The Saboteur is the final release from now-defunct Electronic Arts-owned Pandemic Studios. The Los Angeles-based developer that gave birth to such franchises as Star Wars: Battlefront, Destroy All Humans , and Full Spectrum Warrior was perhaps the most notable casualty in EA's latest round of job cuts this past November. The company's mothballing is now all the more regrettable given this posthumous release, which suggests the studio's staff still included some very gifted game makers.
Set in and around Nazi-occupied Paris circa 1940, The Saboteur ( Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC, ESRP: Mature ) is an open-world adventure best described as fabulously atmospheric game noir. Our hero is a stereotypically foul-mouthed, whisky-drinking, chain-smoking Irish rogue named Sean Devlin who, when not hunting down the brutal German officer that killed his best friend, spends most of his time looking for and blowing up Nazi military targets. He's an instantly likeable fellow.
He's also a campy caricature. This is true of most of the game's characters - including a busty blonde English spy, a sadistic, leather-clad Gestapo security officer, and the blunt and righteous Parisian who recruits Devlin into the French resistance - which gives us the all-clear not to take anything we see too seriously. The territory we trod here is definitely more Indiana Jones than Schindler's List - this despite a clever visual effect that will for many call to mind Mr. Spielberg's classic World War II drama.
At the beginning of the game, France is free and full of vibrant hues. But once the German invasion occurs the lush, colourful landscape turns grey, the sky grows dark with clouds, and everything else turns black and white - save a few dramatically coloured elements, including yellow flames, red Nazi insignias, and the blue, cross-shaped markers of the French resistance.
Then, as the story progresses and we begin to liberate Paris, colour is slowly restored to each of the city's districts. The overcast sky clears up, and the pedestrians we pass begin to seem more lively. It's a clever means of showing players the effects of their rebellious activities without resorting to some sort of statistic in a menu.
The Saboteur screenshots Scroll through a selection of screenshot's from Pandemic Studios' final game, The Saboteur
The game's unique ambience extends beyond the graphical. The soundtrack, heard in the strip club Devlin calls home and over the radio while driving, is filled with slow, dark jazz, cabaret numbers, and Edith Piaf-esque ditties. It's period perfect, and a fitting match for the Second World War-era France we explore.
Indeed, there's little I'd change about The Saboteur's audio and visual presentation. It's instantly immersive and uniquely captivating. The people in Pandemic's art department will have little trouble landing new jobs with this game on their resumes.
However, if I had my druthers, I would change a fair bit about how the game plays.
No one element of what we do is so deeply flawed as to make the experience a bust, but there are several issues that, had they been rectified, could have made this one of this year's very best games.
Starting with driving. Like many open world games, players can hop into any car they run across. Sadly, all of the cars in The Saboteur handle like tanks. Some of it can be chalked up to antique automotive technology - clearly, a 1930s jalopy shouldn't handle like a modern day BMW - but when authenticity begins interfering with fun it's time for developers to begin taking some creative license.
As luck would have it, though, I didn't actually spend much time in cars. That's because there are so many targets for Devlin to demolish - often one or more per city block - that there are times when it makes little sense to drive from one destination to the next.
Still, even without a car, approaching some of these targets can be frustrating due to some less-than-ideal game mechanics.
Devlin spends a lot of his time climbing walls and leaping from one rooftop to the next - a bit like our heroes in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games. Problem is, it's not nearly as fun. It's slow and clunky and often aggravating (why will Devlin leap up and back to grab some balconies but not others?).
Other times we have to use stealth, which has its own set of problems. Players can disguise themselves in German uniforms and then slowly walk around Nazi-controlled areas undetected. But it's far too easy to slip up - by, say, walking too close to a particularly observant enemy or misjudging whether you're far enough away from others to begin your fishy business - and begin setting off alarms.
Watch The Saboteur launch trailer It's not one of the year's best, but those who give it a chance will likely find The Saboteur a very compelling play
Once the bells start to ring you can either turn tail and run, which often results in long minutes of tedium as you try to avoid being seen while escaping a red hot zone shown on the game's map, or simply blast your way through countless guards until you reach your target. The latter is less believable, but far more efficient - and fun, as it turns out.
Even with these problems, demolishing targets is - if you'll excuse the pun - a blast. There are literally hundreds of anti-aircraft guns, propaganda speaker systems, snipers nests, fuel depots, armoured vehicles, and generals that need to be destroyed, and regardless of whether we use dynamite (Devlin's demolition agent of choice), artillery guns, or some other means of making big booms, the results are always thrilling and satisfying.
I became so enthralled with demolishing stuff that at one point I spent two hours away from story missions simply clearing the town of Le Havre of all German presence. I casually walked up to and set bombs at the base of lookout towers, stormed through a massive zeppelin port by the sea, and blew up a giant rocket in the middle of a train depot, which set off a gratifying chain reaction that took out nearly a dozen nearby targets.
And that's just one of several districts, each of which is crammed full of stuff just waiting to be exploded.
What's more, I really enjoyed the perks and abilities that slowly unlock as the game progresses, which range from the ability to carry more explosives and improve blast radius to being able to call in resistance fighters when you get in a jam. Each one acted as a hook to keep me playing. This, in tandem with the terrific art design and addictive demolition objectives, ensured that the clunky driving, climbing, and stealth mechanics never completely turned me off.
It's not one of the year's best, but those who give it a chance will likely find The Saboteur a very compelling play.
It is, at the very least, impressive enough to make one lament Pandemic's passing. This was clearly a studio home to some talented gamesmiths - the people essential to making good games that sell. That Electronic Arts would simply cut these developers loose is deeply concerning.