Customer Reviews

The Saboteur

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First off, this game is a 4.5.

Am I the only one that didn't know this game came out? I never saw a single preview of it. Also, every site that I see just seems to describe it poorly, and I had no interest in it. Only after I saw a portion from Jess Chobot did I say that looks fairly interesting.

This game is basically GTA meets Assasins Creed I and Wolfenstein. It is sandbox like GTA, you get to climb around and do stealth kills like ACI, and it is a FPS where you kill Nazi ala the great Wolfenstein.

This is also a game where I dread Amazon's star system. Sure a 2.5 or 3.5 can be rounded up or down without much affect, but to me a 4.5 game is a 4.5 game. It is still a lot better than a 4, but not perfect like a 5.

CONS:
Music - There is virtually no sound track. You have one in your car and in the cabaret. That is it. It is also pretty poor music. At first I thought, "Well, this does take place in the 40's, so it isn't like you can put Metallica in there." However, I absolutely loved Fallout 3's music, so that isn't really an excuse. I found myself singing the music to that game all the time when I was playing it.

Voice - I have seen some complaints about the main character. Most people have a problem with his voice and that he is a stereotypical Irishman. Maybe they have never actually heard an irishman talk. It is pretty good. There are a couple french people that aren't that good though. Anyway, not bad enough to detract from the game unless you are just looking for something to complain about.

Replay - Not really any replay value, but you do have a lot of extra goodies to pick up. There are over 1000. This would be a slight con.

PROS:
Fun - This game is fun fun fun. Main missions and side missions are all fun.

Other - There are plenty of weapons and cars although you will find yourself just using one or two, so they could improve on this a bit. Plus all the cars you find laying around suck, so you have to use one of your own, but you can summon your own almost at anytime.

Perks - These are "achievment" like items that give your character bonuses, almost like a leveling system for RPG. They actually added more to the game than I thought they would.

Artistic Value - I can appreciate artisticness, but don't "need" it. When you start the game everything is black and white except for lights, and red. So, the nazi flags stand out. It is actually very beautiful. As you inspire the Parisians, those respective areas get their color back. It makes for a very beautiful and unique game. I actually enjoyed the black and white look. It also added to the time that this is in.


Conclusion:
I look forward to the second one. They definitely left it open for one. His last words are I'm just gettin started! I think with some improvement on the perks along with some more stealth features and maybe some fighting features would be great. Add some more good cars to be found on the streets. Maybe an extra weapon or two. I would like to see a slight bit more emphasis on stealth too. Basically, I think with a little work, this game could be perfect.

Anyway, if you are looking for an absolute fun game to play, this is it. It is the best of most worlds game type. I have read a lot of reviews that it doesn't do this or that good. Well, it wasn't meant to be an FPS, so the weapons may be "arcadish", it isn't meant to be an RPG, so the leveling system isn't that complex. I will say that sometimes, climbing can be a chore. ACII is supposed to kill this on that aspect, but I thought it was pretty comparable to ACI. It also has a great storyline as well.

This is a great gift to any gamer, and now that the prices are dropping, it is worth the price as well.

Been playing this about 10 hours, and it's a lot of fun. 3300+ open world targets to blow up, upgrades galore, everything can be upgraded in this game. Health, armor, cars, weapons, demolitions, you name it. Very much a "play the way you want to" open world. Lots of freedom. A vertical world too, since you can climb anything!

If you enjoy sandbox games, definitely give this a chance. Not your average WW2 game that's for sure. I haven't run into any bugs yet, but then again, in 10 hours I have only covered about 10% of the game, if that. Definitely going to get your money's worth. Give it a shot.

I recently picked up The Saboteur for the Xbox 360 after being hesitant of the title after Pandemic Studio's last big title Mercenaries 2 had so many unfixed bugs in it. I figured the same would happen with The Saboteur and after Pandemic Studios got shut down, that about sealed it for me.

Nonetheless, I picked up The Saboteur anyway out of boredom.

To begin things, new copies of this game come with a free code for a download called 'The Midnight Show,' that can also be downloaded for a price off Xbox Live. This code inserts nudity into the game ~ nudity that you'll see right from the start. So, be warned of that if you have nudity sensitive people in your household. Beyond that, The Saboteur plays similiar to that of GTA4 or the 1st Godfather game. It's an open-world environment where you complete tasks, missions to get upgrades and whatnot to advance in the game. The game takes a que from Assassin's Creed, as well, as you can climb nearly any building, including the Effel Tower (did I spell that right?). Although, the climbing is nowhere near as polished as Assassin's Creed's, nor as polished as a GTA4 in the other departments. As for my concern about bugs ~ well, they're there. The most obvious I've come across is a stripper sitting... on the ceiling! With Pandemic Studios closed down, don't look for this game to get patched.. ever!

