Velvet Assassin Review
Developers: Replay Studios
Platforms:  Xbox 360, PC
Release date:  28th April 2009

Silent but deadly but I’m sure she smells like roses!

Velvet Assassin is a stealth action game inspired by the true story of Violette Szabo a female secret agent undercover in the height of World War 2.  Take control of the beautiful Violette Summer and defy all generalisations of male dominance.  Don’t let her elegant appearance fool you, this missy has all the skills of a butcher and some more.  Watch as she wields devastating knife attacks as gracefully as a magician waves his wand.  Move from shadow to shadow to home in on your target.

Graphics and Presentation

Graphics are very obviously the focus and highlight of this game.  The lighting is the most striking aspect or whether it be the lack of it.  The soft glow spreads radiant reds across the evening sky, colouring your environment with a potent red haze giving a surreal feel and atmosphere.  Maybe to portray the fact they you are re-living the characters memory through a dream state.  However there are many moments in-game where there is little or next to no light especially when travelling indoors and through tunnel networks. 

Although a major part of this game is being able to conceal yourself in the shadows you can’t help but think you’re missing out on a lot of visual aspects. I found when playing the game in the daytime the suns glare makes it next to impossible to figure out where you’re going during these darker portions of the game.

However besides the darker moments the graphics of distant environments are stunning, good textures, reflective surfaces and a soft Gaussian blurs are candy for the eyes.  Whilst playing the game I cannot recall one jagged edge.  Bearing in mind effects are used to create the illusion of a nice looking game the actual basic foundations such as character models are nothing we haven’t seen before and are fairly standard.  As stated by the developers the visuals are created in an artistic manor rather than a realistic representation.

Sound

Velvet Assassin is a relatively quiet game, not referring to the level of sound but the amount of environment noise that is experienced.  Menus consist of an eerie composition making you feel uneasy as if you were walking down a dark ally at night on your own.  The only music experienced in-game indicates an element of danger often fading in once you have been detected by an adversary.

I really liked the voice over for Violette Summer the main character, she sounded like a real person and more importantly quintessentially British.  There’s no badass attitude here, she’s a well-educated, well-disciplined agent and she talks like one.  Enemy accents are also realistic with German dialogue spoken with a German sounding accent.

As I mentioned before the game was particularly quiet, I think this is probably a well thought out choice by the developers, as it allows you to receive important acoustic clues such as enemy footsteps, dialogue and more.

Gameplay

Velvet Assassin is quite the paradox.  Its gameplay is very simple yet very difficult (bear with me).  Action consists of a few basic elements, run, sneak, aim and shoot.  It becomes difficult when trying to pull off some of the controls.  You’re probably thinking what’s so difficult about moving around.  The difficulty is not movement itself it’s avoiding items such as shards of broken glass and loose rubble that will create noise even if you’re sneaking over it.  As I mentioned earlier a large portion of the game is plunged into darkness making it very difficult to spot these obstacles unless your eagle eyed the whole time.

To navigate through the game undetected you must use the power of stealth.  Use shadows and the cover of darkness to move silently and remain undetected by the Luftwaffe.  There are some moments that seem impossible to take down enemies using these methods. Developers have created a feature to cater for such situations, “morphine mode”.  Morphine can be collected at various spots around the map and can be injected to create a trance like state.   Once in this trance state, time is slowed down, allowing you to approach enemies head-on and take them down before they have time to attack. 

During morphine mode you will see red blood cells floating across the screen and your character will change into what seems to be the nightgown she is wearing whilst lying in a hospital bed in the cut scenes.  Whether this is done to represent her drugged state shown in the cut scenes or whether it’s a reason to give enemy guards a moment to pause for thought is unknown.  Whatever the reason it certainly adds to her femme fatale characteristic.

Combat can be performed in one of two ways.  You can sneak up behind any enemy character and if undetected press the A button whilst in range and pull off a silent knife attack that results in certain death.  The other option is to manually attack, whether it is with a knife or a weapon you have picked up along the way.  This is done in the usual aim and fire mode like in most other games. However this method is not nearly as effective as the first and should only be used as a last resort.  Attempting to take down the enemy using a non-silent method will attract the attention of other guards and will leave you with the difficult task of evasion.  As your character can only withstand a few shots of gunfire evasion attempts are nearly always foiled, if within close range of the enemy.

As there is very limited ammunition combat sequences can become repetitive, as you always have to revert back to your knife even though there are several combat animations to try and keep you amused.  The fun part is the movement itself and setting up the kill.  A strategic mindset will help you. Use patience and observe enemy patrols to find out the exact time to make your move.  Enemies can be drawn away from their patrol path by whistling and getting their attention.  A feature resembling that of metal gear solid where knocking on walls would get the attention of nearby guards.  Enemies can also be taken down with the aid of the environment, oil spills, and electric fences and more can be used to kill off enemy guards.

Closing Comments

Velvet Assassin seems to be one of those games where you will form a different opinion depending on how you play it.  This game isn’t for action seekers who don’t like sitting around waiting, as it requires patience and an eye for detail.  Fans of the Splinter Cell and Thief series may find this game to be thoroughly enjoyable all depending on how you set about playing it, as there are numerous ways of dealing with each situation.  Saying that I can’t help feel that most of the game is too dark.  I understand an environment had to be created that allowed you to move through shadow but it’s so dark that sometimes it becomes next to impossible to see where you’re going.  I believe a lot more of the game should have been out in the open where the graphics really shine.

If you enjoy stealth games buy Velvet Assassin as it does offer for the most part a good tactical challenge.  If you are not fanatical about stealth then I advise you to steer clear and stick with titles such as Splinter Cell, which will offer you more action. Velvet Assassin is a good stealth action game in parts but not without its flaws.

Ayden Thomas.