the saboteur review

[paecmaker]

The saboteur



The guard moved slowly through the dark alleyway, the rain hammered down on the roofs beside him. The only colour seen in the alleyway are the yellow lights from the houses and his blood red bracelet. He thought he was alone but he was wrong, on top of one of the buildings stood a man looking down on the guard. He stod there with a cigarette and watched the guard. The man took away the cigarette and dropped it on the roof, he climbed down to the guard and moved in the shadows. Only a small sound slipped from the guard the moment before he fell down to the ground and red blood float out from below his body and mixed with the water.

The saboteur is a third person sandbox game(similar to GTA) developed by pandemic studios and was released by EA in 2009.

Story

You are Sean Devlin, an Irish race driver/mechanic that prior to the German invasion of France in 1940 went to Paris for a race. Thanks to several different happenings you are trapped in France as the invasion begins and you see the cruelty of the German soldiers. Seeing no other way you join the French resistance and their allies.


Game play

The game play can be seen as a mix from the GTA games and assassins creed. It’s an open map over Paris and some surrounding towns you can move in. During the game Paris is occupied by German forces and they are everywhere, now as a part of the resistance you have to be careful not do suspicious things(unless you want to be hunted by Nazi soldiers) so normally you don’t attack Nazis and they wont care about you. However if you do suspicious things like sprinting fighting or having weapons they will notice you(more on that later)
One key thing in the game is the buildings, you can climb almost any building in the game and move along the rooftops. This is very useful if you are hunted or need to sneak in somewhere.
As said earlier its an open map, you can move wherever you want except for certain off limit places, now you might think that this is just a way to hinder the player to get to other parts of the map in earlier games but that’s both right and wrong. Off limit places are heavily defended places of military importance for the Germans, it can be fuel storages or military bases, its just that the moment a guard spots you in there the alarm will go.



The alarm works almost like the stars In GTA, you have to get out of the area or find a hiding spot if you want to end the alarm. Hiding spots can often be found on different rooftops and is seen as marks on your minimap. One thing that I didn’t like is that If you climb up the roofs the germans will only stand still at the place they last saw you, I think it would be much more fun if they started hunting you on the roofs. There are 5 levels as usual and each level brings something new and more dangerous after you.

If you don’t want to go in guns blazing you can sneak(this is rooftops good for) or dress out. If you kill a German with your hands you can steal his outfit and as long as you don’t go to close or do suspicious things near guards you will do just fine.(BEWARE, SOME ENEMIES CAN DETECT YOUR OUTFIT IN LONGER RANGES)

Now one of the biggest and most notable things in the game are the colors. As the game begins the Germans have full control over Paris. Everywhere you see guards and executions. The rain is pouring down and the sky is full of clouds, oh and the world is black and white, except for the lights from windows and the color red. This means that in the dark areas you will only see the color from the Nazis flags and symbols (and windows). It makes me feel that I got something to fight for, cause the more harm you do to the Germans and the Parisians spirits are rising more color will return to the world and making it look really beautiful.



Now this isn’t only a cosmetic change, in the dark parts there are more Germans which makes it harder to escape. In the light parts the Germans are more concentrated to important places and the people can also aid you in fights.
As it is a big and open world cars is very important, the bad thing about it is that the car physics are really strange. If you drive fast and pull the hand brake the car goes to almost instant stop and turns very strange. You can hit certain things and it will pull it down easily while other not so tougher things make the car crash. One example of the strange physics were when I drove a tank inside a German base(it was also hard to drive) I couldn’t climb these half meter high walls on the ground and got stuck all the time due to small concrete poles.
The damage system is also strange with no or little visible damage to cars(you can’t even get a flat tire). Except for that the cars goes well enough to drive(you can drive all ground vehicles, I think).
One thing that I didn’t like is that even if sean is a race car driver there isn’t too many races you can go to. It felt like they could have put up more races on the countryside.
In different areas you can find these rebel bases where you can get both missions and aid from. In all bases there are at least an arms dealer and a mechanic. You can buy weapons from the arms dealer but also upgrades to your skills and weapons. The mechanic/garage is where you park your cars so you can use them sooner, this makes that sort of car open for all garages in the world(and its free). This means that if you have collected a car you can have it for free but if you want a new car you have to find one in the world first. I like that way, this makes me be able to choose my favorite car and it’s also funny to collect the cars.
As a member of the resistance you blow **** up, you blow lots of **** up. You don’t use money to buy things, you use some sort of point that you get by destroying German tech. If you are out o “cash” just blow up a fuel depot or destroy an airship(but you also get points from completing missions. Oh and doing certain things against Germans like do 10 headshots grants you special abilities or perks, this also means new weapons and vehicles.
Shooting works fine and even if the cover system is clumsy(I died several times because the cover didn’t work) you don’t use it so much anyways.
The technic(graphics sound etc)



The graphical artstyle is nice, hey its Paris we are talking about and Pandemic have done a remarkable job building up the buildings and streets. I know one place I could almost recognize since I was in Paris myself. Unfortanly they have working with an older engine so the graphics aren’t so nice that I hoped. Some things look really nice like the colors, sometimes it looks like a living painting while sometimes it looks like taken out of a (good) nightmare.
The sound is working fine.
I suck at recognizing dialects but I think that they voice Sean Devlin nice. I feel that most voices work even if many other games does it better. In the background you can almost always hear the city noices or the people talking. The music played in the radios are atmospheric and the gun shots sound ok.

Overview

The saboteur is a third person sandbox action/ adventure game set in France during 1940. You play as Sean Devlin that is by different things forced to join the French resistance in Paris. The game play is mostly good even if the enemy AI is sometimes strange and is mostly just stand still and shoot. You can clim almost all buildings in the city and drive almost all vehicles. The driving physics are strange and sometimes just crazy even if a car chase is still funny. The game offers an unique style that uses some sort of black and white color(with dots of red) in Nazi controlled areas while in “liberated” areas are full of color.
The rebel bases are places where you can get new weapons, cars and missions.
The graphics are old but the style makes the game still look good. And the sounds are mostly good, both with voices and ambient.



Other things.

This game is both very violent and features near naked burlesque dancers, so its a 18+ year according to PEGI ratings.
And instead of collectables you got explodibles, that’s right in this game you don’t collect things, you blow the **** up.
One last thing, I enjoyed the game but Ive seen some commentaries on internet so its pretty divided, I would recommend that you rent the game or borrow it from a friend(or buy it cheap)
You might wonder why I haven’t said something about the MP, simply because there is none.

Points

Gameplay- 7/10 the gameplay is funny but the driving lacks and the AI could be better.

Graphics- 7/10 the graphics aren’t the best but the art style is really nice.

Sounds 7/10 the sounds does its job but it isn’t something extraordinary.

Atmosphere 8/10 It almost feels like Paris and it feels like it’s something bad is happening.

Total 7.5/10 It’s a good game that could be much better with some more time, and more money(and better marketing).
(the two latest screenshots are mine)

[paecmaker]

(changelog) I added a "nice" picture to the review.

Comment if you want to know more about the game or if you just want to steam your oppinions about it.