We were initially suspicious about The Saboteur. For one, Pandemic’s last game, Mercenaries 2, was crippled by glitches. We also worried that a black-and-white scheme would be a cheap visual gimmick in an otherwise-predictable Grand Theft Auto knockoff. As much as some of that is true, The Saboteur succeeds by slapping the dumb-fun of Mercs 2 into a super-serious setting…and surprise! It makes World War II enjoyable again.
Our hero is Sean Devlin, a profane Irishman with a mysterious past and a love for liquor and ladies. A lifelong career as a mechanic and a brief tenure as a race-car driver mean he’s a badass behind the wheel, and his vengeful hatred of the Nazis makes him an excellent addition to the French resistance. Though Devlin is based on a real-life person, his representation here is a cartoonish archetype, and it fits perfectly in the world of The Saboteur, where the depressing tone of a Nazi-occupied Paris and the paper-thin story are outweighed by all the balls-to-the-wall shootouts, big-ass explosions, and punchy one-liners you’d expect from an ’80s action flick.
And while Sean is labeled a saboteur, he’s basically the walking German genocide. Don’t get us wrong: sticking dynamite on sniper nests and spotlights, blowing fuel stations sky-high, and sneaking into outposts dressed in Gestapo getups make for sabotage-tastic objectives. Just don’t expect to walk in and out of every mission undetected — our infiltrations were accompanied by plenty of firefights and car chases. Those sequences are, for the most part, an exciting way of injecting panic into an otherwise-subdued stealth-shooter.
But A.I. quirks regularly had us stuck in seemingly inescapable areas of alert, despite being free from enemy eyesight. It was also infuriating when an enemy shot and killed us through a wall, especially when we didn’t want to tuck into it for cover in the first place. Having the HUD become an incomprehensible mess when you take damage is a buzzkill, too, and it sucks the excitement out of an against-all-odds escape.
To cope with those issues, we relied on the angry Irishman’s ability to climb buildings, hop from roof to roof, and zip across streets on cables to flee. Once you’re up top, you’ll find loads of snipers, AA guns, and propaganda-spewing speakers to take down, too. And since destroying Nazi property earns you contraband — the currency you use to buy better weapons, new cars, and allies to fight alongside you — there’s a constant sense of reward.
That only swells as you unlock perks, which you’ll earn by meeting requirements like stealth-killing Nazi generals or bombing train bridges. These perks net you upgrades in certain fields of Sean’s expertise. Remote bombs? Steadier sniping? Planting dynamite without arousing suspicion? Yes, please. Still, none of this compares to the mayhem of liberating Paris in the main campaign.
Especially because Paris really is one of the stars of the game. The cool art style of The Saboteur, when combined with all the over-the-top action, made us wonder: Is this what Schindler’s List might have been like with Michael Bay at the helm? Nazi-occupied areas of the city are painted in black and white, while fascist flags, armbands, and lights stand out in color. Thick gobs of bright-red blood pour from your grayscale enemies, and the bright orange flare from burning wreckage is a striking effect that holds up throughout the entire 15-hour campaign. What we liked most about the visual style, though, is seeing vibrant greens and pinks wash the morose palette away after you liberate a district. Returning from an occupied area to a colorful one is a rewarding reminder of your success.
While the lifelessness of a black-and-white tone sucks the life out of Paris, it doesn’t strip The Saboteur of its personality. It’s a beautiful and unique world that’s well-constructed and believable, whether you’re snapping soldiers’ necks at the Eiffel Tower, rescuing POWs, or cruising the countryside in a stolen sports car. Très bien.
+ Fantastic art style and a non-stop sense of reward.
+ Mix of action and stealth makes WWII ridiculously fun.
- Weird A.I. and cover problems; HUD is occasionally messy; forgettable story.
? Where's the fast-travel option?
