The Saboteur (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Mark Salmela on 01.13.2010
Even in World War 2, exploding barrels were everywhere!
Title: The Saboteur
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Genre: Third Person Action Adventure
Players: 1
Rated: M for Mature
It’s unfortunate that Pandemic Studios was shut down. They developed some of the best games of the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era. While it’s true that they have had some problems with this current generation, mostly stemming from their problems with Mercenaries 2, Pandemic looks to go out with a bang with the Saboteur. The Saboteur is an open world action adventure game in the third person just like Mercenaries 2, but the Saboteur is a lot more artistic then its counterpart. But does it hold up in the end? Let’s find out.
Graphics
Hey, where’d all the jews go?
The Saboteur takes a much more artistic approach to gameplay than some of Pandemic’s previous titles. As you may or may not have noticed the majority of the game is played in black and white. Well, it’s black and white for the most part. It’s not due to technical limitations either, Pandemic made the world black and white for a reason. First off it’s artistic, and makes it stand out from the crowded pool of open world action games. Second off it lets you know whether or not the section of the world that you’re in is under Nazi control. If the world is black and white, the Nazi’s have a stranglehold on the world. But if there’s color, then the resistance has been inspired by the main protagonist Sean Devlin to take back that particular section of town.
When the world is in black and white the Saboteur looks great. There are certain things such as blood and Nazi flags that will be in color no matter if the world is in color or black and white, and quite frankly I like it. It makes something such as blood, which has become miniscule and quite frankly means nothing in video games now days, and makes it important again. Well it makes it important until you realize the screen gets bathed in blood every time you jump more than three feet off the ground. The other major problem I have with the graphics is that when the world is in color it looks rather bland. You start to notice just how uninspired the world really is and just how muddy some of the world’s textures actually are.
Gameplay
Suck it aviation!
The Saboteur is a third person action adventure game, just like Mercenaries 1 or 2 and GTA4. The world is open for you to explore, and you have a mini-map telling you where you need to go to find/complete missions. The story is that you play as Irishman Sean Devlin in Nazi occupied Paris as you attempt to free the city from Nazi control. The story starts off small but quickly escalates after the death of a close friend of Sean.
The Saboteur mixes a variety of gameplay elements, including racing, shooting, brawling, and exploring. Sean Devlin is a car mechanic in the story, but he is also a mean fighter who can kill people in one or two punches. You have to hold a button to go into brawling stance, which is a little awkward at first, but what really holds down the brawling sequence is the targeting system for brawling. Sometimes Sean will automatically walk towards people, sometimes he won’t. Sometimes Sean will switch who he’s targeting on the fly, and sometimes he will switch to someone whom you don’t want to fight at the moment. The stealth kills are great, but the hand-to-hand combat overall feels pretty loose. I hate to quote bad commercials promoting video game design college, but Pandemic could have tightened up the controls on the fist combat.
Just as you’d expect another big gameplay element of the Saboteur is the shooting. Sean can pick up weapons off the ground, he can pick up weapons of fallen enemies, and he can buy weapons from the game’s black market. The shooting combat in the Saboteur is pretty basic. Sean is a sponge, and can take his weight in bullets before dying. There’s also a cover system, but you can take so much damage it’s pretty much useless. You also have regenerating health, and the health regenerates almost instantly behind cover, giving you little reason to plan out an attack in the Saboteur. Just go out guns-blazing, you’ll outlast the enemy almost every time. As long as you occasionally pick up weapons from the dead bodies of Nazis you’ll never run out of ammo, giving you little reason to conserve ammo.
You will also participate in a variety of races in the Saboteur. The whole reason Sean Devlin is in Paris is to win a series of races in a tournament. Well the Nazis are also participating in these races and are looking to take you out. The races are often on set tracks and involve you getting first place in order to win the race. The driving mechanics handle pretty well and add to the variety of the Saboteur. You can also hijack cars in the normal section of the game and drive around Paris in style. There are a variety of cars although none of them stand out from the rest.
