The Saboteur is the last game made by the studio Pandemic. It was liquefied very shortly after the launch of the game. Honestly speaking, I had very little knowledge of the game before ever getting around to playing it. I do recall watching an ad or two and seeing that you played an Irishman during World War II and fought Nazis. That’s about all I knew of the game. Sounded interesting enough for me to sit down and give it a go.
The game starts off with your usual training levels and dishes out some back story so you know why you end up in Paris fighting against the Nazis. Sean is the main character and you learn a little ways into the game he has a bit of a sordid past. After the opening level, the training wheels are kicked off and you join the French resistance movement. That is where the real fun begins, and by that I mean running around Paris blowing up Nazi stuff. Of course you can steal their cars too if you want, but until you get the garage unlocked that is a moot point.
Some of the game just felt…wrong. It felt unpolished and occasionally you would hear dialogue that just seemed out of place. Then again, writing dynamic dialogue for games is nothing short of an art form that few games ever really get correct. Other than that, my only beef was with the driving. I know I am driving a 1940’s car, but the handling of those things was atrocious sometimes. I often found myself making good use of the perk that lets you call in a resistance member to deliver your car to you. Always called in a race car since they seemed the easiest to drive. That or the Gestapo cruiser, not much beats hood mounted machine guns.
Blowing stuff up. That and the unique way of displaying whether the Nazis or the resistance controlled an area of Paris. Nazi control always equals a washed out environment in terms of color. A few things retain color meant to draw the eye and the like. The resistance owned areas are vibrant and rich with color to show that the people support the resistance and are rallying against Nazi occupation. It was an interesting concept to use in a game, and worked well with the overall story.
The game is fun, open ended, and you get to blow things up while liberating Paris from the Nazis. I’d have to recommend this as a rent to anyone wanting to try it out and maybe go buy it used if you want to own it. On the other hand, there is a download token for a special code that unlocks the Midnight Show. This little tidbit removes the bras and the pasties on the dancers in the gentlemen’s club that you end up in after the initial level. Basically boils down to this. Don’t care about owning a game you can see boobs rendered in all their pixel glory, rent or buy used. Anyone in the other category, go pick it up new since the usual DLC code rules apply.
The Saboteur was a fun game, good story, and had that interesting way of displaying occupation of Nazis versus resistance. I won’t knock it for anything, but it does few things original overall. The game does offer up plenty of Nazis to mow down and things to blow up. In fact a majority of the missions will have you employ your arsenal of explosives in order to finish it. Combine that with the perk system that lets you upgrade Sean’s abilities and various weapons/explosives and he will end up a one man reign of terror for the occupiers.
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
AMMIH Rating: 3/5
SMS (Sicky’s Motion Sickness) Rating: 2/5
