The Saboteur

You know, the games industry would explode and undo creation if a World War 2 game wasn't released every couple of months so. Luckily for us, Pandemic Studios have served up a few rocks of that Nazi killing gaming crack that we need to keep us going. Of course, this is the same Pandemic who completely ruined their Mercenaries franchise by following up the brilliantly freeform original with a game so buggy and glitched that you knew they wouldn't be around for long. Unluckily for them, this became true with EA doing their 'buy a dev studio, destroy a dev studio' trick. They were given enough time to finish Saboteur though, even if the marketing budget behind the game wouldn't keep Louis Walsh in rentboys past next weekend.

Sticking to what they know, Pandemic have offered up yet another sandbox title here. You play the part of the imaginitively-named Irishman Sean Devlin. He's a hard-drinking, chain-smoking racing driver who does a nifty sideline in parkour, markmanship and demolitions. He also hates them gawd damn Sploicers. After rather unwisely destroying a car belonging to the nazi secret agent Kurt Dierker he finds himself getting the German version of the Guantanamo Bay treatment whilst his best mate Jules is tortured and shot for his part in the prank. A quick escape later and he's ready to kick the scheisser out of any teutonic prick in the city. As luck would have it, the city is Paris which is a good thing for two reasons: it's beautiful and you can randomly kill French passers-by if the fancy takes you.


The graphic engine is solid rather than remarkable but to compensate for this, the game uses colour in a stark and beautiful way. Areas under heavy occupation are black and white but lights (from windows or cars) are flashes of yellow while Nazi structures stand out thanks to the use of red. It's a kind of Sin City effect but it looks great. Escape these areas and you'll get the contrast of a bright and breezy countryside. Add to that the welcome - but quite silly if you think about it - car radio soundtrack, which is mainly 1930s jazz, and it's a nice environment for killing Germans in.

After a few getting-to-know-you-and-your-story missions, you are dropped in the middle of Paris with the contact details of some black-marketeers and a few mission markers. The main mission takes you through a series of thefts, assassinations and demolitions as you do your bit to make Dierker and his sausage-eating cohorts pay in every way possible and whilst it's nothing you haven't seen before in countless games, the journey you take is an entertaining one. The gun combat is satisfying, the driving mechanics are yet another nail in GTA4's coffin and the set-pieces are suitably tense and epic.

To give the game an edge over the competition, Pandemic have given Sean the ability to climb and free-run. He's not quite Altair - a 20-a-day habit does that to you - but he's far nimbler than your usual game hero and he can pretty much climb anything in Paris. It's an obvious nod to Assassin's Creed (there's even a sportscar in the game called the 'Altair') but it's not a hollow addition at all. The ability to climb gives you immense freedom in the way you complete your objectives. Say, for example, that you need to steal a car that is guarded by Nazis. You can go in all guns blazing. You can drive at the guards, rig some dynamite in your car and then dive out. You can blow up a nearby target to distract the guards. My favourite plan was to simply climb up behind them and drop grenades on their location. When you add rocket-launchers, sniper rifles and disguises to the mix it gives you plenty of freedom.


Aside from your story missions there are also hundreds of other 'freeplay' objectives dotted around the map. These range from sniper towers, giant flashlights, propoghanda speakers, contraband crates, fuel trucks and more. These are to be destroyed whenever you encounter them which will earn you money for more weapons and ammo. You'll need to find all of them if you're looking for 1000GS though and, trust me, after the first 100 or so it begins to feel like a massive chore. If you can limit your play sessions then you'll be okay but if you're like me - a big, stupid, whorey wronghead who rushes to max games as quick as possible - then you'll probably start getting pissed off after a day or so. Credit to Pandemic though for marking all of it out on the in-game map. At least you won't be scratching around Google for a map. Doesn't stop me wondering why they put in so many of them though, and whether or not Pandemic's mothers bottle-fed them petrol when they were children.

Completing in-game task will unlock perks for Sean as well. These range from improving your sniper skills by getting five headshots, to new stealth kills, car-stealing abilities, improved explosives and a host of other upgrades. A quick tip: you get to buy two perks - save these for the silver and gold 'mechanics' perks. It'll save you from the chore of collecting all the in-game vehicles. The system works reasonably well though and it's nice to turn Sean into even more of a Nazi-destroying badass.

All in all it's a pleasant mix of the first Godfather game, Assassin's Creed, Mercenaries and Freedom Fighters and, more importantly, it works. Sure the in-the-case DLC code (for unlocking adult content - such as nudity *tsk*), Irish stereotyping (one of the first achievements is called 'a pint and a shag'), repetitive side-missions, cliched plot and slightly clunky controls stop this from being a grade A classic but given the meh-fest of 2009, it's nice to have a game that is happy to put you in a living, breathing city without putting 50 Cent on the soundtrack. Don't expect it to blow you away but if you want a unpretentious sandboxer to while away the hours with, you could do a hell of a lot worse.

I give it a very respectable sieben out of zehn.

Great review, nice to have you onboard mate.

Great review. Welcome aboard the review team

Great review, wouldn't mond trying this game. might wait a few weeks.

thanks, chaps.

the more I play this, the better it gets.

it's a lengthy and choreish max but the main missions are brilliant. this may well be my game of 2009.

Decent game this......don't think I'll bother maxing it, but the story is great so far.....

Nice review mate

Am really enjoying this title at the moment

Its definately a value for money experience as I am 17 hours in and nowhere near done

Its titles like this and others I have recently maxxed, that make gaming the great pastime that it is.

If you dont own this game then you are certainly missing out on a class title.

agree with everton had people msg me on my friend list sayin what u doing playing that crap.
where i would rank it up there with any other top notch free roam title and allways fun killin nazis

yep

its tough in places

long and varied

good coherent storyline

graphic and controls are in the main great

sound is fine

achs are well thought out and not just the standard shite

and i love being able to climb to top of buildings spiderman crackdown stylee


if it had a silenced sniper rifle i would probably site on top of the arc triomphe popping heads all day lol

and being able to blow up zeppelins with a rifle from the ground is class


In last 5 months I have played and maxxed Borderlands Dark Void and Darksiders all of which have been briiliant games that gave great play value for money...this goes right up along side those titles.

finally maxxed this at the Weekend

The 1000 odd freeplay events were a long old haul, but enjoyable. Finding ways to scale tall buildings etc was a hoot.

Whether you buy this for the storyline ach only or decide to put in the full shift, its a real pleasure

recently got this and will be getting into it soon looks good. looking at reviews and stuff it has quite a high perecntage on them all

Just finished this game.Very good review,you hit the nail on the head,i did 20-30 ambient targets inbetween each mission and only ended up with 50 to finish when the game finished.