In the shadows of Paris, I crouched as evening fell. Around the corner, the disgruntled bickering of two soldiers hit my ears. I controlled my breathing. My muscles tensed. I struck. My targets perished with precision while the last rays of sunlight touched the beautiful architecture of the city, and I continued to end the life of “The Butcher of Paris.”

That’s part of one mission that was assigned to Violette, the main character in Velvet Assassin, a stealth game set in World War II. Or at least, a World War II as the lady assassin dreams and remembers it while she’s knocked out from morphine. This twist of the setting being in World War II but that of her dreams was a different take on a place that many games have gone.

I’ll say right now that I’m not really a fan of World War II games; they just seem like they’re everywhere. But this game definitely captivated me and kept my interest. I also like stealth games and assassin games, so there was that nice bit of appeal. Following the very nice intro movie, I was ready to take on the role of Violette and bring down some Nazis.

I found two things I liked about the game right away even into the tutorial level: the way information was presented — how to move Violette (mouse and WASD keys) — and the amount of obvious work put into making the world seem alive.

Since you’re in the dreams of Violette, she’s recollecting via voiceover what’s happening or going to happen. She also offers hints and indicates things the player could do. I thought this approach to giving information was definitely one that worked well to interweave the gameplay and storyline. Granted, there are pop-ups that point out how controls work and what button to press for what, but it wasn’t at all sudden or annoying, and it definitely didn’t hurt the flow of the game. Usually it was a quick little tidbit of her saying something like, “Hey, press this to do something that might help you.”

I found that those little tidbits were sometimes useful, but I stuck with my own style of trying to be sneaky and killing all of my targets. However, I could have gone with several choices on how to get past several enemies, which was another thing I liked about the game. This was the fact that I had (or had the illusion of having, I suppose) choices.

I could have gone through the whole level guns blazing (with all seven bullets), used objects in the environments to kill enemies, or gone my usual route and snuck up behind them and performed a stealthy kill.

The options given to me were various, and it also helped give each room of enemies a puzzle-like quality. There’d be several ways to defeat them all, but only one or two ways to dispatch them silently and avoid detection. Shadows throughout the levels also helped with the whole idea of detection. Sneaking around and getting to a spot where an enemy wouldn’t see me but being close enough to go after him when he turned around was a fun challenge.

The lighting of the game fit the mood very well. Dark corners or bright courtyards, depending on the area, yet nothing seemed out of place or odd. Being in broad daylight actually made me tenser than when an enemy soldier was behind the corner, and I was hidden by only a bit of darkness.

Along with lighting, the sound in Velvet Assassin was put together very well. The meandering guards have amusing conversations that made me laugh, but they also helped me figure out just where they were so I could slip by or wait for them to walk away so I could pounce. Music added to the mood and tension that was spread throughout and accented key parts — such as being discovered by enemies — but the music was subtle when needed.

Subtlety was definitely important when I was trying to complete objectives, be it passing by a few guards listening to the radio or one patrolling around a bunker. And, speaking of the guards, I’d like to touch on something that I really liked about them — or rather a part of them.

While going through a few of the levels, letters can be found. Some of these letters can hold information that helps in missions and such, but some simply show the emotions and feelings behind the soldiers. The letters make them real characters, real people, and it hit an emotional chord with me when playing the game. Some of the letters were love letters from the soldier promising his beloved he’d come home safe and then they’d be together forevermore. Obviously, since I was running through slaying targets, that wasn’t going to happen, but the idea that these men were targets with letters showing their humanity definitely added depth to the game.

Which target — or man you just took out — penned the letter with the phrase “I am yours forever, my love”? The game’s based on the real-life of Violette Szabo, so I can see where she would have come across enemies she had to kill also having families, loved ones and people they cared about and missed. It made the world come alive, made the characters seem more real, and made the darkness of the mood and the idea that Velvet Assassin was set during a hellish war that much more realistic.

Despite that bit of realism, I was still able to use different items, collect collectibles worth experience points and upgrade my character to increase her stats. So don’t think that the idea of an enjoyable game is lost. Given aspects of Violette to upgrade — such as how fast she moves when moving stealthily and how many hits she can take — I selected stealth. It fit with my style of attack, but the idea that other players can fit Violette’s statistics to their own play style and have choice in how to attack is a great piece of the game.

If you’re not a fan of stealth games, you might dislike Velvet Assassin because it does depend on Violette being sneaky. I mean, you can go attack all of the soldiers with your gun, but you’re only given so many bullets; stealth is key. If you enjoy stealth games, as I do, then you’ll most likely enjoy Velvet Assassin, and I’d suggest picking it up. It looks great, sounds great and has realistic emotion in a game focused on the darkness of war, and overall, I really enjoyed it and bet you will, too.