Velvet Assassin anyone?

[drewloc]

Anyone looking forward to this game at all? I've been curious about it, but not much has been said. It releases next week, and I was wondering if anyone is looking forward to it?

[Shazam!]

Yes Sir. Count me in.

I like the stealth genre and WWII gaming, so it's a good combination to me and one that hasn't really been explored, unless you count Sniper Elite as a WWII stealth shooter. Plus it's loosely based on a true story.

I don't expect it to get great reviews though. I'll post it when it comes out from IGN.

[Thnikkaman]

Who would have ever predicted that one of the biggest products of WWII would be video games.

[Shazam!]

Well, the whole true story of good (Allies) vs. evil (Axis) isn't too much different than most premises in gaming. Some vile dictator taking over the world, must be stopped, etc...

I love the WWII FPSs. Although I believe they have climaxed they produced awesome games (Wolfenstein series, original MoH and CoD) and some horrible ones (Hour of Victory, Battle for the Pacific) and I hope there is more. There is a viable interest in historical FPSs.

[Thnikkaman]

Well, the whole true story of good (Allies) vs. evil (Axis) isn't too much different than most premises in gaming. Some vile dictator taking over the world, must be stopped, etc...

I love the WWII FPSs. Although I believe they have climaxed they produced awesome games (Wolfenstein series, original MoH and CoD) and some horrible ones (Hour of Victory, Battle for the Pacific) and I hope there is more. There is a viable interest in historical FPSs.

I get that. Its a very notorious war that inspired some interesting innovations in warfare. With enough mysticism around the Nazi movement to create some interesting si-fi takes on the war (Wolfenstien). It was just a profound thought when I realized this earlier.

[Shazam!]

I hope the new Wolfenstein lives up to 'Return' and they don't try to add to much and dilute the formula that made it great. Sometimes when they try to hard they can really **** a game up.

[Shazam!]

Another upcoming WWII stealth action game with a few references to Assassin's Creed. I hope it isn't like AC because I didn't like it.

Saboteur preview-

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/975/975210p1.html

[Rex]

I like SmilinAssassin.

[Shazam!]

I just picked this up today (returned/exchanged for Ninja Blade) will post my own opinion and IGN's review soon.

[Shazam!]

Velvet Assassin- XBox 360 Review @ IGN

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/978/978587p2.html

Closing Comments

Velvet Assassin could have been an interesting take on World War II by highlighting a facet of the conflict that's rarely covered by gaming. While it does bring in the secret agent angle, it also brings in a story that's completely thin and unsupported. Even worse, Assassin features flawed stealth action elements that can ruin the gameplay when they go awry, and only point out the hit-or-miss nature of the mechanics when they work well. If you need a stealth action experience, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.


3.0 Presentation
Story? What story? The tale would've been better if it had a conventional narrative instead of an flashback format that's never explained.

6.5 Graphics
Violette isn't that fluid outside of cutscenes, there are a lot of technical issues and other visual detractions, like the flamethrowers or the seemingly cloned Nazi army, stand out.

7.0 Sound
Decent rise of music during action sequences, as well as British and German line delivery, but would Nazis actually say Lad or Arse?

5.0 Gameplay
When the sneaking mechanics work, they work rather well. When they fail however, they fail spectacularly. Flip a quarter whenever you load a game and you have the same success rate.

5.0 Lasting Appeal
The game is extremely linear in its approach, and once you beat the game, you probably won't go back and play this one again.

OVERALL 5.0 (meh) out of 10 / not an average

I've been playing it. It deserves a better score IMO than this scathing review. It's not MGS or Splinter Cell, but it's good. It definitely bests the Tenchu stealth/ninja games easily.

I think that because this is a WWII-based game some sites will be biased as they feel (and partly so) that WWII games are played out to death. I love the WWII games ala CoD, WS and MoH, but this game puts a new spin on it instead of the Rambo-esque killing machine take that has been overused.

