Hitman without the hit. Or the man.
Most every game, like it or not, falls into one of several well established genres. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with this either. Sometimes I want a shooter, sometimes I want to race, sometimes I want to grind for meaningless stats while listening to spiky haired protagonists say ‘…’ With few exceptions, games are at their best when they stick to one idea and run with it. No game can be everything to everyone, much less pull off a second genre well enough to not be embarrassing. For example, how many shooters have terrible driving sections in them that they would be much better without? Velvet Assassin is a good example of a game that over-extends itself, gets all turned around and then tries to change what it is when it is already too late. What is left a mediocre stealth game with the one of the worst drop offs in quality I have ever seen.
In the beginning Velvet Assassin plays just like Hitman, but only if all the wide open levels and objectives with multiple solutions are removed. There is only one right way to a complete a scenario, and resorting to ultra-violence is never it. Hitman (pick one), on the other hand, always featured multiple ways to snuff out your target, one of which was say ‘to hell with all this sneaking shit’ and killing absolutely everyone who got in the way. It was not the best tactic, but it worked and eased frustration. The leather clad generic female protagonist in Velvet Assassin, on the other hand, has a very difficult time aiming a gun, much less killing Nazis with it, so the only option left is playing as Ms. Sneaky-pants and knifing the bad guys in the back. In spite of the linearity it works well enough to be amusing. Opponents walk in set patterns, you wait for the right moment to stick them then drag the corpse into the shadows, repeat until board. Avoiding any and all gunplay because the best strategy; uninspired, but functional.
There is a modicum of character customization, but it all boils down to being able sneak faster, take more hits, or stay in a drug induced frenzy for longer. Taking morphine apparently allows you run at incredible speed and stab people in the face all while stripping you down to a nighty; who knew. The only choice that makes sense is to dump points into sneaking, because that is the only strategy that works. Being seen alerts all the enemies in the area, which usually resorts in death Bonnie and Clyde style, so being able to withstand more damage doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. For all but two levels this works just fine. Velvet Assassin is an unremarkable Hitman knockoff that does a surprisingly good job at making enemies relatable without undermining the atrocities they have committed. This is a dark World War II game, much darker in tone than any of the Call of Duty’s or Medal of Honors, but some of the soldiers are there only because they have been forced, and killing them has just a tinge of guilt to it. Then, quite quickly, it all falls apart. I am now going to spoil the last two levels, but you shouldn’t play the game anyway, so read on.
The penultimate level begins with the main character waking up in her underwear in a hospital that has been overrun by Nazis who are looking specifically for her. All her weapons are gone, forcing an even stealthier approach than was previously needed, and there is no more morphine to aid in the semi-naked butchery. It is tense, dangerous, and actually much better than everything before right up until the player is forced to pick up a machine gun. Without warning Velvet Assassin turned from an okay stealth game to a terrible third person shooter. All the points that the player dropped into stealth because it made sense before are worthless now. Enemies shoot at you from across the map and sneaking is no longer possible. The final level, which could have been a rather disturbing quest to save villagers trapped in a burning church, is instead a highlight reel of everything bad about the game. Every single sort-coming is paraded out over and over; and then over again after being killed by soldiers who up until now couldn’t see you when you were hiding behind something. Suddenly they all have x-ray vision; damn efficient German engineering. Velvet Assassin is ruined by the last level, so much so that I cannot recommend even playing through the first few in search of games like Hitman or Splinter Cell. Any one of those games are superior, this title is just not worth the effort.
