Velvet Assassin Review

We've seen many World War II games in the past, but the majority have focused more on mass conflict and non-stop action. Velvet Assassin proposes a completely new take on the era, as instead of going in all guns blazing, the idea is to be discreet and stay in the shadows.

This genre is of course very niche, with Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell being the two most prominent examples. The question is, does Velvet Assassin have what it takes to sneak its way to success, or will it just sink away into the shadows never to be seen again?

The story is in essence rather simple. It centres around the exploits of an MI6 secret service operative called Violette Summer as she takes part in missions that don't really have a huge bearing on anything in particular, other than the general war effort. Occasionally, gameplay may be interrupted and momentarily insightful cutscenes are seen, but the majority of the time the missions are fairly redundant. There is very little rhyme or reason as to why the activities are being performed, they just are. This does begin to change towards the end of the game, but it's a shame it doesn't happen sooner.

So much more could have been done to develop Violette as a character and it just feels a bit lazy. Because the game takes so long to actually attempt to develop the story, it makes the ending of the game just feel really empty. It's as if nothing has really been achieved by following the path of the main character and there is no sense of accomplishment at all.

Unfortunately, the gameplay in Velvet Assassin doesn't perform much better. It works well in theory, but it lacks a lot of depth. While the overall levels are quite long, the individual segments are actually quite small. There are usually only two to three enemies in each particular section, and they all follow very rigid patterns. It's fairly difficult to progress without monitoring their patrol patterns, but once they have been figured out, dispatching the enemies is relatively easy. There are also some actions which can be performed to make things a little easier, such as disabling lights.

However, dispatching the enemies is where problems sometimes arise. Ammo is usually very sparse, and missions often only start with a gun that has 7 bullets or with no firearm at all. This means the majority of the time, the player will have to fall back on the stealth kill to defeat enemies, and this instantly exposes the limitations of the system. The most prominent problem is that stealth kills can only be performed directly behind an enemy. If they are approached from the side, or at a diagonal, no option for a stealth kill appears, and it's also not possible to attack normally unless the weapon is "aimed". So, despite being in a winning position, it's often easy to come unstuck purely because positioning was slightly off.