One thing unique about this game that I do like is the B&W color scheme in Nazi occupied areas, used to demonstrate the low moral of the area. It gives the game a nice look, but sometimes makes it difficult to see in shaded areas. As the Nazis are weakened, color returns to the area and Paris does look amazing.

Open-world fans will probably dig the game and the mission structure looks like it's going to provide a lengthy experience. So, if you can look pass the bugs and the subpar mechanics of the game, you might enjoy it.

I absolutely love this game. Firstly, the game starts out zooming out to show a sexy, naked (If you enter the free redeemable code which comes packaged with every new copy of the game. ;) ), WWII Dancer, in a night club, surrounded my many many other naked ladies. If that isn't a plus, what is?! Secondly, the whole game is just downright fun. Sure, it's not very original, everything in it has been done, and probably done better, before, but it's just fun. The game starts out in black and white, and you need to rid each section of Paris of Nazi's in order to bring "color" back to the city.
I'm only about halfway through, but despite what other people say, I've yet to feel repetition. That being said, this is one of those TIFYS (Try it for your self) games, as it is not for everyone. To me, The Saboteur is a mix of Assassin's Creed and Mercenaries. This is a great, final entry from the late Pandemic Studios, and while it could have used a bit more polish, it is still a great addition to my collection.
Pro's:
-Sexy
-Sexy Setting
-Blowing up stuff is fun
-Engaging Story
-Great Graphics (Black and white areas look stunning)
-Fantastic Soundtrack, both the Orchestrated Pieces and the WWII music
-Slick presentation
Con's:
-Climbing buildings does exist, but it doesn't feel fluid like other games
-Combat could be better

The French Resistance is one of those shadowy organizations that poked its head out for one impressive run during the darkest days of Nazi occupied france. And while the success rate of Sean, our intrepid hero, is probably 10000% above where his real life counterpart made it, the experience is still impressive. The Sabotuer follows Sean, an Irish race car driver trapped in Paris and is sburban enclaves just after the invasion, and reeling from the murder of his best friend at the hands of a Nazi "scientist."

Graphics are fairly standard, up to snuff without any glorious trailblazing. The "Noir" color scheme, soft muted grays against with only the blood red nazi banenrs and arm bands stand out, is a pretty rejoinder that serves to spice things up.

Audio is also spot on, and the accents are done well without being so thick you need a translation on the translation. I do wish there were more people to talk to, as even canned conversations are preferable to a personal army of mutes.

Gameplay is surpisingly hit and miss. The immediate reminder is rather like infamous, clambering over structures to reach targets of opportunity. A collection of weapons and vehicles, as well as abilities improvements based on in game actions round things out nicely, but feel rather slapdash. The exchange system is a bit haphazard as well, as theres little in the way of loot, and thoguh they try to include snippets on what you collect, you can't bring yourself to care much, since its easier to bomb things. And bomb things you do. You set charges, and explosives, and rig booby traps, and plant munitions, and a few other analogys for slap a block of dynamite and light it with your lighter. And while it manages to hold its charm for a whiel, its eventually as repetitive as the sun rising in the east. Combats a decent mix of shooter and hand to hand, which is actually effective enough to justify, rather than feeling vestigial after laying hands on some guns.

On the downside, there are bugs. Lots of bugs. Bugs on top of bugs. Clipping issues, teleporting enemies, total failures of sound, and spotting problems, and flying cars were all spotted in multiple numbers within the first two hours of play. And some of the characters are ludicrious to the point that you think they're "special" rather than evil. The kind of monologue where you seem to be mudering a baby with one hand while devouring a live puppy with the other are nice for Bond villians, but should've been toned down to reality like levels. And their DLC seems to be reaching for the bottom of the barrel, as its advertisement seemed apropo to some areas of Las Vegas, but not being 13 anymore, I didn't feel compelled to shell out extra dollars for a "nudity" option.

For a swan song, the Sabotuer is okay. Not great, but definitely not a failure. Too much repitition of the "free gameplay" is balanced by some entertaining missions and dialogue. While the bugs are frequent enough to garner some serious stink, this latest nazi shoot is still worth a look.

