The Saboteur (PC) Review
Brutal Gamer looks to disrupt some Nazi plans.
The first I ever heard of The Saboteur was at the Eurogamer Expo back in October. It did look quite interesting, but I never got the chance to sample it’s delights. A few weeks later and the game’s creators Pandemic Studios no longer exists, and so it turns out that The Saboteur is Pandemic’s swansong. But did they go out with a roar or a whimper? Read on to find out.
The Saboteur is an open world Third Person Shooter game set during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, not that there’s exactly been a shortage of open world games or World War II games over the years. You play the part of Irish mechanic turned racing driver Sean Devlin, who assists the Resistance in an attempt to cause disruption to the invading Nazi forces. The story is pretty much like a World War II action movie.
In spite of the Nazi forces, France looks quite pretty, from the busy streets of Paris, to the quite peaceful farm lands of the Le Havre region, there is plenty of detail in the buildings and cars and everything looks nice. The ‘Will to Fight’ mechanic in the game also gives areas of France a different look. For example, when a region is under full Nazi control, everywhere you go looks black and white, apart from the bright red Nazi flags and banners, giving a slight Sin City look . As you sabotage Nazi structures and vehicles in the area, or kill Nazi generals, that areas ‘Will to Fight’ increases, as the people rally around and gain hope. Once the WtF reaches a certain level, the black and white are gone and the region is in full colour again. It’s a nice touch that adds a lot of atmosphere to proceedings. The camera can occasionally make a mess of things, though. But it’s mostly alright.
The Saboteur sounds very authentic, with some 40s sounding music as you drive around the town. Although for some reason there is also Nina Simone’s version of Feeling Good, which wasn’t recorded until the mid 1960s. The voice acting is pretty good, although some of the accents do sound a little bit like something out of ‘Allo ‘Allo. There were times when I was expecting Veronique to turn around and say “Listen very carefully, I shall say zis only once.” Sean comes across as a tough guy with a heart. He acts like the hard man in cut scenes, sometimes being confrontational and aggressive, as well as sarcastic towards male NPCs, but then is charming and flirtatious with female NPCs. He even has friendly interactions with passers by in the street, which is a nice little touch.
For the most part, this game plays like any open world game you’ve played before. You can travel around France on foot or by car. The difference is that Sean has the ability to scale buildings and traverse the rooftops. In fact, it is entirely possible to get to a destination as the crow flies, as all buildings in the city areas have wires between then that you can go across. As you’re climbing up buildings, ledges you can climb to give off a white glow so you can plan your route to the top. Aiming while shooting is a bit awkward at first, but you eventually get used to it and will be able to get head shots practically in your sleep. The cars are pretty basic to control, and the differences in handling are what you’d expect. As you make your way through the game and perform certain actions, you can unlock perks which allow you to pick up extra skills, such as the ability to plant explosives in cars or unlock stealth kills for different situations.
Mission tend to be quite varied, whether you are sneaking into a building to obtain an artefact, to blowing up Nazi sniper nests and stealing vehicles for people so that they can sell the car back to the owner for an inflated price. There are also multiple ways you can do a mission. For example, in an early mission you have to steal a general’s limo. You could approach it by just going in all guns blazing, trying to kill the general before he can escape in the limo. You could also climb up the back of a nearby building and drop in the party next to the limo, before getting into the limo and escaping. You could also find a solo Nazi, kill him stealthily and steal his uniform, and attempt to walk in and take it. When in disguise, there is a ‘suspicion circle’ on your HUD map, where your suspicion meter will rise if a Nazi gets within the circle. The trouble is that, if you are in a Nazi area, there are usually a lot of soldiers walking around, so walking past them all without attracting unwanted attention can be extremely tricky.
The main storyline of the game is a decent length, clocking in at around 10 hours on Normal difficulty if you don’t mess around with all the side missions and such. However, doing some side missions and blowing up Nazi control points and armour gains you extra contraband which can be used to buy better weapons and cars. Of course, you don’t need to do these things, but it will make things easier later on if you do.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Saboteur is a fine note for Pandemic to bow out on, and a pleasantly surprising note at that. There are plenty of things to do and see, and the storyline makes you want to see what happens to Sean in his quest for revenge. While the game is admittedly a bit rough around the edges and not quite polished, and the controls take a bit of time to get used to, you will be sucked into an enjoyable World War II romp, and there are far worse ways to spend 10+ hours of your time.
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News
13 Feb 2010, 10:33 am
[...] day) on the EA Store, you’ll be able to pick up; Dragon Age: Origins, Dead Space and The Saboteur all on PC for the very reasonable price of $99. Dragon Age: Origins and The Saboteur are both $10 [...]