This is the first real blog of BirdReview, and I'm pretty excited. To open I wanted to discuss a game that caught my attention earlier this year. I'm a so-called casual gamer. I can pick up a game, play a few hours and step away from it for a while. Since I've only got a Playstation 2 next to my Macbook it's very likely that almost every gamereview from my side will be about games that were released on the Mac.
Anyway, I had just finished all scenarios on the Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum - game and was about to fall in this black hole you have when your game's finished and all that's left is to play without boundaries. Everyone who finished a game of GTA eventually fell into this "What now?"-feeling. This is such a weird thing, 'cause it makes you invent your own rules, like behaving as a good citizen for as long as possible. I owned that stuff. Anyway, I'm getting lost here.
I found a new game in the app-store called "Velvet Assassin". The promo-pictures looked a bit dated, so I doubted for a few minutes if I should give my money to this game that wasn't a shooter like Call Of Duty nor a game like Assassin's Creed. In the end I believe the price of the game (€4,49 in the Belgian App Store) pulled open my wallet. Best move ever.
The game starts out pretty slow, it also takes a while to get used to some weird controls, which I didn't manage to change (either that or I didn't bother, I can't remember). We learn that we play as Violette Summer, a British secret agent who's infiltrating through the barriers set up by the Nazi's (In case you're not sure by now, this game is set in World War 2), forcing her to go deep into German terrain. I didn't mind that for once a girl played the main part of a game. I don't say it isn't cool to play as Ezio, Mario or a famous Pokémon trainer you decided to name "Shithole", but this game forces you to play as a girl you'll frequently see in her underwear, which is always nice.
First of all I have to say that the graphics are really decent for their price. There went a lot of detail in things as simple as the sky or trees and the characters and the way they all move look pretty natural as well. The game tells its story in a nice constructive way, though from time to time I missed the feeling that I was in charge of the character. Every mission is actually the same. You have to get from point A to point B, as stealth as possible and there's only one way to do it. It would be cool if there were all kind of different paths to find, 'cause that way you could increase the amount of times I would play this game. This isn't a deal-breaker at all, but it would be a nice addition, though for 5 euros I didn't expect this.
This game's main focus is of course being "Stealth", and you have a good reason to be as stealth as possible. I think throughout the game (last missions not included) I've had a maximum of 17 bullets at one time, and in a lot of mission your knife was the only weapon you had. If you get caught in a room with 4 German Soldiers with nothing but a knife you're dead as one can be. Because the game doesn't autosave often (manual save is impossible) your death will in some cases put you a 3 to 4 rooms back, which (in a game where patience and focus are important) is a long way back. I've cursed out loud many times because of this, but in the end I believe this is what makes this game good. It's like it's saying "I may be cheap, but you're not going to just win this thàt easily".
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First, this game doesn't have a multiplayer. Get Assassin's Creed or Call Of Duty if you want that.
Second, it's pretty weird that the German soldiers often say the weirdest things. For example, you can easily get detected, but if you manage to escape and hide for a while the guards will "forget" you were there. This isn't unusual for these kind of games, so that's not the real problem. I do think it's strange that they, even after they saw you, say sentences like "Ah, nothing happens here anyway!" and it even gets funnier when they start to sing out loud. Though these soldiers follow predictable patterns it sometimes takes a lot of time to build a strategy to take one out, since often one soldier indicates that others are watching somewhere.
Last of all I believe that the system of finding collectables in exchange for upgrades don't really show. I didn't have the feeling that these updates did a lot to strengthen my character (apart from extra health, that one seemed to work). Also the limited choice was a small weakness to me.
Overall I believe this game is good. Yes, it has its flaws, but at least it doesn't leave you with an empty wallet and still a lot of gameplay. Once you finished the game the fun's pretty much gone, since I couldn't get myself to play it a second time (though I tried for several times). The end of the game is beautiful, though I don't want to spoil it for you. I just can't imagine the last time I felt this sad about the game just ending. I really liked this game, and I'm sure that if you're up for the stealth-genre and you've got a few hours a day you want to spend cursing at your screen while you're bonding with your character this is a fantastic game for you. Unless you have a playstation or a wii. This game is available for PC, XBOX360 and Mac.
Graphics: 6/10 (due to dated)
Character: 8/10 (due to the little "SHIT!" and "FUCK!" that are yelled each time you get detected)
Opponents: 6/10 (due to predictable, but also because "SHIT FLAMETHROWERS!!!!")
Freedom in game: 4/10 (due to A to B in only one possible way and limited ways to move and kill in game.)
Story: 8/10 (due to intriguing, exciting and based on real WW2-agent, Violetta Szabo!)
Freakin' awesome. Nothing more to say.
