Nice dark atmosphere, tedious and repetitive gameplay
Sound and atmosphere give the game it's 5.0 score out of 10... but from there on out it's just a load of annoying trial and error. It's impossible to be the stealthy assassin that you want to be in this game. It's just too broken.
Imagine, sneaking SLOWLY after a guard who walks twice as fast as you only to have him turn around for some unknown reason and shoot your face off in a split second while he eats your bullets like the stay puft marshmallow man. Then if it's not enough to die, your checkpoint is probably three to four kills behind you. It's pretty frustrating, especially when they sit there and talk about boring crap for three minutes.
Every area has almost the same layout, three to four guards you kill in pretty much the same ways. Pull a pin on a grenade, shoot a cannister of gas, or stab in head with knife. This has a little more variety than Splinter Cell, but lacks the sneaking awesomeness of Sam Fisher, and his arsenal of distractions and tricks. Your maximum speed for stealth is too slow even though you upgrade it feels like there is no difference even at 5 stars. There are, in a very cheap way, different routes to go but once again nothing like Double Agent... The Velevet Assassin can't even jump, roll, and you can only climb certain things. Unlike Sam Fisher who can climb just about anything and distract guards with 10 times as much variety.
The story is sort of... interesting to say the least. A morphine addicted assassin remembers her missions from a bed. But really makes no sense until your almost done with the game, and by then you're probably so frustrated that you paid money for this cheap game you don't even care anymore and just want it over with. What story? I only played it cause I spent money on it.
Personally, the video review of this game is so misleading. Satisfying stealth? How do you figure? There is nothing satisfying about getting cheaply killed for some unknown reason. You did what the game was supposed to do yet it didn't work, and when it does work, it's so quick and feels like nothing. The dark atmosphere is nice for a level or two, but the frustration of getting checkpointed and cheaply killed ruin it completely.
And what's with climbing ladders and going through doors that they just couldn't animate or let you control it? Why did it have to load you through? Are they so lazy and cheap they couldn't animate a friggen door opening or coding a ladder climb? Give me a break.
This game plays a lot like Splinter Cell, except it came out a few years ago, and it's actually worth paying for because it does all this and much much more. Like an interesting involving story, a much more immersive experience, and just plain more in general. Only difference is Splinter Cell Double Agent is 10$ at the game store, while this game is ridiculously priced for what it is.
This game offers nothing new, it's a very bad rehash of the Splinter Cell series, and it's reward for playing is severe frustration due to checkpoints and severe technical flaws. If you played all the way through, you probably will never want to play it again. But most likely, you gave up after the 4th level cause your sick of listening to the same guards conversation cause you got sick of dying in a cheap way.
If you have to play it cause you got suckered and misled by gamespot or hype, borrow, don't rent it, don't spend any money on it at all. It's not even wortht he electricity to run the system you play it on.