Brutal Gamer

Velvet Assassin (Xbox 360) Review

By Jeff - May 15, 2009 - 00:31 UTC

Velvet Assassin is a solid game with good level design and a good story. Fans of the stealth genre will, at the very least, find this an enjoyable experience. Those new to the genre will have difficulty with the slow pace and will probably get frustrated with the lack of action. The graphics in and of themselves are standard but the art direction is the best that I have seen in some time. The checkpoints are in the right places and do not cause you to retrace too many of your steps. The weapon selection is minimal but they are all usable and serve their purpose as tactical elements. If you find yourself running and gunning, you will find yourself dead.

First things first; this is a stealth game. You will spend a lot of time waiting. You will spend a lot of time watching. You will spend a lot of time memorizing the rotation pattern of your enemies. So, watch, wait, kill, repeat. Can you handle that? If not, then move along this game is not for you. If you can handle or even enjoy using your noodle to work your way through challenging and varied scenarios then stay tuned. You will be rewarded.

The story is based on a real life WWII British secret agent named Violette Szabo. To complete her missions, you will need to use stealth and interact with the environment to get through some sticky situations. Most of the time, when trying to puzzle out a situation, you will find that the solution just makes since. Whether it’s shooting barrels near multiple enemies or just working your way around to find a different angle, there is always an answer that works well once you figure it out.

As the game begins you find Violette Summer (the virtual version of Szabo) in somewhat of a comatose state. She is having flashbacks of her missions and will go into a narrative about the mission. This is where you, the player, come in. You take control of her as she relives the missions in her dreams. When the memories get too intense, she has the ability to inject herself with morphine in the real world, this freezes time in the dream world. This “morphine affect allows you to break out of hiding and take out an enemy.

Hiding is a very important part of the game but do not worry about it too much. It is very easy to tell when you are hidden as there is a purple outline around your health bar. This means that you are concealed in the shadows; it does not mean that you are totally invisible. Enemies can still see you when they get within a few feet.

There is a leveling system of sorts. You gain XP by collecting items that you find in each level. At each 1,000 XP interval you can level up one of her three stats for faster sneaking, more health, or more time in morphine mode.

One thing I must mention is that the voice acting is top notch. Actor Melinda Cohen voices Violette and does it well. She makes the character very believable and blends the whole thing together nicely. She also did the motion capture. This helps to match the character to the voice in a very real way.

I mentioned that the graphics were standard but do not let that fool you. The way they are put together with the environments make for stunning visuals that lend themselves well to the atmosphere and the character models are excellent. There was obviously a lot of work put in on this game and the attention to detail is something this reviewer finds rare and commendable.

This is by all means not a perfect game. I did run into some clipping issues and there were times when the sneaking did not work like I thought it should. There have been better, deeper stealth games with better told stories. But Velvet Assassin puts everything together in a way that I seldom come across. The game was enjoyable and I look foward to what Replay Studios has in store for us next.

Find more reviews of Velvet Assassin over at TestFreaks!”

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