The Saboteur

The Saboteur was developed by Pandemic, the makers of the Mercenaries and the Star Wars Battlefront series. The Saboteur is their last game, since they have been dismantled. Unfortunately, the game does not live up to their previous reputation.

You are cast as Irish man Sean Devlin. A former mechanic-turned race car driver turned resistance fighter.  The game is set in Nazi-occupied Paris. It can be easy to get roped in to the story. As Devlin, you will travel around Paris meeting interesting people that will help develop the story.  There are some disappointing parts near the end of the story but over all it is pretty satisfying.

The cut scenes look great. I think they are some of the best i have seen in a sandbox game. The rest of the game is just okay. the black and white areas are a nice change of pace from what you might see in other games. It really does a nice job of setting the mood. All Nazi occupied parts of Paris are in black and white then,  when you free it from the Nazis, it turns to color. The color areas look plain and a little unimaginative. There is a fair amount of rain during the game and I did have one time when I was inside and it was still raining, INSIDE - not really believable.  Another note on the graphics, the fire and explosives just looked a little silly.

The voice acting was great and makes it easy to pay attention to the story. The cut scenes don't just look good but they sound good to. the game has some funny lines that will bring a smile to your face. the soundtrack is sexy but a bit too repetitive.  I heard the same songs over and over. That may be something you would expect in a sandbox game, but not this much.

There is a variety of game play types, as you would expect from a sandbox game. Unfortunately none of them really stand out.You have boxing, driving, climbing and third person shooting. The boxing is only used at the beginning when you have no weapons. driving is a major part of the game. you will race and drive all around Paris. It feels like any sandbox game would which is disappointing since you are a race car driver. I never lost or even came close to losing a race, that's how easy it is.  Shooting a zeppelin out of the sky and planting bombs on Nazi structures its quite satisfying.  The climbing feels stiff, awkward a bit like something I've done before - only not as good this time. You can tell that they tried to make it like Assassin's Creed, but it comes up short, way short. I found it easier and more fun  to run into fire fights rather than sneak around on the roof tops. There is a cover system, but it almost never works and there it no need to use it since Sean can be hit a ungodly amount of times before going down, a bit too much of the Irish whiskey has mad him a tough guy I guess. I was hit by a tank and only lost half of my health.

The Saboteur has the potential to be played again. I finished it in 14:35 completing 88%. There are plenty of side missions that help you free Paris, it also has some easy achievements and trophies, although, I got bored with the side missions pretty quickly.

If your dying to play a sandbox game, then this could be the game for you! If not, then i would have to say- pass. It seems like it could be a good game, it tries really hard, but it never really is.

I give it a 7.2 out of 10