Video Game Review: Inventive, Clever ‘The Saboteur’ Gives Vengeance Good Name

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CHICAGO – Gamers have fought so many battles of World War II from so many different viewpoints that I have to admit that I approached the late-year release of EA and Pandemic’s “The Saboteur” with more than a little bit of trepidation. Much to my surprise, “The Saboteur” is a clever, enjoyable take on an arguably over-done genre that stumbles with some gameplay elements but provides more than enough entertainment to warrant a look.

Video Game Rating: 3.5/5.0

As 2009 drew to a close and thousands of gamers unwrapped copies of the widely-acknowledged games of the year (“Uncharted 2,” “The Saboteur,” “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”), a few noteworthy titles were likely to fall through the cracks. One such release is the sometimes excellent “The Saboteur,” an open-world action/adventure about the resistance effort to the Nazi invasion of France that’s reportedly based on a true story.

The Saboteur
Photo credit: EA

The player takes on the role of Sean Devlin, an Irish racing mechanic living in France at the time of the Nazi occupation. Sean isn’t just fighting for what’s right. His life was ruined by the Nazis and it’s time for payback. Through a series of main missions and side missions, Sean will help the French Resistance and British intelligence to weaken the Nazi stranglehold on Paris. When the game opens, the Nazi impact on Paris has stripped the world of color, making for a “Sin City”-esque experience: black-and-white with splashes of clor. As you inspire the Resistance by targeting Nazi properties with your explosives or assassinating their high-ranked officials, color seeps back into the world, neighborhood by neighborhood. Drive through town and you can see the areas that have come back to life and the ones that could still use a little explosive inspiration.

The Saboteur Photo credit: EA

The missions of “The Saboteur” are varied enough to keep the game interesting for hours. Some involve stealth techniques like finding a Nazi officer on his own, taking him down, and wearing his uniform as a disguise. Some are more of the “guns blazing” variety. Some side missions even employ a very smooth racing gameplay. The blend of side missions with the main plot is expertly designed. The “subplots” earn Sean money that will be needed for the weaponry to complete the main missions, making for a game that feels more complete and side missions that don’t feel perfunctory.

Of course, as in any open-world game, the world must be detailed enough to provide entertainment outside of even the side missions. Like a “Grand Theft Auto” game, you could get lost just driving around the city of light or climbing its buildings to get a better view. Weapons dealers, garages, and even brothels all factor into a city that feels surprisingly alive.

From a conceptual standpoint, I feel like “The Saboteur” had the potential to be one of the best games of the year. The storytelling is tight and the design of the city is effective. The only thing that holds back the game is the actual design of the gameplay when it comes to brawling, fighting, and shooting. It’s inconsistent and overly familiar. We’ve seen games like this recently and we’ve seen them done better. I can’t help but think that if more time had been put into the actual minute-by-minute gameplay as opposed to the overall elements of the title like story, design, or graphics, then this could have been a home run.

The Saboteur Photo credit: EA

First, the shooting elements of the game feel too arcade. Sean can get hit repeatedly and ammo is plentiful. Playing something as harrowing and detailed as “Modern Warfare 2” and then going to something like this can be a bit off-putting. There’s an element of stealth but it’s poorly designed. The game includes a meter designed so that the player is aware when his cover might be blown but it’s nearly useless as you’re pretty much screwed if it fills up at all because it does so too quickly. But with shooting being so easy, stealth becomes unnecessary, eliminating a part of the game that could have made it more effective overall.

Climbing and brawling can also be frustrating. The animation as Sean climbs buildings is choppy and unclear, especially after going from something as smoothly designed as “The Saboteur”. I know it may be unfair to compare, but it’s impossible not to when such a recent game handled climbing and melee fighting so much more expertly. And that’s the problem with the gameplay overall in “The Saboteur”. We’ve seen so many elements of it recently and seen them done better.

However, it’s not long before the player comes to terms with the gameplay shortcomings and it becomes easy to enjoy the game conceptually. It’s a title filled with cheap thrills (a downloadable patch even allows for in-game nudity at the burlesque show where Sean has a back-stage room) and a clever, smile-inducing story filled with strong voice work and enjoyable random acts of violence. Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to join the resistance.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com