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Velvet Assassin

EMAIL PRINT xbox360

7.3 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 46 critic reviews
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Based on 35 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Gamecock Media

Developer: Replay Studios

Genre(s): Tactical Shooter, Stealth Action

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: April 28, 2009

Summary

Velvet Assassin is a stealth-action game set in World War II and is inspired by real-life British secret agent Violette Szabo. Players assume the role of Violette Summer and head deep behind enemy lines with no support or official backing from the British Government. Violette risks her life fighting to defeat the German war machine one stealth mission at a time. Velvet Assassin combines lush, surreal visuals and a ground-breaking stealth combat system to deliver a gaming experience which is truly the first of its kind. [Gamecock Media]

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Play Magazine

Velvet Assassin’s strengths are in its quiet, richly framed version of a World War II inside the head. The stealth mechanic is very specific and rigidly pattern based, but it presents its scenarios incredibly well.

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Game Over Online

VA is a great story idea, the narrative of which really succeeds, but the actual gameplay itself is a letdown.

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GameFocus

The strength of this game is the visceral experience. It all feels very real and can be very tense, much like the enjoyable tension you feel in a good scary movie. This is all very good, but some poor choices in game design sometimes pull you out of the experience which is not so good.

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MS Xbox World

Velvet Assassin is very much an enjoyable game, it might not have the high production values of some of its peers, but in general offers a tense, thrilling, and engaging gameplay experience throughout.

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GameSpot

A realistic war-zone atmosphere and rewarding stealth action make this an intense look at World War II, despite some problems.

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ZTGameDomain

The lack of reason to return to the campaign will no doubt hurt the experience, but what is here is worth venturing through. If you are a fan of the stealth genre then I highly recommend checking out SouthPeak's latest title.

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Cheat Code Central

You'll either love it or hate it. I don't see a lot of people falling somewhere in the middle. The lack of competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes, while not needed, doesn't help the game's replay value.

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AtomicGamer

It's not that Violette's adventures in Nazi-occupied territory are particularly bad, but any stealth game comes with an assumption of frustration in figuring out patrol routes, minimizing the amount of time you're exposed, and dealing with whatever systems are built into the game to detect you.

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Xbox360Achievements

Velvet Assassin shows gamers the horrors of war as few other games have, with stealth action that captures the feeling of a predator stalking human prey. Unfortunately, clunky shooting controls and dumb AI break the immersion.

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Level7.nu

When it comes to presentation and overall atmosphere Velvet Assassin does a great job of conveying the sense of being alone behind dark and threatening enemy lines. Unfortunately the gameplay is bogged down by repetitive executions, predictable events and a far too slow pacing. Looking beyond these issues you'll find a qualitative action title well suited for those keen on stealth based gameplay.

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Games Master UK

Massive missions with too few checkpoints make it difficult to love. For stealth nuts only. [July 2009, p.81]

Xbox World 360 Magazine UK

Despite our reservations about the plot, we had an entertaining time with Velvet Assassin. It never hits the highs of the average Hitman mission, but the game's palpable atmosphere, and solid sneaking mechanics, should satisfy anyone suffering from stealth-deprivation - and help keep your mind off the agonising wait until Agent 47, Sam Fisher and Garrett finally emerge from the gloom.

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GameTrailers

A straightforward stealth game that's capable of scratching a particular type of sneaky itch for many players, but also feels slightly dated and accomplishes little that hasn't been done before and done better.

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SpazioGames

Velvet Assassin delivers a fresh point of view on the Second World War scenario, providing the player with more intense and human aspects than the average shooter. Sadly, the stealth gameplay is split between great level design and lousy A.I, while the overall experience feels a little bit too linear. Disappointing, since a deeper testing could've made a great game of this interesting concept.

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Console Monster

While no technical marvel or innovation has been accomplished here, I enjoyed my play through of Velvet Assassin. It’s not trying to be anything other than a stealth game and I found that charming with today’s titles attempting to do so much more than needed.

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Deeko

Ultimately, Velvet Assassin is an interesting effort in bringing something different to the WWII setting.

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Hardcore Gamer Magazine

In the end, Velvet Assassin is definitely worth a playthrough.

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3DJuegos

Velvet Assassin is not a bad game, but what it is not for sure a great one. There were some good ideas in its concept, especially in its general atmosphere and charismatic heroine, but all of them fail because of many wrong features and decisions.

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Vandal Online

You can't call Velvet Assassin a complete disappointment. The cautious move here is to rent the title, and decide for yourself if the title is worth a buy, something not ridiculous considering the attractive price point.

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Everyeye.it

Velvet Assassin could have been a better game. It has a solid approach to the genre, but a limping AI and frustrating shooter sessions reveal the limited experience of the developer team. You can try it if you're a great stealth fan.

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Gamervision

There are plenty of good ideas in Velvet Assassin. Sadly, they’ve all been done before. The issues in the game are simply too great for more people to give it any thought, and everything besides the basic stealth mechanics aren’t fleshed out enough.

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Meristation

Violette Summer is an interesting character, no doubt about that. But it's not that interesting the way in which Replay Games has decided to offer an strange gameplay system. There's also a lack of an interesting story, but basically it's a cheap game with nothing special to consider besides the main character and nothing more than that.

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Official Xbox Magazine

It could've been soon much more. [Aug 2009, p.70]

WonderwallWeb

Velvet Assassin is a solid stealth game but only if you can live with a rather dull story and even more dull environment.

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My Gamer

If you are looking for an entertaining stealth game, you should probably look elsewhere.

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GameShark

In the end this is a game that most likely needed a bit more development time in which to iron out the kinks. There’s a good game in here, but its buried underneath psychic AI and strange game mechanics.

