The Saboteur Review

Buy The Saboteur Now

The Saboteur is a compelling action-adventure, free-roaming, third-person shooter video game. The action takes place in Nazi occupied Paris during the early stages of World War II. The game is probably the best one Pandemic Studio have ever made. Unfortunately it is their final offering: they have now been closed down. The Saboteur, a single player game, was released by Electronic Arts on December the 4th 2009.

An excellent storyline centres on Sean Devlin, an Irish man, who is the saboteur. The character of Devlin is, apparently, based on an actual war hero. William Grover-Williams (1903 – 1945), an accomplished Grand Prix motor racing driver and fluent French speaker, was recruited as an agent. Along with another racing driver he worked for the Special Operations Executive, setting up sabotage cells. He was eventually captured by the Nazis and executed in 1945.

But enough of the history, let’s return game’s storyline. Initially Devlin, (who is a mechanic and racing car driver), lives with and adapts to the increasingly tight Nazi occupation. But he is suddenly stung into action, when he witnesses the murder of one of his friends by a Nazi officer. This officer’s skulduggery had previously prevented Devlin from winning a race. Bent on revenge, he is drawn into the murky, dangerous world of the French Resistance.

Although some of the action takes place in Germany, the setting is predominantly Paris, under Nazi occupation. Initially this is a mainly black and white Paris, with just a few splashes of colour provided by splashing blood. The aim of the saboteur is to weaken the Nazi hold on a particular district, and to raise the morale of the district’s citizens. Success is rewarded by the brining back of full colour to the district.

In this open-world game you will set out on missions to extract revenge and to destroy the numerous Nazi installations. You perform the missions for different branches of the French Resistance, and you can adopt different approaches to these missions. There are abundant fire arms, which can be obtained from shady black marketeers or even taken from the bodies of dead Nazis. The fire-fights are many and intense.

Sabotage, of course, involves the destruction of crucial enemy instillations or hardware, and there are many such missions. You will enjoy watching the havoc wreaked by a few strategically placed sticks of dynamite!

But, above all, stealth is the hallmark of any successful saboteur. You approach your target casually and inconspicuously, and then melt into the background. Or you might resort to disguise, perhaps with the aid of a uniform, removed from a Nazi, who you have quietly and efficiently disposed of. Had the whole game been devoted to stealth missions, it would not have detracted from the excitement. These missions can be more adrenalin pumping than full-on fire-fights.

The Saboteur offers plenty of climbing, running and leaping across precarious rooftops. There is also driving action – only to be expected as Devlin is a racing driver! The Saboteur also offers opportunities for raunchy diversion including topless girls in cabaret clubs.

The visual graphics are mostly good, with the black and white content impressively invoking the atmosphere of the period. The soundtrack complements the action, the period and the atmosphere.

The only downsides to this game are perhaps the rather stereotypical accents and some dodgy animation. On the plus side The Saboteur serves up a compelling storyline, atmospheric visuals and a wide variety of gameplay. It’s certainly worth checking out.