I have been waiting forever for this game to come out. Once it came out, I was suprised about the 8.0 rating it got from Gameinformer and OXM. After I read the reviews, i was hesitant if I should buy it or not. But once I saw it online for a cheaper price, I bought it right away. Once it came in the mail, i played it right away. And let me tell 'ya, i almost fell out of my seat! It was an enormous amount of fun. It has a great storyline which makes you feel like you are the actual character. I am part Irish myself and when I play this game, I'm proud I am. (The main character is Irish, and he kick's A**!) It takes place in France during WWII. You play as a man whose friend is murdered by a German general. You and your friends go to France so you can hide from the nazis. You live in the back of a flashy Cabaret Club. But once you complete one mission, you set up a HQ in and old abandoned slaughter house. This game has very fun missions and great open world gameplay. The Black and White feature is also great. The areas occupied by the nazis in France are in Black and White. Once you liberate that area, it turns to beautiful, lush color. I recommend this game to anyone who loves a good GTA game but with a great old-time spin. (Caution: Mature rating- Blood, intense violence, nudity, sexual themes, and strong language) Enjoy!

The now-defunct Pandemic Studios had a knack for getting to the core of what made a game experience fun. There might be some missing polish to get a game out in time, and the graphics on the largely multi-platform games might not have wowed anyone, but they knew what made games fun, the very reason people like to play games. Army Men RTS was the best game of a franchise run into the ground and the best console real-time strategy title for years, until Ensemble Studios whipped up Halo Wars (and also, coincidentally, was then shuttered). They also went on to create the successful (and now dormant) Star Wars Battlefront games, as well as Mercenaries, a gleefully destructive open-world action game that The Saboteur takes its cues from.

The Saboteur is set in Germany-occupied Paris at theheight of World War II, where the City of Lights is ground down under the boot of Nazi oppression. The game starts out quite literally in shades of gray, with leaden skies above and dark shadows in every alley. Rain falls, thunder rumbles, and Nazis are everywhere, marked by the stark, garish red of their armbands. There are yellow splashes of light and occasional blooms of blue, but for the most part, the game starts out in classic cinema shades of gray, with an emphasis on darker hues. This is where the player meets Sean Devlin, a stereotypical Irish mechanic who loves women, whiskey, and racing, and the player is treated to some playable backstory while also running a few missions with the French Resistance. The gist of the game is simple, without the bells and whistles that open-world gaming has grown accustomed to adding to the experience. Sean is tasked to blow prized Nazi items up. He can choose to be sneaky and try to pull off his tasks with stealth, he can go in guns blazing, or he can figure it out as he goes. Sniper towers, propaganda-spewing loudspeakers, tanks, and Gestapo generals are all fair game, and it's up to Sean to lighten the load of the local French by removing Nazis like a tick - with flame.

If Sean is seen partaking in his illegal actions, or if he is too close the scene of his bloody work with enemy eyes on him, the Nazis will sound the alarm, and it is up to the player to guide Sean to safety, either by evading pursuit beyond the range of interest or by slipping into a safe location, such as a shack on a roof, a Resistance brothel, or one of a few other locations. In some ways, The Saboteur is like Assassin's Creed, though it lacks the elegance and artistry of movement that Ubi Soft's juggernaut makes its hallmark. Cliimbing takes more work, and Sean is no Altair or Ezio, but he also packs a machine gun and lots of explosives, so the action has its own brand of explosive fun.

There's more to the game, of course. There's a story, a pulpy and melodramatic tale of regret, vengeance, and subterfuge, and the characters, while all screaming stereotypes, are fun to go through the story with. There's Luc, the impassioned, big-picture leader, who understands that the struggle is bigger than any one man, and that sacrifice is the cost of doing business. There's Skylar, the British Intelligence agent who is well-acquainted with Sean. And there's Veronique, a firecracker little sister to Sean's best friend, naturally with more spine than most of the men who doubt her dedication and competence.

As the player continues through the plot, wiping out the more egregious indicators of the Nazi occupation, color begins to return to Paris. While the stylized color scheme seems daring and bold at first, it soon begins to feel like it was no doubt intended to: dark and foreboding, a place without hope or life. As color is returned to the world, the sky returns to blue and the grass to green, and the charm of a varied pallette makes itself known once again. This simple concept adds a sly layer of Pavlovian response to the gameplay. A gray place is not safe; it has more Nazis wandering the streets and rooftops, with decreased chances of evasion once spotted. A place with color is safer, with citizens more likely to enjoy Sean's antics on their behalf and a less pronounced enemy presence.

