If you caught wind of The Saboteur when it was first unveiled, you probably remember it as “that black-and-white World War II game.” At first blush, it’s sort of an odd concept, and Pandemic lead designer Tom French admits that “a lot of people rolled their eyes” when the game was first pitched internally. It’s been kept under lock and key for the past two years, but when we recently checked it out, all that quiet alone time seems to be paying off with the kind of promising sandbox play that made Pandemic’s Mercenaries such a hit.

And while they won’t come right out and say it, The Saboteur looks very much like the sequel to Mercenaries — at least spiritually. The idea for the game was born on a trans-Pacific flight where Pandemic co-founder Andrew Goldman tore through a book about William Grover-Williams*, a real-life British race-car driver who became a roguish secret agent — just the kind of résumé that game creators dream of. But Pandemic also wanted to “sell the fantasy of getting on top of buildings [in occupied Paris], looking around, and pouncing on Nazis,” reports French. “[We’d been] watching a lot of French films, and Paris is such a colorful city, but we wanted to stick the Occupation on top of that. So we decide to go black-and-white to suck the life out of it.”

It “proved difficult” to pull off, continues French, “but when Sin City came out, we learned a lot of tricks from the DVD — especially the making-ofs.” Whatever the source of their inspiration, The Saboteur’s black-and-white stylings are executed to impressive dramatic effect. It absolutely doesn’t look dull for being in B&W. Spots of red color highlight the swastika armbands on enemies or the lighting on a radio tower; flourishes of blue and yellow also help break up the monotone factor. And even if gray is the only color on the screen, the canny use of contrast and lighting give the action a vibrant feel. The Saboteur is nothing if not striking to look at.

Just don’t take it all too seriously. “We were inspired by the Nazis of Indiana Jones,” smiles French. “ We want that pulp action feel; we play it up.” So zeppelins flit over Paris, even though they were out of commission by then. And alongside the usual assassination and demolition fodder, the game has what French proudly calls “ridiculous missions.” Like the one where you chase your nemesis through a burning zeppelin that’s on the verge of exploding. Indy would be proud!

Throughout it all, you’re playing as Sean Devlin (an Irishman modeled after Grover- Williams), who starts the game as a budding race driver. When a wrong-place-wrong-time situation leads to a friend getting killed, Devlin flees Germany to return to his race team’s HQ in France. “We tell you to use a car to get over the border, but you could just slog your way out, though it is more difficult,” explains French as he describes how wide-open The Saboteur’s world is. That all happens just as the Nazis invade France, and eventually Devlin ends up fighting as an International Man of Sabotage in Paris. “He’s not liberating Paris,” French clarifies. “He’s just making a dent.”

While we couldn’t get ahold of a controller just yet, The Saboteur’s gameplay is clearly the stuff of arcade action. Devlin easily sneaks up on Nazis and flings them bodily around. In another sequence, he clears some flamethrower Nazis by shooting the fuel tanks strapped to their backs, prompting giddy explosions. Devlin takes cover fluidly, just tucking into whatever’s in front of him without the prompting of a button press. “It makes Sean look smart,” says French. “He’s never standing and staring blankly while people shoot him.” Completing a mission sends color rippling across the surrounding neighborhood, which makes for a pretty sweet reward. And we’re starting to think that playing saboteur will be just that kind of good, colorful fun.