by:	May 04, 2009

World War II shooters are a dime a dozen and it was a breath of fresh air to finally be able to play a title taking place in WWII that wasn’t a shooter but rather a stealth-action game. The idea behind the game is great, the execution however is all over the place. You play the role of Violette Summer (based loosely on real life WWII wartime secret agent Violette Szabo) a British secret agent that is trying to thwart the advances of Germany one mission at a time.

Those of you hoping for an Xbox 360 “Metal Gear Solid” will be sorely disappointed. The game plays more like Hitman set in unauthentic World War II settings with plenty of bugs and little fun. Every World War II game no matter how many times it is the retelling of the same story can only immerse you if it looks and feels like you would imagine it. Thanks partially to being developed by German developer Replay Studios, the evil Nazi Germans seem a little less evil thanks to not looking remotely like their real-life historical counterparts, and how they act overall. The most authentic aspect of the game is the Germans speak German, the French speak French, and of course Violette has a British accent. Instead it seems as if though the focus is on Violette and her story, one that will leave you scratching you head from beginning to end and ultimately not caring. The rest of it is very unauthentic, specifically when you kill someone, there is no damage done to them at all they just flop over. The coolest element in the game is the ability to sneak behind a enemy, pull the pin on a grenade on their belt, run away, watch them walk over to some of their comrades, and it blow up taking them all out. With the attention to detail seen in games like Call of Duty: World at War, it is a bit strange to not at least see a limb go flying, and everybody just topple over.

The game has the basics of a stealth action game; you lurk around in the shadows weary of the enemy around every corner and it is in your best interest to sneak behind your enemy and slit their throat rather than run at them head-on. The gameplay on every level is cohesive enough that you can get through it and nothing more. Unlike Hitman or Splinter Cell there is little room for improvisation and unless you go through much of the game one certain way, you will not be able to pass a level no matter how clever you think you are. The gameplay is pretty simple, although the controls can be a bit of a bother. Throughout most of the 11 levels in the game, with 10 of them being part of one overall mission, you will sneak around in the dark planting explosives to destroy fuel supplies, find missing British spies, and for the high point of the game have two incredibly brief sniper missions. When Violette is sneaking around and in the shadows there is a blue outline around her and her health icon. When you are seen it will flash red. Sneaking around is hit or miss, as an enemy could see you in the pitch dark sometimes even if you are totally still. Other times, you could be out in the light or they will flash their lights right on you and even when your icon flashes red they would not see you. The AI glitches and problems don’t unfortunately stop there. The AI on even the hardest difficulty level isn’t particularly smart, sometimes it will freeze when walking, and often when there are more than two enemies, one of the enemies might glitch out and be standing on top of random objects such as a fence.

There is also an lack of check points throughout the game, and it seems to give you more when they aren’t needed, and much less at parts that are incredibly hard to complete. For example, in some parts of the game you will just have to figure out how to get to the next room with minimal enemy contact, getting two or three check points along the way. Another level though you could have four guys in this room, figure out how to get past them and turn off an electric fence so you can keep going, then after that go into another room that is even harder to get through, and then another, until finally you get a check point. Since the game leaves little room for improvisation, you will repeat the same parts over and over again doing the exact same things over and over again. What is even worse is unlike most stealth games where you could go throughout an entire level without killing one guard, here you almost have to kill every single one or else you won’t be able to keep going. So while one minute the game suggest you don’t do it, the next it wants you to, and half way through the game ammo conservation becomes less of a problem and you have to go out blazing, to only be stripped down to nothing but your knife, with AI that behaves completely different from the rest of the game on the last two levels in the game. To make sure you feel insulted if you are an achievement hunter, beating the game on the hardest difficulty won’t garner you the normal and hard play through achievement just the one for beating it on hard. It is incredibly frustrating, inconsistent, and not fun.

Visually the game is nothing special either and lacks the polish to immerse the player totally in the world of Violette. Often you will see glitchy seams on the floors from where apparently a designer was too lazy to blend everything together. The idea that Violet has to stay in the shadows is nailed down so hard that there is no transition in lighting so one minute you are out in a high-contrasted sun and the next in shadows behind a crate that are darker than night. The overall visual presentation is inconsistent and one-minute looks like a hazy dream and the next you feel like you are in a decently put together dungeon with more muted colors. Violette herself isn’t particularly appealing, and you end up seeing every kind of possible enemy by the beginning of the second level.

It isn’t all bad though. Besides being able to activate grenades on enemies’ belts, Violet can pick up morphine and use them to slow stuff down for a minute and let her either hide or take out a enemy from the front. It is almost like a “free space” put in because the developers knew there would be no way anyone could stand playing all the way through otherwise. When you use the morphine, every thing goes all dreamy for a bit, and she is in her undergarments, apparently having something to do with the story but I never caught on to it probably because the story was to boring to pay attention to in the first place. You will also come across collectibles in the game that unlock achievements as you collect more, but more importantly they give you experience points so that you may upgrade attributes in the menu screen that helps you sneak better, makes the morphine more effective, and lets you take more hits from the bad guys. Another interested aspect of the game, but still falling short is the ability to change into a German solider outfit. With it you can walk around guards as an S.S. but only within a certain distance or else you alert them. If you walk to fast you alert them. If you go into sneak mode you alert them. Basically the costume change is useless and it is better just to run through the game without doing it. With cheaper and better options out there for Xbox 360 I wouldn’t go near Velvet Assassin for $60. It lacks longevity, and what is worse it is suggested at the end that there could be a sequel to this tripe. No thanks.

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Overall Velvet Assassin is a perfect example of what not to do when creating a stealth-action game. The title insults the source from which it gets its story ideas; the story there is plenty yet filled with holes and unentertaining. The gameplay actually ends up being pretty good somewhere in the middle, but it isn’t worth going through the horrible beginning, and hair-pulling end to experience it.

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