Irish are generally pretty lucky, hence the phrase “the luck of the Irish.” I say: “If it was not for bad luck, they would not have any luck at all!” Handball Henry knocks them out of the 2010 World Cup. Boyzone make them all seem like hair product models. And this bad luck seems to have rubbed off on Pandemic, the now closed developer of this game. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and his name is Sean Devlin. The protagonist in The Saboteur might seem like another Irishman in the wrong place at the wrong time, but is a hero in the true sense of the word, someone who goes beyond what is expected in extraordinary times. Does this mean that The Saboteur is a good game? Yes! Does it mean everyone will enjoy The Saboteur? No. But don’t stop reading just yet…

Parlez vous Francais?

Set in World War 2 Paris and some of the neighboring towns, The Saboteur sees Sean Devlin team up with the local resistance fighters to fend off the Nazi Occupation of Paris. Being a sandbox game, it gives you a wide variety of paths and missions to take. The gameplay is what you make of it. You can play the entire game as a silent killer, never giving away your position, or you can go in guns blazing leaving nobody alive. Some missions require you to keep quiet, while others will see you blowing up bridges and towers. But more about the mission types later.

As a racing driver, our hero is pulled into the resistance thanks to a series of unfortunate events. Through a few flashbacks the story is set in motion, and what starts as a mission for revenge turns into a story of liberation. Various shady characters roam the streets of Paris, many willing to give Sean a mission with some local contraband as reward. Contraband can then be spent on bigger and better weapons, cars and perks that will allow you to carry more ammo or dynamite. The story will seem very familiar at first, and that’s because it is not very original. The characters and some of the set pieces are though. Creative use of the era and the surroundings will at times take your breath away.

Bonjour les ténèbres, mon vieil ami

The Saboteur is a beautiful game. This open world adventure tries really hard to stand out from the recent crowd of open world games. In my opinion it does a great job. The first thing that strikes you is the graphical style. And boy, does it have style! Dark grey colours with striking red Nazi symbolism and blood splatters in areas of occupation, and colourful vistas and architecture in the liberated areas. But not only are the graphics pretty, they actually have a great function in the game. As areas are liberated from the Nazis, the grey colours are replaced with the rainbow colours. This makes it very easy for you to see which areas will have friends available and which will give your enemies quick backup.

On the console versions you also have immediate access to the game’s first free DLC. This contains a nudity switch for the brothels. Yes, there are brothels in the game and with this patch the cute little tassels can be removed from the breasts of the inhabitants of these brothels. This makes no difference to the gameplay at all and may as well be skipped. It also includes a few more hiding spots to escape the Nazi’s chasing you down. These are spread all over the city and this makes it more worth your while.

Paris in the game is by no means a true replica of the real Paris. I was not there during WWII, so I won’t know what it really looked like. All the major buildings are there, from the Eifel Tower to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. They might not be in their exact locations, but are instantly recognizable. The cars of the era seem mostly fictional, yet true enough to not stand out as being in the wrong time. And the music does a great job to cement you into Paris in the 40’s.

Déjà vu?

Driving around town reminded me of an old PC game called Mafia. The way the cars handle, the people move and even the way in which the city is laid out, all seems like it could be a sequel. I am not sure that’s a good thing as even though Mafia was a great game, it’s also quite old. The cars feel a little stiff to drive, and are not as responsive as games like GTA IV. It almost feels as though the cars are on rails sometimes. The cars also do not show any visible damage when driving into walls or other cars, and will eventually just explode without much warning at all. But the rest of the game is very smooth. Sean can clamber up most buildings, akin to Assassins Creed Light (trademark pending) and run along the roofs of Paris evading detection. The third person conflict resolution is also very smooth and feels much better than other attempts in recent times. From long range sniping to breaking a soldier’s neck, combat feels very intuitive and soon becomes second nature.

The game presents much more than just the normal run of the mill missions. Strewn across the map are sniper towers, propaganda machines and fuel depots that need a little bit of TLC. The more of these you destroy, the easier your missions will be. If you know you have to enter a restricted area, blow up the barracks just outside the area first as this is where the reinforcements will come from. Again, the game gives you quite a bit of freedom to accomplish your goals. The types of missions are also of varying degrees of fun: drive around dropping off packages, blow up bridges, run around on the roof of a train, and assassinate a Nazi bigshot on board a zeppelin, all in a day’s work.

For example, let’s say you need to rescue a defecting scientist from within a Nazi building’s courtyard. You can decide to go in guns blazing, taking out the snipers and flamethrowers from the ground as you charge the front doors. Or, you can blow up the nearby fuel depot which will attract the attention of some of the guards. Kill a lone sentry, take his uniform, and stroll past the last few guards to rescue your scientist. Alternatively you can scale the building next door and make your way across the roofs and telephone cables to the courtyard, picking off the few guards and escaping the same way you came. All very exciting stuff!

Non sans problèmes!

But the game is clearly not without fault. At times the game feels a bit lost and has no direction. Some missions are just plain boring and these gap fillers should have been avoided in exchange for a more focused game. There are also a few times when my hiding spots were discovered with no possible way the AI could have known where I was. Cheating AI is just a cheap way to make a game harder. But these occurrences were few and far between. What was most annoying is the AI’s range and accuracy when it comes to shooting. Often, when an alarm has been triggered, they will start shooting at you from all over, sometimes even while looking the other way, taunting you with the Uber Race’s total awesomeness.

Pandemic may have been cut down in its prime, but The Saboteur is a worthy swansong for the developer. With classic set pieces and game mechanics from the top shelf, this game deserves more publicity and more sales. However, with little to really set it apart from the crowd it will most probably go unnoticed. And that’s a shame. It deserves a second look. Just like the Irish deserves a second look at Handball Henry!

The good: Great set pieces and beautiful representation of the era
The bad: Cheating AI is cheap AI!
The ugly: Most people will write off this game without giving it a chance

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