Cool thanks...I quite enjoy sneaking games...not to say I don't enjoy the occasional frag fest to vent that built up urge to kill people in stealth games, but I do enjoy the occasional stealth. I think I'll get it sometime.

quote:

Originally posted by Double_Agent121:
Is Velvet Assassin worth getting or should I wat for the 1st price drop or is it not worth the money at all? From what you are saying I can't really tell.

Personally, I actually discourage getting it, at all.

Wait for Batman: Arkham Asylum which will be out in the summer, or Saboteur which will be out not in the summer. Neither of those games are completely stealth-based, but the stealth they do have sounds really good.

quote:

Originally posted by CoastalGirl:
I can't imagine anyone saying it's bad enough that you shouldn't bother at all

Ha, you should see this thread.

Sorry, Coastie, but I think you're being extremely forgiving of this game.

quote:

Originally posted by LaurenIsSoMosh:

quote:

Originally posted by CoastalGirl:
I can't imagine anyone saying it's bad enough that you shouldn't bother at all

Ha, you should see this thread.

Sorry, Coastie, but I think you're being extremely forgiving of this game.

I've always said I forgive a lot if the game's stealthy...and it is.

I really don't think it's bad, though. I haven't beaten it yet (very easy to mess around on forums while working, not so easy to play games...), but unless the last couple of levels turn totally wonky, I'd definitely give it a solid 7/10.

To address some of the complaints:

"Having to build up sneaking speed"
- Yeah, it was a little annoying at first to go so slow, but by three stars it was fine (I'm now maxed), and even without it you can just about always get the guy if your timing's right. And about not being able to kill guys if they're moving - sneak into them and they'll stop (just be quick about the kill...).

"Getting skill points based on collectables"
- I love Thief, so I see no problem here. Just hush up and collect the stuff.

"Having to sit and listen to conversations"
- You don't. Make a noise or flash your light and they'll shut up, search for a sec, and then go about their business. One part of the sewers had that and I went past them, took out the two guys on the upper level, then went back and did the two below. In fact, I think that's how you're supposed to do it anyway, otherwise the guys on the upper level could potentially see you. So, maybe it's on purpose.

"Linear levels"
- No disagreement, but some of the most linear have an awesome flow to them. I don't recall which one it was, but I went super smoothly for about 12 guys - sneak, kill, sneak, kill, sneak, kill... Love it. And yeah, you could have that in a more open evironment, too, but they weren't bad, so I'm not going to complain.

"No variation in sneaking speed/always making or not making noise depending on what you're walking on"
- Yeah, I'd like more sophistication, but it's not a game-breaker for me. Plus, I've never needed to sneak over glass - I'm a big-time lurer. Lure, backtrack, follow, kill.

"Lack of environmental interaction"
- Yes, I'd like to see a lot more of that, too, but I'm so used to not having it that I'm not going to complain much about it either. I mean, Sam the SEAL used to drown.

"Lighting system is broken"
- Yep, but once you realize that, I found that it actually added another dimension to the sneaking. When it comes to the guys with flashlights, especially, you have to really plan. Even if you lure them and backtrack, they'll still stare at you, and you'll be lit up. So it's not enough to just hide in a corner, you have to play L&S and LoS at the same time.



But again, I was expecting Vampire Rain quality, and it's better than that. For me, totally worth it so far.

quote:

Originally posted by CoastalGirl:
but unless the last couple of levels turn totally wonky, I'd definitely give it a solid 7/10.

Buhleave me, they do.

I won't spoil anything for you, but here's the gist of it.

For each section of the last level, they give you about ten guys to kill or sneak past, and only one shadow, which by the way you can't fit in because it's too skinny. Five of these enemies are walking around. The other five are permanently in place, a freaking mile away, and you can't see them but you can count on them seeing you (I still don't know where they are, but apparently they know where I are).

It's like this for every section. Ten guys, half of them walking and half of them out of sight with their eyes on you, and a nice, decent helping of one or two skinny shadows.

And you and I both know I'm a total ghost. I sneak past, or take out silently, but I never go full-auto. Well, in the last level, I've tried and tried, probably a good two or three hundred times, to simply sneak past a section. But the only solution I've ever found is to just go full-auto on them.

And finally, on the last section, the worst section, they give you five guys to take out. I've died on this section, I dunno, probably a hundred times, and still haven't beat it yet. Once you take these guys down, the area starts spawning enemies who know exactly where you are.

They only come in waves of two at a time, with the next wave starting at the death of the wave before, but I don't know exactly how many enemies spawn in total, because I've only ever made it to the third wave. Oh, and they're wielding flamethrowers, and apparently the only way to proceed is to kill them all, because of that fun puzzle "the key to the locked door is on the last Nazi's corpse."

