Velvet Assassin
- April 30, 2009 00:00 AM PST
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Inglorious Assassin
Enemy AI is an incredibly mixed bag, ranging from baddies that will relentlessly hunt you down like bloodhounds to entirely oblivious soldiers who fail to notice the cat-suit donned vixen pointing a flare gun at their head from five feet away. The AI never felt natural during my duration with Velvet Assassin, ranging from guards that would regularly ignore the bodies of their fallen comrades to Nazi patrols with x-ray vision that could see through the crates I was hiding behind, and were so fast on the trigger that I couldn't take one step without turning into a fillet of bullets. Spread this AI across about five or six different Nazi character models that inevitably makes up the entire Third Reich, and Velvet Assassin suddenly returns to the mold of generic WWII shooters it so desperately tries to distance itself from.
I know I've been pretty rough on Velvet Assassin so far, but the game isn't without its redeeming qualities. The visuals are, for the most part, rather impressive - specifically the character models, lighting effects and textures. Velvet also has a few innovative ideas that sets it apart from other titles in the stealth genre, such as the ability to inject yourself with morphine when you have a syringe handy. Once Violette sticks herself, time slows to a halt in the bullet time-esque "Morphine Mode", where a hallucinatory version of Violette can use this drug-addled slip in time to escape when outnumbered, or simply charge straight ahead into the nearest foe for a sure-fire kill. Violette is even given the option to slip into SS clothing in order to trick Nazi patrols in the vein of the Hitman series, but the execution of the entire disguise system just feels relatively sloppy, with Violette's new duds just moreso confusing the already fragile minds of your computer-controlled adversaries.
Purple Haze
Even with its flaws - and believe me, there are plenty - Velvet Assassin still comes across as a relatively solid stealth title. While it's not a game I'd actively recommend to fans of the genre, it's still sure to pique the interest of plenty of undercover enthusiasts or fans of the World War II genre. When it all comes down to it, though, there's a myriad of better stealth games out there, and even with a few innovative tricks up its sleeve, Velvet Assassin just can't pass itself off as an entirely original or remarkably fun experience.
PROS: Solid voice acting, impressive visuals, nice experience system
CONS: Repetitive trial-and-error gameplay, frequent deaths are a hassle, gets old fast
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Comments [14]
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- Apr 30 2009 at 11:56:42:AM PST
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hmm i thought this game looked pretty decent, but its a shame that this game is mediocre. i thought it was also coming the ps3, but even if it does i wont get it, i'll save my 60 bucks for something else.
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JDizzleNO1 wrote:
hmm i thought this game looked pretty decent, but its a shame that this game is mediocre. i thought it was also coming the ps3, but even if it does i wont get it, i'll save my 60 bucks for something else.
Good for you!
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damn that's da lowest score i seen so far on gamepro Will Herring you should review games more often
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neji64 wrote:
damn that's da lowest score i seen so far on gamepro Will Herring you should review games more often
I've Seen Worse Gundam Crossfire Got A 1 Out Of 5
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Hulksmash33 wrote:
JDizzleNO1 wrote:hmm i thought this game looked pretty decent, but its a shame that this game is mediocre. i thought it was also coming the ps3, but even if it does i wont get it, i'll save my 60 bucks for something else.Good for you!
and the smart ass reward goes too......HULKSMASH 33!!!
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What do you expect?
It's mediocre and redundant like EVERY damn World War ll game coming out now.
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"Frequent Deaths" "Trial and error gameplay" Have you played a stealth game? Trial and Error comes from pattern based AI, if the AI was randomized and spawned in different places, had different behaviors or followed different paths each time you retried a checkpoint then you would have a lot more frequent deaths.
If your patient and pay attention to your surroundings youll figure out the paths, or discover environmental kills that eliminate your obstacles and keep you safe. So what we end up with is that of your two biggest complaints, one is directly related to your own individual play choices and skill; the other is a mechanic that is required for the genre to be functional and has appeared in every stealth/action game EVER.
Its funny to think, if this game starred Sam Fischer it probably would have been 3.5 to 4 stars. If it was Solid Snake possibly even 4.5. Because franchised games are reviewed in direct relation to their previous entries. But when an original IP comes out, with no previous version to compare it against, that game is hammered mercilessly, its smallest flaws are expounded upon to make something the equivalent of rare screen flicker render the game unplayable.
This review convinced many people to not buy a good game. Hoorah. Job well done. Another original game from a small studio undeservedly slammed. And when people have nothing to play but Fable 5, Halo 15, COD 27, Slinter Cell: Sams Grandkids, and when all your games are being made by two publishers that directly control the content, people will ask "How come there are no original games?"
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acidicvision wrote:
"Frequent Deaths" "Trial and error gameplay" Have you played a stealth game? Trial and Error comes from pattern based AI, if the AI was randomized and spawned in different places, had different behaviors or followed different paths each time you retried a checkpoint then you would have a lot more frequent deaths.
If your patient and pay attention to your surroundings youll figure out the paths, or discover environmental kills that eliminate your obstacles and keep you safe. So what we end up with is that of your two biggest complaints, one is directly related to your own individual play choices and skill; the other is a mechanic that is required for the genre to be functional and has appeared in every stealth/action game EVER.
Its funny to think, if this game starred Sam Fischer it probably would have been 3.5 to 4 stars. If it was Solid Snake possibly even 4.5. Because franchised games are reviewed in direct relation to their previous entries. But when an original IP comes out, with no previous version to compare it against, that game is hammered mercilessly, its smallest flaws are expounded upon to make something the equivalent of rare screen flicker render the game unplayable.
This review convinced many people to not buy a good game. Hoorah. Job well done. Another original game from a small studio undeservedly slammed. And when people have nothing to play but Fable 5, Halo 15, COD 27, Slinter Cell: Sams Grandkids, and when all your games are being made by two publishers that directly control the content, people will ask "How come there are no original games?"
If you like stealth games and you're looking for something new, totally give this game a try :)
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zeroyasha13 wrote:
she looks quite sexy too
Oh yeah, gotta love a hot cartoon character. What a loser.
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