New Velvet Assassin Levels Revealed
by Chelsea Thompson on October 23, 2008 at 10:35 am
As any FPS fan can tell you, the game market these days is oversaturated with World War II games. With Call Of Duty: World at War on the horizon, it seems like it’s a trend that shows no sign of stopping any time soon.
However, there’s one WWII-themed game coming out that will bring you a different perspective on this tired-out subject: Velvet Assassin. Instead of being a soldier on the front lines, you play through the game as a female spy. Focused mainly on stealth, you might find this game breathes some new life into a war that has practically been beaten to death.
You’ve probably heard whisperings of this game from the viral marketing scheme, where participants have had to use their secret agent skills to follow a trail that eventually led them to real bars of gold. For those who haven’t heard anything about Velvet Assasin, it is based (loosely) on the true story of a woman named Violette Szabo who joined the British Special Operations Executive after the her husband died in the war. In real life, Violette was captured, tortured and killed by the Germans in the mid-1940s.
In Velvet Assassin you play as Violette Summer, who is not quite dead (it might be hard to play the game if she was). She’s laying on her deathbed in a hospital, and in the game you are actually playing through her life in memories. This allows for some interesting game mechanics to be added in, such as “morphine mode.” When you find a bit of morphine in the game, there are two parallel things that happen: In real life, it means that Violet is getting feverish and the nurses are giving her morphine to calm her down. In the memory you’re playing, the morphine alters the way you remember things happening; the movement of your enemies is slowed down, and the screen gets a bit foggy with some ghostly red blood cells floating around. This is pretty useful if you find yourself in a pinch.
The sneaky part is what makes this game fun. During the build playthrough at PAX, the woman controlling Violet showed us how you could sneak right up to the enemy and pull the pin out of his grenade without him noticing. There’s something about watching a guy wander away from you, knowing that he will soon explode for no reason he can name, that makes you want to giggle with childish glee. Sneaking around levels is fun and fairly simple. When you’re invisible to the enemy Violet will glow a bit purple, so there’s not a huge danger of accidentally getting caught. To me, it seemed like a slightly more fast-paced version of Metal Gear Solid.
A few of the levels were revealed in more detail today. One of them, entitled “The Lost,” I actually got the chance to see for myself. You start outside, and you have to sneak your way into the enemy bunker, being careful not to step on leaves or twigs that would give away your position. Sneaking around in an enclosed area is not so easy, so you’ll find yourself taking out the lights in some area to provide you with cover. There’s just this really authentic, tense mood as you creep through the dark halls of the bunker.
The second level that has been revealed is called “The Third Man,” and it is actually broken up into three different areas. You start out by making your way through the sewers, and end up in the middle of the Warsaw Ghetto. Even though the buildings around you offer cover, being in broad daylight will certainly put you at a disadvantage. As you wander the streets, you can hear the shots of SS officers as they search the buildings for hidden civilians. Though the press release isn’t specific, it can be safely assumed that the third area mentioned is inside one or more of the buildings. Either that or the area is crucial to the plot and they don’t want to ruin anything.
The more I see of this game, the more excited I get for it. I think the only thing that worried me about the build I saw was (and I know this sounds kind of odd) the size of Violette’s ass when she’s moving in a crouch. It was actually kind of distracting me from the game after a certain point. However I figure if that is the only thing that I’ve found wrong with the game so far, it’s a good sign.
For more information on the game, check out the official site. You can check out the trailer, screen shots, and a diary of Violette’s which provides a more detailed background story. The game should be hitting shelves for 360 and PC in March 2009.
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7 Comments » |
on October 23, 2008 10:52 am
What’s wrong with the ass? Too big or too small?
on October 23, 2008 10:59 am
Too big. Like a pair of cantaloupes. Sorry if I wasn’t more specific :)
on October 23, 2008 11:04 am
These things are important! WE NEED MORE DETAIL ON THE ASS!
on October 23, 2008 11:40 pm
So it’s just her memories… lame. I hate crap like that *cough*mariobros2*cough*
on October 24, 2008 5:38 am
looks cool chels. i forgot alllllllllllllll ABOUT this game.
on October 24, 2008 6:30 am
@DavidGX
I’m guessing you didn’t like Assassin’s Creed then ^__^
on October 24, 2008 4:18 pm
I didn’t play assassins creed. The last game I played where “it was all a dream” was mario bros 2. After I saw the ending I was pissed and thought “well that was a waste of time” and have avoided those kind of games since.