This level design is similar to Sonic Unleashed. It has nothing in common with all the previous levels. And also, because of the last section, the difficulty is inconsistent. People who play on the hardest difficulty, who have no trouble in the first eleven levels, become trapped in the last level because of a huge difficulty spike that they never saw coming until sixteen hours into the game. In pretty much every other game, if the difficulty is too hard, you can tell by the end of the first five minutes or whatever. But Velvet Assassin waits until the last five minutes.

Oh, and on a minor note, the game doesn't overwrite save files. Instead, it just makes a new one every time. And since there are about ten save spots in every mission, I have like an entire gigabyte of save files. This isn't that big of a deal, but I think it goes to show that the developers didn't really know what they were doing.

Well now I'm intrigued!

I'm nearing the Prison, I think...still a ways to go.


Edit: Okay, I think I'm on the last level now, but I'm loving the first part - uber sneakage.

I'm kind of dreading what might come next, though... LoL

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CoastalGirl,

Well, if the rumors are true, it looks like Eidos is gong to announce Thief IV soon. I'm definitely excited for it, I just got the third game today, and I'm really enjoying it. Here's a link to one of the rumors:

Thief IV To Be Announced Soon?

quote:

Originally posted by CoastalGirl:
Well now I'm intrigued!

I'm nearing the Prison, I think...still a ways to go.


Edit: Okay, I think I'm on the last level now, but I'm loving the first part - uber sneakage.

I'm kind of dreading what might come next, though... LoL

I'm with you on this game girl. I am loving every moment of it.
If we had Sam's gadgets some spots would be supper easy.

So last night I made it to the end of the fourth wave. Turns out, after the death of the third wave, the fourth wave spawns three.

I killed the fourth wave by some miracle, with only one magazine left, and my health was completely bottomed out, and they stopped coming. So I sat there staring at some ten bodies lying on the ground for a few seconds thinking, "wow, I barely got through that." And just as I finished thinking, I saw four guys in the distance running towards me.

No health, no ammo, and apparently the Fuhrer has decided to send his entire army towards me. This is absolutely ridiculous.

I've run all over the place looking to see if I'm doing it wrong and if there's some hard-to-spot crawl point or something, but I never get very far because I tend to get shot in the back a lot by people who know exactly where I am.

Lauren, I think I'm at the spot, and yes, it's hard. LoL

I've tried twice and failed, mainly because my reaction time is terrible.

Spoilers:
So, I'm not sure where you were trying from, but I booked it behind the church (went around to the right) and hid in the only shadow I could find, which is on the back left. They still know where you are, but they all come from the same side, and if you're quick (which I'm not), you can drop them as they come around the corner. Some run a bit farther past before stopping, and those are the ones that mess me up. It's like they know... LoL


ETA: Apparently I broke the forums, and had a bunch of posts that errored on my end appear all at once...sorry...

Anyways, I tried one more time, using a very different method, and it totally worked.

Spoilers:
When the deal started, I ran around to the right side of the church, but don't go behind it until someone started to shoot from that side. Then I continued around the back and hid in the little shadow on the other side. The two guys came around to search, but by then I was fully hidden (not flashy hidden), and they eventually gave up. Then I followed them back around to the front and was able to sneak down the road. From there I tagged one, then ran to the second floor of the little cottage (same way I did the starting set), and took them out with headshots through the window. A couple of times I had to repeat the lure, but the last bunch I did all in the row, and took almost no damage (only a shot or two while luring). I have no idea if it would work again, but it was sweet.

Breaking the forums, no, it happened to me too lol.

Tagging... I tried that too, but the flamethrowers got me every time. I guess I'll give it a few more tries though.

What frustrates me most about this is that there's no vest and hardly any health. In the earlier levels, they have two or even three vest drops for every time you're going to encounter any more than three guards at a time, and they have health drops like a candy trail. But now when you REALLY need them, there are none to be had.

If there's one thing that I'll say about this game, it's that it's completely inconsistent, on every aspect.

Tag the guys from really far away and you should be fine - I could just make out their silhouettes. It should only take one shot to get their attention, and then you can run back.

As for health...what difficulty are you playing on? I don't know if it's different, but I was on normal and there were enough...there are two at/in the cottage, at least two at the church (I used those before I started the end, though), and several of the enemies dropped more.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CoastalGirl,

Agent difficulty, with five stars in strength.

But the only difference in difficulties is that you take less damage on lesser difficulties. There are still the same amount of health drops.

You do get a health bonus for stealth kills, but that's totally ruled out here.

I've used all the medkits in this level, and I only have the two ones at the church left over, not including any of the ones that enemies drop, but I can't find the time in between waves to grab them.

Well the save point's before the cottage, so try again and don't get hit as often this time! LoL

I just tried your method, and it worked! I never could've done this without you.

I'm trading it in tomorrow, hopefully for more than five bucks.

Next on the list of hopeful void-fillers: Arkham Asylum!