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Worth Playing

When Velvet Assassin gives up on stealth at the end of the game and decides to spawn waves and waves of soldiers, I regrettably also gave up trying to enjoy the gameplay.

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Game Informer

As Velvet Assassin’s story unfolds, a realization begins to dawn. Events have nothing to tie them together. No overarching plot shapes your gameplay experience. Instead, these are vignettes devoid of character or emotional resonance.

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TeamXbox

The problem I had was with the game’s radical inconsistency.

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ActionTrip

The simple truth is that Velvet Assassin is a mediocre game that made its way onto the market earlier than it should have.

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GamePro

An ambitious experiment from beginning to end, this innovative wartime stealth effort just can't seem to rise above the commonplace level of mediocrity found in a sea of cookie-cutter World War II titles.

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IGN

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.

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Teletext GameCentral

A World War II-themed Splinter Cell, but with too many technical and design flaws to satisfy.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Bugs, shortcuts, and the game’s habit of repeating the same clever trick too many times hold back an otherwise solid stealther.

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Official Xbox Magazine UK

Critical flaws in every major respect, then, and yet it just about hangs together. There's an affecting moodiness to it, a real satisfaction when you do chain together several silent kills, and the low-tech 1940s setting lends a refreshing purity to the sneak 'em up genre. With a little more polish, further adventures for Violette could well be to die for.

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PALGN

Velvet Assassin is a decent stealth game, until you're replaying the same sequence for the umpteenth time.

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Gaming Nexus

This is a World War II story that’s thankfully less of a bunker blockbuster and more of an ethically exploratory ride through a side of war rarely explored in videogames. Now if only they could’ve gotten the videogame parts right…

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MondoXbox

A good level design and some good ideas loaned from more successful titles aren't enough to make a good game of Velvet Assassin. Frustration always around the corner and a rough gameplay unavoidably worsen the game experience.

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Thunderbolt

Despite its solid foundations, Velvet Assassin doesn’t have the brute strength to be anything more than a brief distraction for extremely patient, hardcore fans of the traditional stealth genre.

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Gamer.nl

Velvet Assassin is in one word: weak. The story never reaches its full potential and furthermore the technical side is flooded with flaws. And even though the game has its moments of tension, the game fails horribly in being worth your money. Try to sneak past this one if you can.

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Edge Magazine

Lacking the tools to really upset her enemies or cope with them when she does, Summer relies on a wafer-thin playbook of obvious traps and distractions. [July 2009, p.96]

games(TM)

Velvet Assassin accentuates the negatives of the genre rather than it emphasises the positives. [July 2009, p.108]

Eurogamer

A frustrating gaming experience.

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X360 Magazine UK

A shame in so many ways. Avoid, unless you like boredom.

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Play.tm

Velvet Assassin is an excruciatingly painful, unappealing mess of a game, and its number of redeeming qualities can be counted on the stump of a leper's former arm: it ends.

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Giant Bomb

Velvet Assassin has a neat premise, but I knew before the second mission was over that I never wanted to play it again. It's just too repetitive, frustrating, and archaically designed to make it recommendable even to diehard stealth fans. The genre has evolved, and Velvet Assassin didn't keep up.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Philo F gave it a9:
Overall, i thought velvet assassin was rather entertaining, and i feel that the critics of this game may have been a little too harsh. it's definitely not perfect, and it isn't the most visually amazing game ever made, But,it definitely has flaws in the imagination. they wanted this game to be realistic. not through graphics, but through game play. they didn't waste their time making 40 different assassination cut scenes, instead they featured 4 or 5 basic moves, to make the game more about patience and observation, rather than the bloody hack and slash visuals that a lot of games have become today. So if you've been longing for a true stealth game, i'd suggest renting or buying this one. it will keep you entertained for atleast 10-20 hours depending on how many times you fail, which you will, again and again.

Sascha B gave it an8:
nothing new, but very solid and lots of fun, espiecially if you're into stealth-games and love to kill some nazis...

[anonymous] gave it an8:
This game is brilliant. Simple mechanics and a challenging presentation are the main points to deal with here. Don't look for super complexity like Splinter Cell, you won't find it but only because it doesn't exist in World World II. The few tools you are given to work with work extremely well and its always a challenge to get through. Later in the game when guards will break out flashlights and become far more attentive ratchets the difficulty. A superb game, one I'll be playing for a very long time to come. If you want nothing but 100% pure stealth, this game is exactly that.

Michal K gave it a5:
Really nice game but it's only nice... Don't expect that anything will bring you above avarage of WWII games.

Mike M gave it an8:
For a small developer trying to do something a bit out of the ordinary, Velvet Assassin succeeds. Though its presentation lacks polish, its bare-bones gameplay works; it establishes its own rules, and plays well by them. It almost takes on an 'old school' feel, while being a visually and audibly rich experience.

peter b gave it a7:
Not to bad at all if stealth games are your thing, after all its been too long since a hitman or a splinter cell fed my addiction for sneaking up on unsuspecting foes in video games. This does have some flaws but not too many to make it a bad game. The gameplay does nothing wrong although it could be somewhat more imaginative, its quite unforgiving and I like it for that. Checkpoints sometimes feel a bit far apart but it just makes you hone sections of the game perfectly, reviews should take note , thats been done on purpose. graphics are nothing amazing but do their job well, I found it on the whole to be a rewarding game, some will say that the story makes little sense, but to me video game stories are secondry to the playability and timing of takedowns in this game is key to enjoyment, it will tide you over nicley until splinter cell conviction or the next hitman arrives.

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