Link to review: https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/1887470/

Tl;dr - Though I believe it was unfairly-maligned by critics, Velvet Assassin doesn’t hold enough pros to warrant the label of overlooked gem. That said, if you’re in the market for a classic stealth game with consistent mechanics and cool visuals, then you can’t go wrong checking it out either.

Velvet Assassin, as a WW2 game, showcases the brutality of the era in a gritty, dark and unapolagetic manner. so it represents it´s time period very well. As a stealth TPS, the cracks start to show, with somewhat clunky mechanics, a not-so-great aiming system and bullet impact mechanics and overall stale scenarios. For it´s story i´d give a solid 8/10, but the problems i have with the gameplay aspect drop it to a 7/10.

I played this game some years ago and enjoyed it, it's a decent game with some annoying little things, but I remember I liked it anyway and I can totally recommend it. The main character is cute and cool, the atmosphere is good, some mechanics are quiet interesting. The stealth itself is not "perfect" and when the enemies are searching for you, they will look at you through walls, which can kill your immersion.

But unfortunately I can't play the game anymore due to developed misophonia. The enemies make disgusting sounds and I can't bear them. Please, don't play this game if you are getting triggered by mouth, nose and throat sounds.

Edit: thanks to a person in the comments, I know now how to remove triggering sounds from the game. You have to go to Velvet Assassin/aio/sounds, there will be a file named shared_npc_sounds, you can open it with a notepad. Find [idlesounds] and set probability to 0.

Never heard of this game before. The game reminds me of a poor man's or woman's Splinter Cell. Enjoyed it very much. There are a few bugs like the game just stopping and closing automatically, but overall money well spent. Got is for .71.

Janky, but not bad.

It can be a bit annoying since the game expects you to execute every move with perfect timing, and the enemies often go from straight up braindead to omnipotent in a matter of seconds.

And there’s no much room for creativity or variety in how you choose to approach the missions; there’s often only one way to take.

But once you get the hang of it, the game gets good, and it’s quite challenging, especially the last couple of missions.

Also, it has that late 2000s desaturated, brownish filter looking aesthetic which I love; I know some people hate it, but for me that’s SOUL.

Yeah, good game.

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.

I ended up having a great time with Velvet Assassin. It sorta feels like the original Splinter Cell games, though not as polished or as cool. Still, the writing and atmosphere are great in Velvet Assassin and it was a surprisingly dark story.

The gameplay and visuals are fairly good and the enemy AI is somewhat fitting for the time of the game's release. I didn't run in to much jank as others have posted. It is a product of its time and the checkpoint system will likely test many people's patience. However, stealth games are all about patience, so those who enjoy the genre will likely find a lot to like here. I played the game on the Agent difficulty (the highest of the two settings) and while I swore like a sailor at some points, I never felt the game was unfair or unresponsive in any way. (well, the ending encounter is a bit of a letdown, but I figured out a good strategy).

Velvet Assassin isn't mind blowing and won't set the world on fire, but if you are looking for a solid stealth game that offers a great challenge (and choking out Nazis) then I definitely recommend giving this one a go.

Yeah it's alright, it's worth the 70 cents I bought it for.

...

Very outdated game, both graphically and mechanically. I see the potential in this game, but the execution is not well done. May be due to budget issues. I would recommend this to someone who likes games from the 2000s or its aesthetics.