Violet Summer is a British Agent based on real life secret agent Violet Szabo, (the surviving family didn't give permission to use her name) who infiltrates Nazi Germany and other WWII locales and carries out various missions behind enemy lines. There are multiple ways to carry out objectives and eliminate soldiers and guards. Your weapons are limited as they don't let you carry a lot of guns and ammo, but this is a STEALTH GAME set in the 40's where tech was limited, so the criticism here I think was unwarranted. If you're going the stealthy approach you will be traveling light, not to mention she is a 105 lb. chick. Besides, you're not going to be realistically carrying around a Panzershreck, an MP40, a scoped Gewher, a 12 gauge, grenades and a silenced Walther in a stealth based mission are you?

The sound is very good, the music is moody, and ramps up when you're in combat or being chased. The lighting and shadow effects in the darkness are spectacular. Some of the kill scenes are brutal and very well done.

She moves a bit too slow in stealth/concealing mode at first, until you first upgrade her stats with EXP. Her movements are a little stiff but she animates very well. The controls are very easy to pick up and get into.

Mrs. Summer's sexy hallucination mode acts sort of as a bullet time where you are temporarily invulnerable.

I think overall it's a much better game than Assassin's Creed, which I couldn't stand. They also implemented the story arc in a much better way than in AC I think. I hated it that you knew you weren't 'really' Altair at the start of the game. It was cheap and killed it for me. They should've left that as a 'Wow' twist factor for the end.

If you were interested in this game you obviously know the premise, and it is pretty much what I expected.

7.0/10 (lowered my score because of the bugs and glitches, see below)

(Here's another fair review, that thought of VA like I did- http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox360/reviews/review/356/Velvet-Assassin.html

[Shazam!]

Ok... I have been playing the game for a few days now and it is very addicting. She's the sexiest leading lady in skintight ass-grabbing leather since Ms. Croft. I like the game but here's a list of a few bugs I've come across. Most aren't game killing and some are worse than others, but it just shows a lack of polish-

1-The biggest offender is up first. At one level I completed all the objectives and found all the secrets but the end of the level didn't trigger. I made my way through the whole level again and found some stuff that I missed (the all important 12 gauge), and I restarted the last checkpoint. Having the shotgun this time around made it much easier and faster the second time through, but a glitch like that is VERY bad.

2-Sometimes the targeting reticule disappears. I don't know why. It doesn't affect a sniper rifle or a 12 gauge at close range, but other firearms are near useless without it and a crapshoot for aiming.

3-At certain points (like in the shipping yard) when climbing crates and containers to take an alternate path like a roof, you can 'fall' through one of them and getting out and unstuck is sometimes not easy. It never required a restart and you are unseen so it doesn't get you killed, but it is a pain in the ass.

4-Sometimes when soldiers are alerted to your presence, they freeze up. While this is a major glitch it does help, because in the section you can just walk up to them and knife them. In one area 3 guards were frozen and it is inexcusable. However, it kills the submersion of the experience, and I found it annoying after a few times.

I still like the game, overall it's pretty good. A premier developer like Konami, Ubisoft, EA or Activision would never allow this many bugs into the final product. Seems amateurish.
____________________________________

EDIT- These bugs happened for some reason because I installed it onto the XBox 360 HDD. When I uninstalled it, all bugs were gone. I contacted Southpeak Games and told them of my experience with the installation of the game.

Also, if you advance the menu screen before the publisher's name screens in the introduction, or they don't come up, you won't see the cutscenes. The title screen should show Violet catatonic in her bed in the background. If all you see is a black screen with the VA name, you have to reset it because you won't see the cutscenes. Again, I contacted Southpeak games about all these technical issues. It's a shame that all these issues are marring an otherwise very solid game. They are insisting it's a hardware issue but I know it's not and my 360 works fine. I'm going to take it to my bro's house to prove this point.