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The Saboteur
World War 2 has never been one of my favourite subjects and there is already so many games jammed into this crowded genre that when I first heard of The Saboteur it didn't sound like anything to get excited about. Thankfully it has turned out to be more than just another run of the mill First Person Shooter and instead Pandemic Studious has crafted a nice 3rd Person Action Adventure that shares more than a passing resembles to their own Mercenaries series, not to mention the iconic Grand Theft Auto 4.
The main character is a Irishman by the name of Sean Devlin who seems to have a bit of a shady past. Apparently inspired by war hero William Grover-Williams, Sean is a daredevil race car driver that is cheated out of a win but his attempt to get even ends in tragedy. Overcome by guilt and remorse, Sean whiles way his days in a Parisian brothel until he is roused from his apathy by a French resistance leader that want nothing more than to boot the Nazis from his country. With a score to settle Sean soon warms to the role of saboteur and so begins his quest to reclaim the city of Paris by any means necessary. The storyline in The Saboteur is not to bad but its nothing original. Sean is a very interesting character even though he conforms to the hard drinking, swearing Irishman stereotype. The story missions are what drives the game forward but since this is a sandbox game there is plenty of freeplay targets for you to take a crack at if you don't feel like delving deeper into the plot. German occupied France is filled to the brim with Nazis and their installations dot the landscape like flies on carrion. Luckily Sean knows his way around explosives and for every target that you take out you will earn some contraband which can be traded on the black market for weapons, ammos and other goodies. Sean will also unlock new perks as he reaches certain goals which ads some more spice to the game. It's not all guns and explosions as Sean can also tap into his sneaky side and stealth kill Nazis before donning their uniforms and strolling straight into well guarded facilities. The excrement invariable hits the fan after a while though so keep your weapons handy as the Nazis will do their best to blast Sean to bits if he is discovered. To round out the action there are some racing sections as well which will be good practice for evading angry Nazis that will chase Sean down on motorbikes, armoured cars and tanks if he causes too much trouble in their vicinity. Visually The Saboteur is one of the most striking games I've seen this year and seem to be heavily inspired by the movie "Sin City". Initially everything is a dull, monochromatic shade of grey with only splashes of red and blue to highlight Nazis or resistance members. As Sean starts to liberate parts of the city colour will return to these areas and the transition between black and white to colour is quite excellent. It's not just a pretty visual element however as the civilians in the colourful areas are much more likely to come to your aid than the depressed ones wandering around in the gloomy areas. Beyond the stylish visuals the game has lots of nice graphical elements like huge Zeppelins floating across the sky and few things come close to seeing one of these go down in flames after you shoot it from the sky with one of the Germans own anti-aircraft guns. You'll also see some famous Parisian landmarks like the Eiffel tower and the good news is that all of these can be scaled. Sean takes some inspiration from Prototype and Assassins Creed by being able to climb virtually every building in sight and while he might lack the style and grace the protagonists of those games had he makes up for it with attitude. Despite the bleak settings The Saboteur definitely favours style over realism and while there are quite few dark moments the game has a lot of humour. This is not a game for children as not only is Sean one of the most foul-mouthed characters in the genre there is also copious amounts of nudity and other suggestive themes in the game. Everything is quite tastefully done and like the rest of the game is more stylish than gratuitous. A highlight of The Saboteur is the excellent soundtrack which features some tunes taken straight from the era and these fit the game like a glove. Some of the songs will stay in your head long after you've finished playing the game. The voice acting is also of a very high standard not the mention the sound effects. By the end of the game I was quite tired of hearing the sound of a whistle being blown (the result of the Nazis spotting you being up to no good) but apart from that the sound effects were very good. The Saboteur is a great game but it could have been even better if a few minor wrinkles were ironed out before release. With it being a console port the graphics are hardly cutting edge which is something I can forgive but the controls is something else entirely. I got used to it after playing for a while but it never stopped feeling dodgy and imprecise. Struggling with a bunch of keyboard commands in the middle of an intense battle is never fun and while it is possible to play the game with a Xbox gamepad I prefer the precision that mouse controls offer. For all its vastness the games main storyline is also quite short and while blowing up Nazi installations is fun it hardly provides much replay value once the game is over. All in all I still had loads of fun with The Saboteur and can wholeheartedly recommend it. The GTA inspired genre is almost as crowded as the WW2 but this game still manages to carve out a niche for itself. Its even more of a pity that this was Pandemic Studious last game before they got closed down as it is arguable one of their greatest.
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System Requirements
TAGS: The Saboteur, Sean Devlin, Paris, Nazis,
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