Has some pretty decent qualities and huge potential but is bogged down by its own need to stick to videogame conventions
This game largely extends to two extremes in things that are good and things that are just terrible. For one, lack of quick saves or even just well-placed checkpoints is absolutely aggravating and makes the game a lot more frustrating and tedious than it needs to be. If you have a trial and error game what is the use of punishing the player by sending them back ten minutes for trial-and-erroring? And even worse, why set a checkpoint BEFORE a room with a bunch of collectibles? It's fun the first time to play through a level and figure out the best path (despite the fact that it's often extremely linear), and if you have patience then the second or third time is ok too. But when you reach your sixth or seventh time - I know I did - it becomes a really annoying chore to kill that whole room of guards AGAIN. Honestly if they had just implemented saving or just well-placed checkpoints, I would have added another point or two to my rating.
For another, there's a lot of disjointedness that's kind of pushing it in terms of suspension of disbelief. You are given no reason for why you are a spy, how your missions are relevant to you or to one another, or where your missions even come from. All you know is that Nazis are bad and need to be killed in numerous gruesome ways. You do feel like the developers have something intriguing brewing if only you finally slice and dice enough Nazis, but in the end really there's nothing. After playing I kind of realized there wasn't even actually a storyline at all, just a few French and German people muttering or something. Also, the whole "morphine mode" just feels gimmicky to me. It's kind of nice to have in a pinch, but only after you've figured out where to use it best, which requires a lot of trial-and-erroring-and-dying in beforehand. And although I have nothing against ladies in sexy lingerie, it just feels kind of wrong in this situation. Am I supposed to be thinking about Violette's boobs right now or the Holocaust victims burning all around me?
But despite it all, Velvet Assassin isn't a terrible game. Its saving grace is that surprisingly, the audio is terrific. Voice acting is commendable, even if the story is not; the music and ambient noise is very effective in creating a creepy, tense atmosphere. You can hear screaming of innocent victims and it can be pretty wrenching (though not after the fourth replay of the same level). And while the graphics aren't anything to get excited about, there are some lighting mechanics that are pretty neat and also help out with the atmosphere. And there is satisfaction when you effectively clear out a whole room of Nazis in complete silence or using some devious cunnng, such as electrocution or pulling grenade pins.
All in all, Velvet Assassin is a let down on what could have possibly been an actually pretty decent game if it weren't for the few glaring flaws in its design. It promised to be a World War 2 game different than all the other Call of Duty or Medal of Honor or Whatever of Whatever clones out there, but in the end fails to be anything more than a basic 'hardcore' stealth game. But if you're a masochistic gaming type who lives for scouring rooms repeatedly just to get all the collectibles, then this game is worth a rent.