The Saboteur - Playstation 3
Ultimately, Pandemics swansong, The Saboteur is all a bit hit and miss. Which is a shame, because under the surface of it all, there is a good game screaming to be let out.
While the idea of a World War II sandbox style game is a mouth watering prospect, there are elements of it that are about as much fun as meeting a Nazi sympathiser. But more on these flaws later.
The game starts off in a burlesque nightclub in Paris, packed with strippers and Nazi soldiers. As the camera pans past the boobs and booze, it focuses on the protagonist Sean Devlin. Holding a torn photograph, the man is clearly upset.
After an introduction mission in which Sean is coerced in to blowing up a Nazi fuel depot, the game shifts itself back in time a bit, just before the Nazi’s invade France and provides us with a bit of back story (this gives us insight as to why Sean hates the Nazi’s, because you do need a reason don’t you).
Sean and his friend Jules, are in the city of Saarbrúcken and Sean is taking part in a car race.
During the said race, a German called Kurt Dierker shoots Sean’s car tyres when it becomes apparent that Sean will win. In retaliation, Sean and Jules steal Kurt’s car when he isn’t looking and drive it off a cliff. Unfortunately for them however, Kurt is a prominent Nazi and even more unfortunate for Jules, Kurt decides to kill him.
Sean escapes, rescues Jules family just as the Nazi’s are crossing the border and they relocate to the Belle De Nuit.
Pretty soon after that, Sean is living with a bunch of burlesque dancers and is recruited by the French Resistance, finding himself doing a variety of jobs all over the city and blowing more things up.
Being a sandbox style game, its all a bit like Grand Theft Auto, but set in a Nazi occupied Paris. There’s a main campaign to follow and through out the city, there are a variety of side missions to take part in.
The missions themselves vary from full on gun fights, to quests with a more espionage nature.
For the most part, it’s a case of driving over there, shoot that person, run away, go over there and blow that up. During the process of these missions, Sean slowly liberates parts Paris and public morale is gradually restored. If Sean gets in a fight with a Nazi, in an area with high morale, Seans allies (such as the French Resistance) will get involved and help him out.
Through out the game, there is the option to upgrade Sean’s skills such as his accuracy, ammo count and damage. These are gained through a variety of actions, such as evading high level security, sniping targets and demolishing Nazi areas.
Presented in the 3rd person, the developers have done a good job with the design of the environments and have captured the feel of the period very amicably.
This is helped in part by the fact that the areas that are controlled by the Nazis, are presented in black and white – it’s all a bit ‘Sin City’, with a high contrast between the lighter shades and the darker ones.
With this saturated filter only a few colours are left untouched, with examples including the red spray of blood, street lights, red Nazi signs and the burning end of Sean’s cigarettes. This is a neat little design touch and it’s during these moments that the game looks best.
When Sean liberates an area, the colour is returned to the environment and as a result, it looks a lot less exciting and unfortunately, highlights the rather drab animation.
Sean can climb pretty much any building and doing so will raise the suspicions of any nearby Nazi soldiers. This is a pretty neat mechanic that keeps the player on their toes and aware of their surroundings. The same thing happens when you run – although, I wouldn’t personally count running as a suspicious activity, for all they know Sean could be going for a jog or something. Anyway, I digress.
The aiming during the shoot outs is pretty loose at times and it seems to take Sean a lifetime to equip or reload his gun. The handling during the driving moments is pretty stiff as well, making the races and escape sequences much more of a chore than they should be.
The game also suffers from some questionable animation and character rendering. These are highlighted during a number of cut scenes and when Sean is climbing up buildings. The animation just doesn’t have the grace and elegance of other titles out there.
Audibly, the game is quite impressive. The vehicles have that 1930s engine sound that you would expect to hear and as you drive through the city, you can hear music suitable from that period.
The sound of the weapons also hit the mark, particularly those that involving an explosion.
The voice acting is rather dire and features some of the worst accents ever attempted since Harrison Ford pretended to be Russian. It lacks a certain flow and doesn’t do the story justice.
The script could also do with a tidy up – call me a prude, but there is far too much swearing in this game – so much that it doesn’t sound as natural as it should. It’s needless and doesn’t help advance the story. It’s almost as if the game is so busy trying to appeal to the adult gamer, that it in the process it comes off as immature.
Speaking of which, there is the option to download “The Midnight Show” for free. This extra content offers further places for Sean to hide, oh and the option to see all the burlesque dancers with the tops off – something that baffles me completely, as they weren’t wearing much in the first place.
On paper, The Saboteur is a great idea, the plot is engaging and the missions are for the most part quite exciting, however it is let down by a number of flaws that make it fall short of the mark.
It could have been brilliant and whilst there is a certain amount of enjoyment to be had with the game, I can’t help but feel it could have been better.
Verdict: 7 out of 10
The Good
Nice black and white effect in Nazi areas
Variety of missions
The Bad
Weak animation
Questionable voice acting
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