The final thing to note is that the Saboteur features a parkour system of climbing buildings just like Assassin’s Creed. Virtually every edge and angle can be climbed, and is a much appreciated mechanic. Sean looks a little weird jumping from ledge to ledge, but it’s nothing offensive. Traversing the world wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without it.
Sound
Here, deliver this message straight to Hitler for me.
The story of the Saboteur is rather basic, but is much easier to appreciate due to Sean. Sean Devlin has a thick Irish accent, but isn’t as one-dimensional as one might think. He does swear frequently and make Irish remarks, but he could have been a lot worse. He does look out for others and he appears to actually care about the world around him. The rest of the crew varies from alright voice acting to flat out annoying voice acting. I get that there’s little to no Americans, but some of the accents are just plain bad. The dialogue itself is alright, although it’s nothing to write home about. All of the sound effects are very appropriate, and the orchestrated music accompanying the action is very fitting.
Lasting Appeal
Another 30 bullets to the chest and I might die.
The main story will take about a dozen hours to complete, and after that there are achievements and side missions to complete. The problem with the Saboteur is that the game gets very repetitive very quickly. The game is an open world, but you’ll find yourself doing the same things over and over again, just in different areas. You can be very sloppy in your approach of fighting, since you can take an insane amount of damage before dying. The cover system is there, and the game encourages stealth gameplay, but it’s often frustrating and quite frankly doesn’t always work the way you want it to. Pandemic is good at making action games, not stealth games, and it’s apparent in the Saboteur.
Fun Factor
Ha, stupid Nazi, everyone knows Irishmen can survive rounds to the face.
While there’s a cover system and the Saboteur promotes using stealth, you’ll often find yourself going Rambo in every situation. The stealth system isn’t broken, but it’s just too unforgiving. You’re either completely hidden from the enemy, or every alarm in Paris is going off as Nazi’s try to kill you. There are safe spots where you can hide from the enemy, but it’s all so time consuming and bland that you’ll quickly give up on that system altogether. It’s easier to just kill every enemy possible, especially since there are a lot of restricted areas where once the alarm is going off, you’re stuck killing everyone. Good thing you can take 50 bullets in the back of the head before you should be concerned.
How much fun you have with the Saboteur has to do with how much fun you have shooting down waves of Nazis. As I said before the game encourages using stealth, but it’s near impossible to avoid a fight. You can disguise yourself in Nazi outfits, but it’s way too easy to be spotted by the enemy and have your cover blown. Once the enemy sounds the alarm, it’s near impossible to turn it off without killing everyone in sight. It’s a good thing ammo and explosive barrels are lying around out in the open, since you’ll be taking advantage of them frequently.
The 411
PARKOUR PARKOUR PARKOUR!
I like the idea of the Saboteur. I like the idea of an open world game in the GTA style set in the 1940’s. I applaud the game for not having as many bugs as some of Pandemic’s previous games. They’re still there, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Mercenaries 2. The driving mechanic is pretty good, and the idea of mixing stealth with heavy action combat is a good idea. But the problem is that after the first couple of hours it’s near impossible to use stealth. Every mission will break down into a huge fire fight where you basically win once you kill every enemy or make a big explosion. If you’re a fan of GTA or Mercs 1 or 2 you’ll probably get some enjoyment out of the Saboteur, but for everyone else this game is a rental at best. I’ll note that every copy purchased new comes with free DLC called the midnight showing. It makes a lot of the girls in the local clubs fully topless, but that’s pretty much it. You’ll grow bored of it after looking at a couple or girls and completely ignore it for the rest of the game. If you bought a used copy don’t waste the extra 5 bucks buying the DLC.
Graphics
8.0
In black and white Paris looks pretty cool. In color... not so much.
Gameplay
7.5
There are a variety of way to play the Saboteur, but 9 out of 10 times you will end up in a fire fight simply killing everything.
Sound
7.0
The music is pretty good, the dialogue is alright, and the voice acting is hit or miss.
Lasting Appeal
7.0
The main story will take about a dozen hours, and after that there are side missions. But you may grow tired of the game before then.
Fun Factor
7.5
There is genuine fun to be had, but it is a formula that has been done many times before. This is a genre that needs a revolution.
