The Saboteur Review

Had a buddy recommend me this one

                             A Journalistic Review by DefiantParrot
                                       *Warning: Contains Spoilers*
                                        Originally Written 10/03/2018
                                                                                           
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Open-World, Action-Adventure
Release: December 8, 2009



Swan Song. A Metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, act, last stand etc.

Not many people, or companies for this matter get to go out on their feet, Pandemic  Studios another victim of the horrible murderer known as Electronic Arts, was able to release their swan song, one final game before their untimely death. That game is The Saboteur and today it is my job to see if they were able to leave on a high note. RIP Pandemic and let’s look at The Saboteur.

Here comes the Crimson Chin!

So this is an open-world game set in the year 1940 you play as Sean Devlin an Irish race car mechanic. The game opens with Sean in a brothel drinking his life away when he is approached by a man named Luc, who enlists his help to fight back against the Nazi regime.


Then after helping Luc on a job it shows how Sean ended up in that brothel to begin with, which honestly would’ve been a much better opening to the game.

Anyway that’s the gist of the game, the Irishman Sean and his new group of resistance fighters striking back against the Nazis. A simple premise but effective nonetheless Nazis are a part of a select group of people who truly don’t deserve the air they breathe, so fucking them up is always a good thing to do.

Oy! Where's my pint!

The game controls the way you think it would, the open world of Paris and its outskirts are ripe for Seans picking. Vehicles can be hijacked, guns and firearms acquired and fired in a third person manner, the usual, it all controls fine no complaints there.


One of the things The Saboteur attempts to do in order for it to stand apart from other games in its genre is Sean can climb up any building as long as there is something for him to grab on to. Door, windows, what be it Sean can shimmy his Irish ass up just about anything to escape or get the jump on these evil bastards.

It works absolutely but a little game released over a year prior to this called Assassin’s Creed did this so much better. Sean can climb these easily sure by repeatedly tapping a button, but in AC you need just hold the button down. And that while minor, makes it much simpler to climb up structures.

What do ya mean I can't park here?

I feel that what was supposed to help the game stand out, instead turned into another shadow for it to hide behind.


Another thing this game attempts to use to stand out is it’s style and color, Unlike the climbing however this works really well. When in an area of Paris controlled by those uniformed fuckwits, the color of the game drains away leaving a black and white depression hanging over the entire area. By completing missions and kicking their racist asses, the color returns to the area bringing with it a feeling of hope for the people and beauty to Paris.

Disguises are also a thing, similar to Hitman

Now I say beauty but man this game hasn’t aged that well. The locations can be gorgeous without a doubt but the character models, oh lord no these things are terrible. From Luc to the enemies to even Sean and his superjaw these things have aged terribly and just look bad today.



And while I will compliment the games style I do have to mention that in the black and white areas or just when it’s dark in general it can quite a pain in the ass to see, I recommend playing with those gamma settings if you decide to play this.

This game does have style though and the music is a big part of that, while certainly nothing to write home about they do set the mood for the game well. Be it the radios in the vehicles you’ll drive or the music that’ll play during the missions they always work with what’s happening on screen and are always welcome and appropriate.

I think we need to fix our GPS

As well as running and climbing and going from mission to mission races are also a big part in this game. With a couple in the story and side quests for them, Sean is a mechanic and former racer after all. Not much to say here, except the controls here work just fine, never had a problem with them. When I lost a race it felt like my fault and not the fault of shitty controls or bad driver AI.



But while the AI may work well driving, on foot these fuckers are terrible. Multiple times they would just stand around for me to kill, some of these big Gestapo motherfuckers can just soak up the damage, and what’s worse than them fighting, is when they just stand there like fucking idiots taking all my ammo.

But on a few occasions I did die and need to restart a mission. This game can be challenging, and while fine for the most part there were a few times when I’d respawn right in the middle of a group of enemies and get killed really damn easily which was annoying.

Man, I just don't care about this cunt

Also annoying is upon dying and going back to base you lose all your weapons, yeah I know you can pick them back up at the base and not have to rebuy them but this was just annoying.

Okay you may have noticed I spoke very little of the story here, well that’s because I didn’t give a shit. Sean is a big blockhead with a bad attitude, Luc is a fucking douchebag, Veronique, Sean’s romantic interest(?) Is a fucking bitch and while I need no reason to kill Nazis, they aren’t fleshed out well or are interesting characters I wasn’t given much more of a reason to hate them than ‘they are Nazis’ and yeah that works but… I dunno I guess I wanted more.


Not saying it all fails in the beginning with Jules, Veronique’s brother that was effective, and climbing the Eiffel Tower and the ending in general was more of what I wanted and I almost want to say play this game just for that, seriously it was that fucking good.

So all in all The Saboteur was quite the mixed bag, and there are certainly parts in here I like, and I really would’ve really to see that sequel that they teased at the end of this game. There are many issues I have with it as well, so…


The Saboteur gets my Bronze Seal of Acceptance

For when you're overlooked by AC

This game has it’s fans and I can definitely see why, Pandemics swan song, was enough to make me shed a tear that they are gone, and in the end that’s what a good swan song should do.











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