Sean gazes out over Paris.
The Saboteur is the latest sandbox action title from Pandemic Studios, which takes the player into Nazi-occupied Paris through the game’s protagonist, Sean Devlin. While the inclusion of the word “Nazi” makes this sound like just another WWII game, I promise it isn’t—the war merely serves as a backdrop, and sometimes an excuse, for Mr. Devlin to unleash hell in his quest for vengeance.
Immediately after firing up the game, the one thing we noticed was how “heavy” everything felt. From the way Sean moves, to the way the vehicles drive, to the way the kills happen during combat, everything carries a weight that makes The Saboteur feel very visceral and real. This design dovetails nicely with both the story and the characters, with the latter of the two very nearly feeling appropriate for Frank Miller’s Sin City.
Sean finds himself surrounded by some Nazis who seem interested in a gentlemen's round of fisticuffs.
The controls of the PC version of the game are similar to what you find in other sandbox action titles: WASD moves your character, and the buttons immediately surrounding WASD allow the player to perform other actions with Sean. Console controls are very straightforward as well.
While the controls feel ‘heavy’—especially when climbing, driving, and fighting—this is not a bad thing. All of these tasks are accomplished with relative ease, but the considerations the player must make gives the sense that this perception was intentional on the part of the developers. That aside, the controls felt natural but could stand to be improved in some ways.
Visuals
The visual style of the game is award-winning, and it’s done through a unique game engine that allows all of Paris to exist and operate in real-time. As the player begins Sean’s vendetta against Kurt Dierker (the Nazi officer who took his best friend’s life), Paris is presented in black and white—only the sharp red of the Nazi occupants stand out amidst the soul-crushing drab of the city streets. This is a tool used often by the developers throughout this game, as important characters and locations are elevated in the player’s mind by a sharp contrast of color.
As the player completes additional missions and destroys Nazi tools of terror, a flush of color representing the hope of Paris’ people overtakes areas “freed” from Nazi occupation. While, visually, the colored version of the city might not offer the same breathtaking contrast that is seen when the Nazis are at their strongest, it creatively serves to illustrate the point: With the color comes hope and freedom for the natives of Paris.
Sean takes in his handiwork, seeing hope return with color to the streets of Paris
It’s hard to explain the amount of detail that went into making the player feel like a part of something big, and the major role the art plays in this feat. The developers and art director were adamant on maintaining a strict standard for art and built the game around it. It would be difficult to imagine this game without the striking visuals; the piercing, slashing rain when you are escaping from a factory, the puddles of water cascading down slick metal surfaces, and the smoke-filled chaos of a burning farmhouse. A fantastic level of attention to the smallest things really set the stage for Sean’s story. The women, the city lights, the civilians, the soldiers, the weapons: all of them have been thoroughly described and visualized in a very striking and memorable way.
Story
The story in The Saboteur is one that would translate very well into a graphic novel or film. The characters behave in a vivid manner, mixing drama with action throughout the title in a way that creates a calculated balance. While the reasoning Sean uses to perform certain tasks is unclear at times, everything seems to feed into his one goal: Hunting down his friend’s murderer. He sees every blow against the Nazi regime as a step that brings him closer to that end. Sean is definitely portrayed as an anti-hero, and behaves consistently as such throughout the game.
The writing is top-notch. The freedom available to game writers when the studio goes into a project knowing they’re aiming for a “Mature” rating really allows them to stretch their creative muscles. This is a well-written story; a step above traditional video game fare. It reaches into tender areas and does not shy away from the anti-hero aspect of Sean Devlin’s complicated role in the story. Is Sean a loveable hero? Not really. He’s basically an asshole. The game basically begins by highlighting one simple fact—his juvenile reaction to a slight against his manliness gets his best friend killed. He’s complicated, and that’s a perfect fit for this game.
There are, however, some slightly awkward moments, and they come with some clumsy attempts at comic relief. They are, thankfully, few and far between.
Innovations
Here we see the Perks menu. Marksman is currently highlighted
The Saboteur really creates something new for the sandbox action genre by uniquely combining concepts successfully used in other titles, but also through its visual style, mission system and—most importantly—the merit-based perk system. Perks in The Saboteur are gained through accomplishing tasks like evading alarm levels to stealing vehicles. Perks are divided into silver and gold levels, with the more potent perks unlocked by greater feats
The suspicion system and mission system are both very similar to what a player would find in the Grand Theft Auto series, and that provides a familiar, if not predictable, way to interact with the game world.
Sean does all his shopping at various arms dealers around the city after completing a mission early on in the game, and their inventory improves as the main story progresses. The vehicles are straight out of that “birth of the automobile” era, providing some interesting transportation methods for Sean to use.
Final thoughts
The Saboteur comes at an interesting time—EA announced the closure of Pandemic Studios right before launch. The controversy surrounding the studio should not overshadow the game that they created. Without question, this is Pandemic’s best game. Perhaps under a different publisher, at a different time, this game could have been as big a commercial success as Assassin’s Creed or Grand Theft Auto. As a single-player experience, the game stands up there with those hallowed titles. The story is more mature, more believable, and more authentic than any other single-player action game released in the last several years. This is a game for grownups—there are moments that are nearly tear-inducing, well-delivered lines that are laugh-out-loud worthy, and visuals that are breathtaking in the historical context of the war the story is interwoven with.
It is sad to think that perhaps this game will slip under the radar. It’s going to be listed on those “10 great games you may have missed” roundups that are sure to come. It will be mentioned along with games like Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil—games that people say “I know it didn’t do well, but you have to go back and play it, it’s really that good…”
The Saboteur provides a unique and engaging experience that sets it apart from other sandbox action titles by providing the player a unique backdrop, story and toolset to weave hope and destruction all over 1940s Paris. I, for one, was very pleased with the game at all stages of the main story and beyond. If you can’t get behind sabotaging Nazi infrastructure with explosives and guns, shame on you.
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