Ever thought what it would be like to mash together Tom Clancy, Agent 47, Altair and a sexy lady? Well no need to answer, as here comes Violette Summer.

First, down to the storyline, which is completely ludicrous. Violette was born in Devon, England (not exactly the most kick-ass place in the world, but ok). She originally worked in a beauty salon, before she moved to London and joined the Weapon industry during WW2. Pretty drastic career move if you ask me.
Eventually, she is recruited into MI6, being beautiful and having great athleticism.

She of course suffers death from all of this war. She lost her auntie during the first Luftwaffe bombings (probably the inspiration for moving to London), and she also loses her husband who was in the RAF. This storyline just gets more and more believable.

These experiences inspire her to become a successful spy for MI6. Now being a spy, she has a number of successful missions, before being captured by the germans.

Now dying in a German hospital, Violet relives these moments during flashbacks, and you play the flashbacks. Sound slightly familiar? Yeh, i thought so.

Down to the gameplay. As per usual you have to assassinate key figures in the German Army, so to slow down, and eventually stop, the war machine. There are assassin style features. Coming behind someone with a knife, abit like Assassin's Creed, looking through keyholes in the doors, much like Hitman, and general 'tomfoolery' on pipes, Tom Clancy.
There are also a few new ideas. You can shoot barrels to explode or release poisonous gas, and also make electricity travel through a puddle on the floor, into your unsuspecting target. You also have a weapon unlock system, allowing you to unlock new weapons and items suited to your preferred style of play.

Again, as usual, the AI characters are pretty stupid. Sometimes you can crawl past them, and you won't be noticed. AI characters are also pretty cool though, as they're not just mindless zombies walking around with 'Kill player 1' written in their brain, they will interact with each other, talking about how to torture prisoners, and what they had for lunch.

The atmosphere is very much spine tingling. Not only do you have German guards wandering about the place, but you have shadows cast 100 feet tall (not literally) right next to you, with a noticable M16 poking out, locked and loaded. The music also adds to the tension, making these missions ever more harder.

One more silly feature i want to point out. After all the obvious work that has gone into the realism of creating a WW2 atmosphere, there is a special, but limited, use of a feature called 'Morphine Mode'. This is were Violet convulses, and the nurse in the 'real' world will administer a shot of morphine. On return to the 'game' world, Violet will now be wearing her dressing gown, and the gameplay will be frozen for a short amount of time, allowing you to exterminate remaining enemies. A Devon girl in a dressing gown exterminating the cruel minds of the Wermacht? Now what encouraged Replay Studios to put that in?

In conclusion, Velvet Assassin is much like all 'assassin' games. The great graphics, the great atmostphere, the great music. But because of the storyline, the occasional slow minds of the AI and the dreadful adrenaline mode, this game just isn't 'The One'. And who would've thought morphine could be so useful?

Game Rating: 6/10