Our schedule at E3 was absolutely packed, with the Somethingcast crew running around the LA Convention Center like a bunch of idiots, jumping from appointment to appointment, trying to scribe the occasional article in-between. Because of this, we didn’t have a chance to see much of Velvet Assassin, though we did have a meeting with Gamecock. I made sure not to make the same mistake twice, and during PAX Sean and I sat in on a demonstration of the World War II espionage title developed by Replay Studios. Walking past a lovely lady dressing the part we were escorted into a small room, surrounded by the madness of the show floor, and had a chance to see the game played as one of the developers walked us through what was going on.

Inspired by WW2 heroine Violette Szabo, the story follows secret-agent Violette Summer as she uses stealth to take down the Germans from behind enemy lines. The actual game is taking place inside of her head as she lies in a hospital bed, slowly revealing more of her past and explaining her current situation. I actually got the chills at the end of the demo, where it transposed her running through the halls of an exploding corridor to her running down the halls of the hospital, giddy that game developers are finally feeling brave enough to explore creatively with videogame cut scenes. From time, Violette finds syringes of morphine which she can use to enter “Morphine Mode,” where she is able to quickly dispatch of enemies. It’s a creative way to give the character a special, unrealistic ability without breaking away from the game’s otherwise realistic appearance, taking advantage of the storyteller’s hospitalized condition.

The game’s characters all featured fantastic animations and character models, with Violette herself being as realistic a game character as most this generation. The devs stated that there was still more polish to be applied to the character animations, but as far as I could tell they were solid.

The gameplay seems pretty standard among stealth titles, with body-dragging, sneaking, and stealth-kills. As Violette sneaks into darkness a purple aura surrounds her, clueing the player in on her current stealth-level. There were some kinks from time to time and she doesn’t appear to become stealthy while in enemy’s shadows, which would add more depth to the gameplay, but the mechanic should prove otherwise effective. Combat is quick and brutal; somewhat reminiscent of the controversial Manhunt’s. As Violette follows enemies she can perform killing blows, which usually involves a few stabs to the side or a slitting of the throat. It isn’t gratuitous violence, just realistic violence, showing a character who wants someone dead and the most efficient and effective way to do it. There are supposedly dozens of unique animations depending on the weapon being used, so repetition shouldn’t become a problem.

Replay Studios isn’t pulling any punches with the realism in the game. They hope to bring a realistic, gritty title to the Xbox 360 and PC with Velvet Assassin. The only aspect of the game that might be a little strange is the lack of swastikas on the German soldiers due to the current day ban on the symbol in the country, where Replay is based. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw at the Gamecock booth at the Penny-Arcade Expo, and with an Q1 2009 release date the title might be among the best of the stealth-action games of next year.

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