Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Saboteur

An Irishman running around blowing up buildings and killing Nazis? What else do you need in a game?


Story

The story begins with the main character, Sean, a champion race car driver, in Paris recounting a series of events that has lead him to this little pub, being hunted by one of the countries most powerful Nazi commanders. While having a drink, a mysterious man approaches Sean, offering his help to rid Paris of the Nazis once and for all, but the dangers involved could risk the lives of everyone Sean holds dear.


Graphics

The games graphics are grainy, on purpose, to give the feeling of dread and doom (which is understandable, it IS Nazi infested Paris). While in Nazi territory, the environment loses all color, becoming black and white, the citizens are downtrodden and fearful.
As Sean takes down key points held by the Nazis, color slowly returns to the area, allowing him more freedom to explore and climb various buildings without being attacked by Nazis.



Controls

Controls are easy and simple to learn. Driving, which is notorious in games for being poorly made, is also simplified so that anyone can master it in a few minutes. Certain areas of buildings (rails, doors, windows, alcoves, etc) are highlighted by a small shimmer that allows the player to climb them to access the rooftops of buildings (ala Assassins Creed), however if caught by Nazis, they will open fire, knocking Sean down.

Sean can equip a numerous number of guns, ranging from pistols, shotguns and even rocket/grenade launchers (these will give your position away faster, but are a lot of fun). Gunplay uses a more over the shoulder style (similar to The Mercenaries), but you can also stealth kill if you wish to be more elusive.


Voice/Music/Sound

Voice work is done well, Sean (who again, is Irish sounds like an Irishman), citizens have a French accent and the Nazis sound German. What stands out is the music, which changes depending on the situation (in dangerous territory, it's somewhat depressing), when in friendly territory, is more friendly. If Sean does something suspicious/illegal, Nazis soldiers will come after him and the music takes a more dangerous turn.


Other

There are many, many, MANY objects to destroy (in fact, if you're an achievement whore, this may be a painful grind, as there are easily 600 things to destroy), luckily, the map shows the location of where these things are (although not always ground level). 

There is a plethora of hidden areas for Sean to discover, and more vehicles then one can count (which, if you bring them to one of the many garages you eventually unlock, you'll be able to drive them at any point in the game, and this is also an achievement).


Overall

This is a fun game if you like open-ended games and/or collectibles, and blowing shit up. However is can get very tedious for achievement hunters.

8.5/10.0

Pros:

- Destructible environments
- A very large play area
- Very fun exploratory game

Cons

- Can get repetitive
- Numerous amounts of weapons, cars and destructible objects for achievement hunters
- Straightforward game

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