The Saboteur is a controversial game, the sequel of which could have become a masterpiece if EA had not closed the Pandemic studio.
The game is a third-person action game with an open world and a bunch of ideas that haven't really been brought to fruition. But let's start with the good side, which is the setting with an interesting presentation. The Saboteur describes the events of the occupation of France during World War II and places the player in Paris. The city is going through difficult times, so it has lost its color and is surrounded by impenetrable clouds every day. The entire environment now consists of black, white and red colors, only sometimes blue appears - the color of hope. This style conveys the atmosphere very well, which is also complemented by excellent music in the car. I was even offended when, as the game progressed, other colors returned to the city. Colored Paris looks too faded and has a lot of yellowness. The return of color itself occurs only thanks to the plot and additional features. tasks. Instead of additional tasks, it would be possible to create a system for conquering regions; for this, the game even has the ability to call for help. Well, okay, I still liked black, white and red Paris better. Also, this style is cleverly used in cutscenes and cutscenes to emphasize the tone of the story.
Now let's move on to the plot. The main themes of the story are revenge, guilt and the struggle for freedom. It is the feeling of guilt and the thirst for revenge that brings the Irishman Sean Devlin into the ranks of the French Resistance. Sean is a hot-tempered and combative guy who doesn't mind putting his life at risk, but he always puts his friends and family above all else. Unfortunately, the antagonist who opposes him is too flat. Thankfully, he appears very rarely and in half the game the theme of revenge fades into the background.
The rest of the characters are normal and somehow manage to open up. Basically, the story turned out well and I don’t regret the time spent.
It's time for gameplay. You can praise and criticize the game for this at the same time. Interaction with the city comes down to blowing up German towers, searchlights, anti-aircraft installations, fuel depots, armored cars, tanks, missiles and bridges (you can also blow up airships with a pistol). At first it’s cool, you walk around, blow up whatever you want and run away, but then it gets boring. Later, the desire will simply disappear when you realize that there are more than a hundred points for detonation on the map. Therefore, I returned to explosions only when the need arose, since weapons, ammunition and upgrades are bought for contraband, and it is given for blown up German objects.
The occupiers react to the GG only if he threatens them, makes unusual movements or enters forbidden territory, but they don’t care if he starts stealing cars and running over citizens. To escape pursuit, you only need to go beyond the search area, or change clothes almost next to the enemies. Yes, here you can change into a German uniform and go through stealth. There is even a pistol with a silencer for this purpose. In ordinary clothes you will be discovered very quickly and the alarm will be raised if you do not have time to kill the enemy with a whistle. But the form cannot always help. Unlike Death to Spies, The Saboteur does not provide a rank system and even the general's uniform will fill the suspicion gauge next to any soldier. Camouflage gives you a circle that Germans should not get into, it can also be reduced by holding Ctrl, but in this case the character will begin to walk very slowly. In this case, the passage will take a lot of time, but this will not save you from detection, since some areas do not allow you to get around the enemy. Also, the walking mode sometimes turns off when the surface is uneven. Therefore, it is difficult to avoid shooting. The shootouts turned out to be quite good, but easy due to Sean’s larger health reserve, which is recovering on its own. Only at the end of the game are strong opponents brought against us.
The only entertainment available in the game is racing, of which there are very few, and shooting birds. The cars are convenient to drive, and the one you like can be kept in the garage. Unfortunately, we didn’t do missions with shootouts in cars; you can only carry someone and run away from being chased, and also mine a car.
The available missions are not very diverse and mostly involve infiltration, killing someone, blowing something up, and traveling with someone. I only remember the tasks with the train and the airship. And an additional thing I liked was when the priest and I punished sinners at a wedding.
The gameplay was also diluted with parkour, which allows you to climb any building in Paris, but compared to assassins, this parkour seems very slow and not always convenient.
The developers of The Saboteur tried to fill the game with a variety of gameplay solutions, but could not bring it all to perfection. Therefore, the game did not really captivate me, but I am glad that I completed it and enjoyed the atmosphere.