Velvet Assassin Review: Just Another WWII Action Game?

With the recent release of all kinds of World War II games, I was skeptical even reviewing this. I mean, come on with the World War II already. There HAVE been other wars in the world people. Let's not forget the rest. Today, I'm going to take a look at Velvet Assassin for the Xbox 360 and see if it can bring some long awaited originality to the genre I so desperately need to see.

Upon first look at Velvet Assasin, I can tell you that it looks pretty good. You play as a silent Assasin, in the vein of Metal Gear Solid or Assassin's creed, so it's a completely different take on the World War II genre, which is great. You're no longer just a soldier running around shooting people. This game is largely about stealth. The various creative ways to kill people also adds a sense of accomplishment to the game. It's rather fun to play a character that is no longer superman, as all of the other WWII games make you seem. I mean, you shoot an enemy in one of those other games and they die, but somehow you are able to be shot about 25 times before meeting your demise. Velvet Assassin does a great job and inserting you into the game as though you ARE just an Assassin, and not some roided up superhero disguised as a common man.

The objective in Velvet Assassin are very typical though. You're going to find yourself taking out enemy generals or people of importance, but it's not about killing them in Velvet Assasssin, it's doing so with style. Even though the levels and missions could be taken right out of any Call of Duty game, in Velvet Assassin, they're much more fun to play. You get that same feeling as you would in a Metal Gear Solid game. You're either silent, or dead. Playing this game in the dark and really getting into it will directly insert you into the game, you're going to have a pretty good time. You can electrocute people conducted through the water, you can shoot explosive objects and kill loads of people at the same time, and employ a lot of different ways to finish off your opponent.

One problem I do have with the game, despite it's originality, is the gunplay. The shooting isn't properly designed, so much in fact that it's much harder to kill somebody with a gun than to sneak up on them with a melee weapon. This is a bit odd for me, because of the game being designed around WWII. It's like they wanted so badly to be the opposite of all other WWII games, that they purposely forgot to make playing with guns good. It's a sheer disappointment to me that in the "gun" world, the guns don't work properly. The aiming is a bit off, and the soldiers you're going up against aren't going to go down fast. There is a certain sense of realism to this, but in the end it just becomes a hassle due to the bad gunplay of the game. it wouldn't be a problem if shooting the gun wasn't such a chore, and this sadly, is a really big problem this game has.

Velvet Assassin altogether isn't a bad game. It takes a very unique look at World War II, let's you climb inside the mind of an Assassin, and combines the two worlds very well. I wish they had taken a better look at gunplay, but overall, the sound is great, and it's a FUN game to play. A lot of gamers nowadays and forgetting that games are meant to be FUN, and if it has a few flaws, that's okay!

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