While it may not be completely stealtherized, using fear as a weapon is a new concept in the stealth genre as far as I know, and I'm very hopeful that this will spice things up a lot. And being able to perform feats that Sam Fisher can't do (like flying!) sounds kinda fun and different.

quote:

Originally posted by LaurenIsSoMosh:
I just tried your method, and it worked! I never could've done this without you.

I aim to please.

quote:

I'm trading it in tomorrow, hopefully for more than five bucks.

Pfft! I'm going to replay on Agent and get my missing achievements...except for the "complete campaign in 2.3 seconds" one, because that ain't gonna happen. Ever.

And I will not be selling mine. I like it! LoL

quote:

Next on the list of hopeful void-fillers: Arkham Asylum!

While it may not be completely stealtherized, using fear as a weapon is a new concept in the stealth genre as far as I know, and I'm very hopeful that this will spice things up a lot. And being able to perform feats that Sam Fisher can't do (like flying!) sounds kinda fun and different.

I'm watching that one too. The predator demo thing looked really nifty.

I'm not sad, but other titles aren't filling the void for me either.

Hence, I recently sold my console. Yes, you heard it right. It's just too money/time expensive and the current games do NOT justify that for me.

Instead, I'll be allocating some money & time to see some movies such as Terminator and Transformers 2.

Speaking of the latter ; i'll be picking up some real Transformer figures again, after a 20 year hiatus. lol.

So...atm, the games industry has really lost me as a customer. (Still got the Xbox 1 & PS2 for the occassional 45 minute game session though)

I think if the games industry has lost you as a customer, it seems due to your narrow scope of variety in games. Honestly the amount of varied games announced this year already, and those already scheduled and confirmed to come out is varied enough for anyone. If you cannot find a game within those games to fill your void, then I think you're in the minority of the niche market! a market which had died out with the inception of these next-gen consoles. You have people in this thread so desperate enough to buy Velvet Assassin, a poor mans Splinter Cell, I like Stealth as much as the next person, but really... Velvet Assassin? If you can like mediocrity, you'll like any stealth based game, no standards...

With less then a month to E3, where many new titles being announced with MS working on a new Stealth game, the new announcement of Thief 4 Next week Monday, I wouldn't of sold my console(s). There will be Batman: Arkham Asylum, Saboteur, Thief 4, Alpha Protocol, Splinter Cell: Conviction and some unannounced Stealth games. Plus other genre's appeasing the majority, I find it very hard to believe there is nothing to fill your void, unless you're a picky customer (niche!). I'm excited as a console gamer, very excited for the PC, Capcom dishing out a heck of a lot of titles for the PC crowd.

quote:

except for the "complete campaign in 2.3 seconds" one, because that ain't gonna happen. Ever.

I think you mean 5 hours, not 2.3 seconds... that achievement would be:

Blitzkrieg 50GS
Complete the campaign in less than 5 hours

Still poor that a game can be completed that quick, though not as bad as Wanted: Weapons of Fate, a mere 1 hour and 15 mins, a disgrace!

quote:

Originally posted by felipebaby:

quote:

except for the "complete campaign in 2.3 seconds" one, because that ain't gonna happen. Ever.

I think you mean 5 hours, not 2.3 seconds... that achievement would be:

Blitzkrieg 50GS
Complete the campaign in less than 5 hours

I was joking.


And I still maintain that VA is not a bad game. All of the elements that I look for in a stealth game are there. They're just not always as well implemented as they could be (in terms of technology, not feasibility [meaning, considering logical constraints, I think the game is great]).

quote:

Originally posted by felipebaby:
I think if the games industry has lost you as a customer, it seems due to your narrow scope of variety in games.

Flawed logic.

If my scope would be so narrow, why didn't the generation of PS2 / Xbox 1 and all those before, lose my interest ?

So, no, my scope ain't narrow...and even if it was, it is basically a matter of taste in games : something which cannot be judged,
not even by you.

Consequently, if we agree the variety in games is more or less the same throughout gaming generations ; then there has to be another
important factor which made me lose interest this time. And I know what it is, but I am not going to spell it out for you atm, if you're
not seeing it.

Again ; for the little times I still game, I quite enjoy the variety of my PS2 & Xbox 1 library.

The gaming industry will have to step up bigtime, to regain my interest, because better graphics/physics and placebo innovations are not going to suffice to have an expensive next gen paperweight.

Yes, perhaps... SC Conviction might be one of the games to start a significant change in the games industry to inspire other game makers and then I might consider to buy a 360 (again)... but I am not holding my breath. I'm just gonna enjoy my time with other things in the meanwhile.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Knot3D,

quote:

Originally posted by Knot3D:
Hence, I recently sold my console.

Instead, I'll be allocating some money & time to see some movies such as Terminator.

Monotone Swortchihnaygorr voice: "you'll be back."

quote:

Originally posted by CoastalGirl:
They're just not always as well implemented as they could be

Exactly. What has this game done, that hasn't already been done before, and been done ten times better by games from 1998 and 2001?