Xboxist

Velvet Assassin Environment Preview

Environmental features are an important part of any modern game experience. As anyone who has played the recent EA scare-fest Dead Space knows, a skilled team of developers can create an effective atmosphere of terror using only subtle details. The crew over at Replay Studios have taken this notion to heart, and they have worked very hard to make sure that their upcoming stealth game Velvet Assasin immerses players in a dark and frightening wartime environment. Velvet Assassin follows the travails of Violette Summer, as she re-lives her role as a secret agent behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany. The game places a heavy emphasis on stealth, as Violette is vastly outnumbered by the German forces. Gamers will only have their wits and an arsenal of stealthy weapons to confront the Nazo horde and with any luck, make it out with their lives.

We were recently given the opportunity to hear more about the various levels that players will face in the upcoming Velvet Assassin. Replay Studios shared information about two specific stages in the game, both of which will take place deep behind enemy lines.

The Lost begins at sunrise in deepest Nazi controlled France on an autumn day, bringing with it long shadows offering the element of surprise. With plenty of potential coverings scattered around, along with autumnal trees and bushes providing further excellent cover from detection, players will have to take care not to make too much noise crossing the dried leaves and twigs that layer the floor. If successful in avoiding capture by the SS guards, players will then have to secretly enter the grim and poorly lit Maginot Line bunker system set deep in the hills and mountains of the French border. The Maginot Line was a series of fixed gun emplacements and bunkers that divided France from Germany after the First World War. Unfortunately, once tanks and armored personel carriers were invented, a static line of defense didn't prove to be such a good idea.

Once inside the bunker, lighting is controlled by intense lamps and dodgy electric ceiling lights in certain rooms. This is where sneaking becomes extremely important as players will have nowhere to run if an enemy is able to sound the alarm. Working through the bunker system the claustrophobic and dirty conditions that soldiers lived through on a daily basis can become all too real.

The Third Man brings with it three separate sections involving three distinct environments. During one mission, Violette works her way through a sewers system and reappears in daylight in the middle of the Warsaw Ghetto. At this point the historical detail that Replay Studios has painstakingly brought to the game becomes apparent, from abandoned belongings in the street and executions of families in broad daylight, to gun flashes in the windows of homes as soldiers search for people hiding in the walls, the brutality of what happened soon hits home. With this mission players lose the cover of darkness and have to be especially careful when sneaking around, remaining observant at all times for any potential cover. As Violette progresses the brutality and the nature of what happened here really is unique to Velvet Assassin.

So far, the game is shaping up quite well. The publisher has said that we can expect the final retail version of the game to arrive "Early in 2009". Velvet Assassin will be available on both the PC and Xbox 360.

.