husband, settling down in Canada fresh from India, and trying to adjust their day-to-day lives for this new, bitter environment. How is it going? The first scene shows us Venba feeling unwell, lying down on the sofa, looking tired and dishevelled. Her husband keeps asking whether Venba is okay, but she brushes his concerns off, making light of her ordeal. We have to make her first choice here: continue to lie down and rest, or avoid a hungry husband by making him some lunch before he heads out for work?
The gameplay revolves around making conversation choices, and interacting with ingredients and utensils in the kitchen to create food, with an overhead view you’d find in familiar vlogs and cooking tutorials. There’s a puzzle element to the way you cook. You sometimes have to get the exact order of the ingredients correct, move your mouse or analogue stick to stir things up, or fill in the gaps of each recipe. It’s nothing too demanding, and there are hints you can ask for at the bottom of the screen if you’re not very kitchen-inclined.
