izigame.me

Velvet Assassin is an old game, but a brilliant one. The game was obviously a labor of love for its creators. It captures so many things in its rather simplistic play: the thrill of stealth games, the realism of almost certain death when things don't go your way in combat, and most importantly, the violence and horror and tragedy that is war.
The game is a challenge. I'm an old school gamer so I'm not much on first person type games. I'm a very busy person who only plays games a few times per month on average (often only having Sunday off) and it took me ages to pass this game. However I always longingly came back to Velvet Assassin after big breaks in between, (sometimes even years in between) and it made a lasting impression on me. The story has some basis in reality and for those that are interested in history it can be a stepping off point that leads to deeper learning about WWII and the women and men who aided in the French Resistance.
I love the voice acting and though it is at times even funny with the guards cursing and humming to themselves, the attention to detail that was put into the languages and script holds up. While some may be turned off from the violence and the somewhat depressing nature of this game, I wholeheartedly recommend it - even for the atmosphere alone. I believe it captures important details about the violence of war and it bends over backward to give a beautifully lit atmosphere and somber tone to its emotionally crafted stealth/assassination/infiltration theme.
Pros:
+ Voice Acting (those guard songs and the main actress stand out especially)
+ Lighting (beautiful natural scenes and depressingly dark takes on the horrors of war)
+ Level Design (not very complicated but gives multiple options for how to approach about 70% of the enemies you encounter, they did good with the limits they had when this was made)
+ Realism (you can't withstand enemy fire and lose everything when you lose stealth, your character is not a stand up machine gun fighter at all, but a lithe quiet assassin who must take caution as one would have to)
+ Music
+ Mood (Ghettos, Churches, Docks, Sewers, Courtyards and more, all with a realism and detail that takes you there)
+ Story (Sad but realistic, very much parallels the real history it was based on)
Cons:
- Occasionally glitchy guard movements (guards walk in place and then appear at the end of their "trail" after skipping, this only happened to me with 2 specific guards while playing the whole game through)
- Having to cut and paste the modified code to make the Steam version run properly (this is a serious probably for people like me)
- Difficulty of the sniper level and final level can be brutal. Have to experiment a bit to figure out what the heck is killing you. I never did find one of the snipers and gosh those flamers kill you instantly.