QnD Review: The Saboteur (Xbox 360)

You know, I'm tired of everyone saying this is "Pandmic's Swan Song". It might very well be true, but I'd rather remember the bunch from a couple of nice games like the Mercenaries 2 and The Saboteur.

Both are sandbox games that offer you great freedom - the other taking place in a tropical South American island and the latter, in WW2 era Paris (and environs).

While not a masterpiece, or even a contender for the game of the year, The Saboteur is a very nice game in itself.

Like I said, the game gives you great freedom; Paris is at your fingertips, you can roam around, do side quests, climb tall buildings (the Eiffel tower, anyone?), visit raunchy stripclubs, etc.

The areas of Paris that are still nazi-occupied (ie. the ones you haven't had chance to blow up yet) are artistically colored gray. When you free an area, the color comes back in. While a great idea, most people probably prefer the nice black and white artistic style with dabs of color like red blood, a blue necklace, etc.

Movement and fighting controls are a bit restless, but the vehicle controls are even more so. Most cars handle like they had too little weight, especially if you try the handbrake, and none of the vehicles handle like period cars.

While lacking character advancement, you do get "perks" you unlock by doing specific things like beating five nazis, blowing X number of things up, etc. Perks are essentially new attacks, bonuses to things like shooting, bomb setting timers, etc. All handy stuff that'll make you so much more effective at liberating Paris.

The story is nothing to write home about; there's the main villain, revenge, the nice girl and the naughty one, etc.

What sets The Saboteur apart a little, is the use of very adult themes throughout the game. You have topless dancers, lots of blood and violence, drinking, bar fights, etc. In short; good fun all around. ;)


So should you get The Saboteur? Yeah, I think so. Especially if you're a friend of open world sandbox games like GTA, Mercenaries 2 or Saint's Row. The WW2 might be a genre that has been game-developed to death, but as you can see from the list I just mentioned - no great WW2 era "GTA" games are around. It's a different experience from modern cars, planes and helicopters or heat seeking missiles and "ho-beating, drug trafficing".


Score 8/10


You can get Xbox 360 version of The Saboteur from Play-Asia for $49,90.

Also, the PS3 and PC versions are available.