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magnet linkThe Saboteur - Game Review (PC)
Vive la France! Vive la résistance!
Those are the words that defined the French Resistance (also known as Maquis in rural French territories) and kept the free spirit alive in France during the WWII. Starting from this premise, Pandemic Studios created an open-sandbox action game starring Sean Devlin, an Irish mechanic and racer, popular among the racing groups in Paris. Inspired by William Grover-Williams who was a Grand Prix racer but also a special agent during the WWII, Sean is nothing else but a caricatured figure. I'm not sure if this was intended by the developers or is just the result of a poor script which had to be completed in a short period of time, but Sean is not an imposing character. He is more like an alcoholic spending his time at the Belle De Nuit night-club in Paris. Feeling responsible for the death of Jules (his best friend) who was murdered by Kurt Dierker (a Nazi agent), Sean takes refugee with Rosseau family (Vittore and Veronique - Jules sister) in Paris. Thinking that he will spend his last days drowned in alcohol and beautiful women at the family's own cabaret, Sean meets Luc Gaudin (French Resistance member) who will use Sean's anger as an ultimate weapon against the Nazi forces in Paris.
Taking different missions, from Resistance and family members and even from secret British agents like Skylar, Sean will become an indispensable character in the course of events. But is a single person able to turn the tables in his favor against the Nazi's? In order to find out you have to play the game. While the story is repetitive and sometimes too intuitive, the gameplay is explosive and very rewarding.
If you have ever played one of those Grand Theft Auto games, you know how this game works. You have an entire city at your disposal to explore, plus some extra rural regions where you can take a walk if you are in 'vacation'. This means that while most of the action will take place in Paris, you can also take some secondary missions in the nearby rural locations which look extremely authentic. Cottages, green hills, woods, cows and military outposts animate the Paris countryside regions. Pay attention to the cows while you are driving, as you don't want to hit them. In a mysterious way, hitting a cow is almost similar with an explosion taken by your vehicle. So instead of beef, choose pork!
The problem here is the map, which cannot be accessed automatically by hitting a single button but by pausing the game and enter in the options menu. After a while this operation will become frustrating, as the map is a useful tool in this type of games and needs to be analyzed over and over again.
Most of the secondary missions are similar to the primary ones giving you the chance to eliminate a target, destroy a strategic point, or escort an important person or object. So you should not lose too much time completing the secondary missions unless you don't have enough money to buy your desired vehicle or weapon.
If you think that the main and secondary missions are not enough for you to play, you can begin by taking down the Freeplay targets. These targets provide you with additional contraband materials and money which will help you in buying new weapons and vehicles. But the rewarding method is not very satisfactory, because most of the vehicles and weapons can be collected from the enemy. You can carry up to two weapons (a primary and a secondary weapon), but also grenades and explosives as additional package. The vehicles are similar to those of '39 - '45 period, but are not so detailed recreated as compared to the ones present in Mafia.
The Saboteur comes with an interesting design concept based on background colors influenced by the "Will to Fight" factor. All the regions occupied by German forces are submerged into darkness being represented by shades of grey (except the Nazi flag and the swastika which feature their normal colors: red, white and black). When the Germans lose their control of a specific region due to your actions, that location becomes vivid, represented by strong colors. The "Will to Fight" factor also influences the gameplay. In areas where the factor is low, German troops are patrolling the area in huge numbers, while in areas where the factor is high, the German troops are concentrated around the military areas: outposts, bases, barracks, HQ's, strategically important areas. Here the French Resistance will intervene at some point against the Nazi troops creating ambush zones (see the video) also known as Fight Back zones. In these zones the French troops will defend an indicated area against the German troops. They will not win the fight until a given number of kills are achieved.
But what would Sean do without his powers? Almost nothing! That's why he can climb on almost any building in order to obtain a strategic point of view before starting an attack (overall the climbing process is slow and boring; the only thing you have to do is to push repeatedly the jump button until you reach the roof of any building). While climbing buildings, you will discover a second dimension of the city, where Sean will find protection against the enemy and good position from where he can easily take down important targets. Besides climbing, the character can be upgraded through "Perks" system. You can improve his shooting accuracy, evading maneuvers, stealth killing movements, etc. Al these perks can be achieved through fighting actions by killing a given number of enemy soldiers, sniping a given number of targets, destroying a given number of strategic Nazi positions, etc.
As shown by the promotional trailers, the game should feature an impressive stealth combat system, which in reality is not as consistent as it was promised. For example you can disguise in any fallen German soldier, in order to enter in high guarded buildings or locations, but there is no way you can pass unnoticed. That's because in this stance you will carry an aura which can be detected by any NPC enemy if he is close enough and enters in its region (similar to Commandos detection system). Besides this, the aura can increase or decrease depending on your movement speed. In the end everything comes to hand-to-hand combat and firing power.
Conclusion The Saboteur does not bring any innovations to the open-world action genre, but it's simple and rewarding gameplay makes it very accessible and fun to play. The "Will to Fight "factor gives the player the ability to actually see his sphere of influence towards the enemy's forces in the most original way ever used. The story is not brilliant and the characters tend to fade after a while, but who cares when Sean can destroy almost anything and take down opponents from behind. Gameplay: 80 Simple, fast, bloody, rewarding. These four attributes are enough to make The Saboteur become a popular game, worth buying. I don't deny the fact that the stealth moments are inefficient (although breaking someone's neck from behind looks cool), and that in the end everything will be settled with gunfire, but the action moments are explosive. Sean is a killing machine because he recovers unbelievably fast without any auxiliary health packs, and handles the climbing technique much better than Spiderman. Taking in consideration also the 'Perks' system, which improves any shooting or fighting ability, the game gives the player a sense of invincibility encouraging him to take risky decisions that will end up in piles of dead bodies. Graphics: 81 Not necessarily the best on the market featuring some questionable textures and vehicles design. But the mixture between the grey shades Nazi zones (similar to Frank Miller's comics style) and the colorful countryside creates an original approach never to be seen in any game. Being an open-world action game,The Saboteur takes place in a realistic environment based on WWII Paris and its countryside and even on German territories like Saarbrucken. For the pleasure of the player the developers included all the important sightseeing places from Paris such as Champs Elysees, Place de la Bastille, and even the Eiffel Tower. Multiplayer: N/A Sound: 79 You'll get all the necessary environmental sounds, but nothing to really impress. I have expected a diverse soundtrack from the interbellum period with much more Parisienne chansons and cabaret interludes. You'll get some but not enough, therefore after a while the soundtrack gets repetitive. Hardware: 80
