I remember ads in Game Informer for this game back in the day and it caught my attention as a WWII game “based on” a real spy’s exploits. As a stealth game, I wasn’t super into it though. After enjoying my time with Splinter Cell, I wanted to give this one a try. I’ll state upfront, I did not beat this game to completion.

I’ll start off with the graphics. Unfortunately, Velvet Assassin is a victim of it’s time. The world is a drab mix of browns & greys with that hazy, Vaseline smeared on the lens look. It reminded me of Alekhine’s Gun, which is not a game I like being reminded of. With all that though, it’s never so washed out that I couldn’t distinguish an enemy from a bunker wall. The levels I played through were standard WWII locations; a German bunker, a French cathedral, and the level I stopped on, a U-Boat dockyard. The music is serviceable. It’s what you’d expect from a WWII spy game, lots of strings.

As you look at any of the material attached to this game, you’ll often be told how this is based off a real WWII spy, Violette Szabo. The only two things our player character, Violette Summers shares with the real-life counterpart is their first name & that they’re English. Unfortunately, the real-life Violette only participated in 2 missions, neither which were as exciting as the levels in game, before she was captured and executed as a spy. They use “inspired by” in the loosest form here, so don’t go in hoping to learn some history. Still, how this game handles WWII stuck out to me. It feels very “European” in presentation. Most FPS WWII games have a base in the American perspective of going over there to fight the righteous war, even the Saboteur was a bombastic adventure tale in occupied France. Velvet Assassin is much more dour about the whole affair. I didn’t look up where the developers are from, but you can tell they have a much bleaker view on the war. Violette is matter of fact, not waxing poetically, and suffers from a morphine addiction. The German soldiers are not cartoonish bad guys, though some of the high-ranking Nazis can be a bit over the top. This European perspective on the war is a refreshing take.

The story I saw wasn’t a deep spy thriller with twists. You are given a mission, like stealing U-Boat patrol maps, and you get to it. You get a mission briefing from Violette and the game has an overarching story beat that shows her unconscious in a field hospital with two men talking about what to do with her, implying this game is all a flashback.

Then there’s the gameplay. It’s very much a poor man’s Splinter Cell. You sneak around, paying attention to your light and sound. When you stick to the shadows or hide in bushes, a blue outline appears around Violette to let you know you’re harder to see. Different flooring types don’t appear to affect your sound output, but there are areas where broken glass litters the floor. Stepping on it near a guard will alert them to your presence. Where Splinter Cell had a sliding scale for these two factors, it’s a binary thing here. Violette doesn’t have as many gadgets available to her, due in part to it being 1942. I dispatched most soldiers with a hand-to-hand stealth takedown. You have a silenced pistol, but with only about one magazine, so not enough to pop every Nazi you see. Occasionally you can come across extra ammo or a shotgun. You don’t have a huge moveset either in regards to how you traverse levels. You can vault over stuff or crawl through spaces, which can be a bit buggy. There’s also the occasional social stealth option when you disguise yourself as an SS officer and you can move bodies out of the way, but I never had a soldier find the body of his compatriot. You can upgrade skills by finding collectibles. It feels shoehorned in and unnecessary. I only invested in stealth, because it’s a stealth game.

The enemy AI is hit and miss. It usually works most the time. If you are hidden, moving slow, and crouched you are usually safe. I did have a few occasions though where a soldier seemed to psychically locate me. And my pet peeve in any stealth games, is the issue of sneaking up on a soldier only for them to turn around at the last moment. When you do get spotted, how you play it out depends on the situation. If it’s one or two soldiers, you can dispatch them with your pistol, then go back into stealth mode. If it’s more than that, it’s time to reload and restart. That’s where I finally got beat down by this game, because Velvet Assassin uses a checkpoint system, you can’t quick save/quick load. Checkpoints may’ve been chosen because they’re easier to do, given the game’s budget nature. I could also see them being an intentional choice to discourage save scumming. The puzzle like nature of each room encourages a trial-and-error type of gameplay and having to play through the 1st room over and over again, because you keep getting caught or dying on the 3rd room gets annoying more than anything.

At at least one point, you are forced into open conflict. That seems like a cardinal sin of stealth games. Hitman always gives you a sneaky way to do stuff, Splinter Cell had a few time pressure “got you” moments, but you always had an out. The shooting in Velvet Assassin is not a strong point, which would be fine for a strict stealth game, but not when you have a shootout scene. You can pick up body armor occasionally, but for the most part Violette is a glass cannon. One good headshot can kill a soldier, but it can do the same to you. The shotgun is best saved for these encounters. There’s also a “Morphine mode” where Violette can take a hit of that sweet opium and enter a trance like hallucination where she can one hit kill enemies while wearing a shear nightie. I didn’t use it much because it seemed like a gimmicky, get out of jail free card.

All in all, this game is a swing and a miss. There’s a solid base to the gameplay, but it’s held back by the checkpoint system, spotty AI, and lack of traversal/offensive options. The idea of playing a spy in WWII is not a hard sell and the grounded, gritty take sets it apart from other WWII games. If I develop the patience for the trail and error gameplay I may go back to see how the story ends.