The story is largely Sean's, though, and he will carve a bloody path through Paris and its outlying areas in a shrunken-down and simplified version of the heart of the nation. Le Havre and Bourgogne are just a short drive down the road, and even Saarbrucken, Germany, isn't too far away. The plot will take Sean to most of these places, and the player can chose to explore and return to these places later to partake in the game's "freeplay" events, a variety of tasks that can be viewed on the in-game map and tackled. Most are just killing important officers or making things go boom, but some are jumps that must be made in a vehicle or are famous monument postcards, while others still are similar to the "eagle" points in Assassin's Creed, though the panning camera is just for the player's benefit, as the maps are viewable from the start. Others still are Resistance drops with black market supplies such as alcohol and cigarettes.

All of these tasks earn Sean "contraband," which he can then use to purchase weaponry and bonuses, such as improved car armor or better resistance support, which can be called upon when Sean gets in over his head. Like most games, there is more money within the game than the player will ever need, and eventually everything that can be purchased has been, but there's a sense of satisfaction in clearing areas of their freeplay points that speaks to the heart of the experience. It's not enough to beat the game, as the narrative is just one story. As characters in the game often acknowledge, it's not about one personal mission or one bad Nazi; it's about all of them, the victims and the oppressors both, and how to free a country from those that would destroy it and its culture completely.

The graphics in The Saboteur are solid if unspectacular. Sean Devlin himself is well-rendered, an everyman type that eschews the "extreme' design elements that often plague gaming heroes. The draw distance isn't as appealing as it could be when taking in one of the game's many scenic points, and the first-person car view exposes some of the game's limitations, but the graphics hold up well enough.

The audio is strong across the board. The period-heavy radio stations set the tone nicely, with "Feeling Good" (with versions by both Nina Simone and Issac Sprintis) featured prominently throughout, from the trailers before release to the game's closing. The song's slinky piano playing and bold brass are a perfect match for The Saboteur's mix of intrigue and frenzied action. The gunfire and explosions are loud and sharp, and the voice acting is delightfully hammy. One of Pandemic's previous games, the otherwise enjoyable Star Wars Battlefront II, had major sound level issues, but none of that crops up here.

The game also has a "Perks" system, whereby the player can accomplish certain tasks to unlock more advance weaponry or other benefits, such as the ability to successfully park a tank for later use at will. Many of these challenges seem daunting at first, but with a bit of perseverence, even the most difficult of them can be overcome, and it adds a nice set of secondary sense of progress to the story missions themselves while also making the game easier as it goes. This

The vehicles that Sean drives around in range from clunkers that seem to top out at 25 MPH to nitrous-capable roadsters capable of much higher speeds. There are even some less-practical options, such as tractors and hulking fuel trucks, but completists will want to hop into every single ride and park it in the garage, to be accessed later at will.

The Saboteur does have nudity in it, in the form of a new copy bonus (or DLC that can be purchased) called "The Midnight Show", which also allows the hero to hid in brothels during manhunts, but this is such a minor thing that it's hardly worth mentioning. It can also be toggled off at will, though it would be curious to consider why a gamer would have no problem with spurts of blood and acts of terrorism (regardless of reason, these are acts of terrorism), yet would blanch at the sight of digital nipple.

At its heart, The Saboteur hearkens back to Grand Theft Auto III, that PlayStation 2 classic that didn't bother much with elements outside the core gameplay. You could go where you wanted and do what you wanted, but it all came back to driving and shooting, two elements of gaming that have been around for decades. And while The Saboteur could probably stand a bit more polish, with a camera that sometimes goes on the fritz in tight spaces and some less than delicate controls when high above the ground, the gameplay is rock-solid, the progression surprisingly addictive, the action tense and enjoyable. Even after the player beats the game, they will likely have many more freeplay targets to hit, more cars to find, a few more Gestapo that wouldn't be missed. It's a testament to the quality of the game that even after beating it, I suspect that many players will still fire it back up and do a little more, as I have done. After all, the struggle isn't just about one man's vendetta. It's about the plight of a country in the face of evil, and until that evil has been purged, our hero's work is not done.

I'm only about ten or twelve hours into this game but its great fun so far. The setting is a great idea and a very nice twist on a WWII game and on a sandbox game. Its great fun. There is a LOT to do and you'll have a blast doing it--literally.

Since the fun parts are probably detailed elsewhere, I will mention a few of the drawbacks that could use some polishing.

