The Saboteur Review

By Jeremy Azevedo

I’m guessing that it probably had something to do with the demise of the developer about a month before launch, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of hype around the launch of The Saboteur… at least not that I’ve noticed. And it’s too bad, because this was easily one of my favorite titles of the year.

The first thing you’ll notice about The Saboteur is that it looks amazing. This is some of the best art design of any title this year. Taking place in Nazi occupied France during WWII, the local Parisians live under a n oppressive grey cloud that drains the color out of everything, save for a few bright red Nazi armbands, blue resistance scarves and yellow lamplights. Take back a neighborhood, and the color comes back along with the people’s will to fight. It’s all very cinematic, and the sound design follows suit quite nicely. You will not hear better voice work in any other game this holiday season, especially considering the numerous foreign accents on display here.

Visuals aside, The Saboteur may seem like a WWII-era GTAIV clone at first glance, with it’s open world environments, armed combat and driving Gameplay. Really though, it does virtually everything better. The sneaking ability isn’t the bullshit mechanic that stealth Gameplay usually is in videogames. It’s actually very useful (not to mention fun) stalking Nazis so you can take their uniform and walk right in through the front door. When it comes time to start shooting, the light cover mechanics and shooter Gameplay works like a charm. Even the driving is very intuitive, except for when you’re driving a tank. The tanks suck big time. Best of all, there were no cell phones during WWII so you don’t have all your douchebag “friends” constantly bothering you to go on boring and time-wasting play-dates. The only one good thing that GTAIV had that The Saboteur doesn’t were the cabs. There are times when you just can’t believe how long it takes to get from point A to point B. Some kind of fast-travel option would have been a grand addition.

The best part of The Saboteur, though, is the actual sabotage (naturally). Dynamite is cool, but once you get the triggered RDX, it’s a whole new ballgame. Even if it could possibly jeapordize my entire mission, I often can’t resist the urge to blow a Nazi watchtower, anti-aircraft gun or radar station ass-over-teakettle. And just wait until you get to start blowing up trains and zeppelins! If you like explosions, this game is like a pyromaniac’s dream. 

When you aren’t sneaking up on Nazis, racing cars or blowing shit up, you’ll no doubt find yourself doing quite a bit of climbing. It would have been cool if the climbing was a little bit more like Assassin’s Creed, but I suppose that wouldn’t be terribly realistic. The climbing here can be a little time-consuming, but it’s well worth it when you can creep undetected into the heart of an enemy base and blow it to hell from the inside.

Even those of you that swore up and down that you’d never play another WWII game will enjoy the hell out of The Saboteur. It’s a very unexpected entry into the genre that wins a lot of points for originality... It’s sort of like playing a videogame version of Inglorious Basterds. Plus, there are titties in it. Id you like Ingolrious basterds, explosions and/or titties, then The Saboteur is definitely worth a try. I hope that the talented people of Pandemic go on to do more great games like this.

CraveOnline Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Unicorns Fighting a Robot Dolphin

+1 if you’ve been on the hunt for a really great “mad bomber” type game since “Mighty Bomb Jack” back in ’87.
-1 if you are a prude that is offended by the naked-y burlesque shows at the Belle de Nuit.