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The Saboteur
Pandemic Studios
Game details:
Release Date: Dec 8, 2009
Genre: WW2 Action Adventure
ESRB: Mature
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox360
In a world saturated with games treating the second world war from the front, it's rare that we actually go so far as to see how the life and the underground during that period were. I mean, seriously, in what other game can you see both Nazis and boobies? The answer to this peculiar question is The Saboteur, a WW2 sandbox game, the final title of Pandemic Studios, also responsible of the Mercenaries series and Lord of the Rings Conquest reviewed here. It's sad that Pandemic has been closed down, but it's also proof to the fact that the videogame industry isn't recession-proof. Now then, on to the review...
About the game
The Saboteur is a sandbox game, along the lines of the GTA series. It's a game where you can go wherever you want, kill whoever you wish, drive whatever car or APC or tank you feel like driving, and progress the story whenever you like - it's not everybody's cup'o'tea, because in some cases you get so distracted doing side things that you can go for several hours not progressing at all, but it's also fun because of the same reason, because you can moderate how much of a time sink the game is. It's also set in the Second World War, although it could very well not be set in that time period, because the gameplay could even be set in the future or prehistory and still make sense. You run, gun, break necks and faces, drive, and act in an Irish kind of way.
Starting out
You start the game as Sean Devlin, a mechanic turned race driver who is more Irish than the entire Irish nation put together - he is a likeable character, a ladies man with a constant red haze on his cheeks, with a lot of luck, a very stylish cap and a strange immunity to lead poisoning. Or perhaps not that, but an immunity to bullet wounds. Whichever it is, Sean is a bullet sponge. Said Devlin guy starts in a WW2 Parisian nudie bar full of drunken Nazis, the Belle de Nuit, your typical base of operations, really. There, a guy with a stereotypical French accent, Luc, is trying to get you to blow up a big nazi gas station. Sean is obviously upset about something, since he doesn't seem to be feeling very communicative. You, controlling him, go out and blow the heck out of the gas station. Hell of a beginning, right? Yeah, the beginning of the French Resistance.
Going TNT
Moving on through the game, you will get to see the fact that Devlin has a personal vendetta with a Nazi, one very annoying blond dude who is, also, extremely stereotypical of how the Nazis were depicted on propaganda posters in America - evil and despicable, with blue eyes. While you start with a big gas station, you continue with bigger and bigger targets, like big phallic cannons, German embassies, generals and their posses, tanks, rockets, zeppelins, all that kind of things. Also between missions and while you are doing them, you can destroy free-play targets, Nazi property put on display through the city, stuff that earn you contraband if you destroy. Because the Nazis control everything in the city, your currency is contraband. With contraband, you can buy whatever your Irish heart desires, like weapons and upgrades. While you start off as a pretty potent force, eventually Sean will become a Nazi killing machine, able of getting down entire bases without much of an effort. You do have to work a bit to get there. Also, doing a few select feats, like killing some dudes with a sniper rifle or running enough people over, will grant you perks, which enhance your performance even more.
The usual gameplay in The Saboteur consists of two parts - the part when the Nazis are not aware of you and the part in which they are. For the first part, you have a nice stealth, climbing and disguise system to use. You can sneak around breaking Nazi necks and sucker punching generals, even looking as some of them, as well as climbing towers, planting explosives all around you and going out with a bang. Climbing structures is kind of awkward and sometimes plain boring, and getting detected in restricted areas is as easy as a guy seeing you blow a whistle, but trying to be stealthy is still fun times while it lasts. For the second part, in which you will certainly play more, since it's hard to stay undetected for long, you have an entire slew of weapons to use, ranging from veritable WW2 weapons to some more fantastical ones for the time(like an automatic shotgun), to blow Nazis all the way to hell with. It's fun because of the fact that all weapons feel powerful when you shoot them, and because of the fact that Nazis bleed excessively when shot. This is where the atmosphere comes in.
Atmosphere - Special
This is where the game really comes to shine. The Saboteur brings about an artistic style which I haven't seen before - it's all black and white at first. Later, when the population becomes inspired through your actions, it gets colorful. The monochrome rainy environment clearly depicts the Nazi domination, with the red of swastika armbands and blood exploding into the screen with contrast. Warm golden lights also appear at the windows of buildings, showing perhaps that there are inspired people in Paris, but all of them are contained. Another color will pop out throughout the game, blue, signifying members of the French Resistance. It's strange how even something as minor as the blue irises of a character's eyes stick out like sore thumbs in a black and white setting. Add to this the fact that weather changes depending on the state the area in which you are is, and you have two sided beauty with significance behind it.
It's very picturesque, you know - the blue meadows and cheerful clear sky in liberated areas, and black shiny streets marred with rain in an instantly depressing night in the Nazi controlled areas. Drive from one area to another and see how it smoothly changes and your heart will surely soak with glee. Mine did. This is also paired with a great soundtrack that you have certainly heard before, and voice acting that, while extremely stereotypical, is great because of how it seems to blend in with the time period.
Graphics - Stylized
The game looks great, top to bottom. It does have its issues, with some bland textures here and there, but for a game of this scope, having the entire city of Paris and the surrounding countryside and towns as a giant playground to destroy stuff on, it's not much to blame, especially because of the fact that it looks great mostly. While your heart might feel warmer when you see everything colored, my personal opinion is that the depressing black and white setting looks better. But that's just me. Oh yeah, almost forgot, you actually have a nudity option in the game. Just so you know (I didn't until the end of the game).
Sabotaging the conclusions
The Saboteur is the dying breath of a studio. While in most cases this would have made the game to be a flop, this is not true in this case. The Saboteur is easily one if not the best game that Pandemic got out. It's got great action and story to go behind it, pretty much like a nice WW2 action movie, sexy setting and good if occasionally annoying gameplay, leading to a great time sink. I've had been playing it for about 26 hours when I finished it, and I still had a lot to do, a lot of free play targets, and a lot of... well, everything. So it's a good enough value at the 60 bucks it costs at the moment. But hey, while the price is still a bit high, the game deserves a rent, if not a pay.