1. Climbing. Its nice that you can climb virtually anything in the game, but after being spoiled with Assassin's Creed 2, I was hoping for a smoother system in the Saboteur. Although you can climb anything, its slow and clumsy because you have to keep pushing the A button each time you grab another handhold. So you can't just grab onto a wall and climb up quickly, there is a lot of button pushing to do it.

2. Brawling. There are a lot of nice options for hand to hand combat for a sandbox game, but they can be pretty clunky. A lot of times when you go for a stealth kill, it never gives you the cue to activate it and the guard will turn around and see you. There is also no targeting system for hand to hand combat, so its hard to pick a specific enemy, should you need to.

3. The driving controls, although solid, do feel a little dated.

But don't let any of these things put you off, this is a great game. There is something to blow up on almost every street corner, and that is no joke. Earning money can be a bit slow at first, but there is a fantastic variety of stuff to spend you hard earned cash on, so get in there and give it to those Nazis!!! VIVA LA FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you're unfamiliar with this genre, it's along the lines of recent Grand Theft Auto, Mercenaries, and Saints Row games. A lot of this game is similar to Pandemic's Mercenaries 2, but you're in occupied Paris during WW II instead of Venezuela in modern times. So if you hate those types of games, move along...

This game looks very good, but it does take some getting used to if you've been playing a lot of those other games and non-"sandbox" games recently. The game is fairly easy on the lowest difficulties, but it's not a cakewalk. How it is on the more difficult levels is probably standard to that sort of thing, when such games even have variable difficulties in the first place.

There are a lot of fun things going on. The disguises and how your actions dictate the suspicion zone is very interesting, for example.

There are some quirks I've noticed so far. It might be because I've installed it to the hard drive, but after playing for a while the other day, the frame rates and voice/speech sync got way off. There also seems to be far too many switchovers from location to location, or at least I got the impression of clunkiness as the dissolve and loading goes on. The females hanging around in the club certainly look okay, if pretty similar, but they are very much certainly not mid-1940s style women -- They've got that stripperific bust enhancement thing going on.

For those interested in such things, I got this used, so there was no Midnight Show code. The seller supposedly thought the game was not for their pre-teen, so it's unclear if that's just related to Nazis and blowing people up and blood spattering everywhere, or if the code was used. Used versus not having it, selling it separately, or thrown away due to its nature or lack of knowledge of such.

However, I myself did download the Midnight Show code. If you're getting the game for that, or having to buy it separately, I'd say don't bother. If that's your sort of thing, you might as well buy Conan.

The add-on is not a "nudity patch", it's a $3 way to remove the "pasties" (nipple-shaped and nipple-shaded covers) from the topless clones, who are basically already as nude as you can consider topless to be. It also unlocks some rather tame boring dances by these girls; these sequences are produced by somebody with no idea of how camera shots should be framed or how long they should last. It made me dizzy more than anything; luckily I was doing something else actually interesting while they were dancing. You also get a knife throwing game you can wager "contraband" on.

Overall, it's a fun game so far.

So I've just completed The Saboteur, having logged in probably 85 hours and obtained all achievements, perks, freeplay targets, and collectibles. I gotta say that I had a blast playing this game! As some reviewers have mentioned the gameplay is very similar to Grand Theft Auto (open world sandbox) and the setting is Nazi-occupied France. Even if you've never played GTA, there is just something about killing tons of Nazis, blowing up their establishments, collecting this and that, and improving your character's abilities/strengths that make this game extremely addicting. The missions are set up such that you can achieve them using stealth or guns ablazin' and that's what I like about this game: having a choice of what to explore and what to accomplish. The inclusion of several racing missions (given the main character) is a nice touch and mixes up the gameplay appropriately. I wish there were several more since they were quite fun and challenging. The plot and the characters (including voiceovers) are above average. There are a lot of funny one-liners (there is strong language that includes the f-bomb and sexual innuendo); the cutscenes and conversations add to the entertainment value. I played the game on a "normal" difficulty setting, and my only complaint is that the enemy A.I. was for the most part pretty dumb. That being said, there were a few mission sequences that required several attempts to get through. Another negative is that there are many a load screen. However, if you load the game onto your hard drive (it requires about 5GB of space), loading times will be significantly reduced (and your console will run more quietly!). Finally, the graphics are not stellar, though they are acceptable for the current console.

Overall, The Saboteur is a fun, addicting, and entertaining game. Could it have been more polished? Of course. As it is, definitely worth playing! I rate this game only 4 stars because in my opinion this game, while very fun, falls short of 5-star games such as Mass Effect 1 and 2 and the Metal Gear Solid series, to name a few.