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C What I'm Playing: The Saboteur

Rhody Tobin Profile _ Twitter _ E-mail _ Homepage

Up until yesterday, The Saboteur was one of those games I had always meant to play but I simply never got around to buying. I was pretty impressed by the previews, specifically "Will to Fight" mechanic, but the game came out when I was short on cash (right before Christmas) and the reviews were mixed, so I put it off. Eventually, the game seemed to disappear from store shelves, and I wasn't quite interested enough to bother to order it online. (I am a luddite. Don't tell anyone.) Well, yesterday I wandered into a random independant game store and saw it there, so I picked it up. Then I played it for four hours. Then I went to bed and dreamt about driving around Paris. Then I woke up and played it for another five hours. Then real life happened and I had to do other things. If you're unfamiliar with The Saboteur, it's an open world game about an Irish race-car-driver-turned-French-resistance-member Sean Devlin in Nazi-occupied World War II Germany. Areas with heavy Nazi occupation are in black and white with a few splashes of colour here and there, mostly limited to red Nazi banners. As Sean completes missions, the "Will to Fight" is restored to parts of the city, and colour returns. There's an emphasis on sneaking around to accomplish goals in secret, as opposed to simply opening fire on every Nazi you see. Sean can steal Nazi uniforms to infiltrate Nazi-controlled areas, or create distractions using explosions or gunfire. What really draws me into this game is the atmosphere. The black and white areas feel uncomfortable and bleak, but those same areas feel full of life once the Will to Fight returns to them. The soundtrack consists mainly of 1940's style jazz. Everything from random generic streets to burlesque houses to famous landmarks like the Arc de Triomphe feel authentic. (I have it on good authority that L’église Saint-Eustache looks pretty much the same on the inside in-game as it does in real life.) It's kind of surprising (and a little sad) that the reviews for this game were so mixed. Any problems I've encountered so far have been pretty minor, with the most prominent one being the distance between certain informants and the missions they send you off on. Occasionally you'll have to drive all the way across the city to talk to a character who will send you on a mission all the way back where you started. There are a few awkward animations (people seem to faint when you hit them in your car) and Sean's tiny Irish mouth is kind of discomforting at times, but nothing breaks the game. A few of the complaints I've seen seem kind of invalid. I've seen reviews that say the game is too short, but there are a ton of optional objectives to keep you playing as long as you want. I've seen reviewers complain that everyone speaks English all the time, even when they're not talking to Sean, and that's... well, that's just not true. Pay attention and you'll hear lots of people talking to each other in French or German. Naturally, I can't talk about The Saboteur without talking about its DLC. The Saboteur was one of the first EA-published games to include a DLC code with all new copies. Instead of rewarding new purchasers with unique weapons or skins, however, the The Saboteur DLC mainly just takes the tops off all of the burlesque dancers. This kind of ruins the tone of the game a little. It starts feeling less like Okami and more like Grand Theft Auto when you walk into a resistance base and are greeted by a sea of nipples. In fact, when you start a new game the screen fades black, the text "Electronic Arts Presents" appears, and the black fades into a giant pair of breasts hanging off some random dancer on a stage. Thankfully, the nudity is completely optional. Even if you use the DLC code, you can turn the nudity off at any time from the options menu. (Doing so, by the way, prompts Sean to say "C'mon, ya can always go to Confession after yer done playin'!") It's a shame The Saboteur was eclipsed by Assassin's Creed II, another open-world stealth game that came out around the same time. It may not be as great as that game (or it may be better, I don't know, I still haven't played Assassin's Creed II), but it seems to be a solid title from what I've played so far. The developer, Pandemic Studios, was liquidated as soon as The Saboteur was completed, so The Saboteur is their swan song. It would be nice if more people would take the opportunity to listen.

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