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<div style="float: left; padding: 3px;"><img src="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/saboteurcoverart-review.jpg" border="0"></div>The Saboteur
Release Date: December 8, 2009 (North America)
Reviewed On: PC (Also available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360)
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
ESRB Rating: Mature (Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language)
PEGI Rating: 18+
OFLC Rating: MA 15+
The Saboteur, Pandemic Studios' last hurrah, comes in the form of an open world action title set in German occupied France during World War II. Playing as Sean Devlin, a character based on actual war hero William Grover-Williams, players will climb, sneak, and shoot their way through a number of varied missions all in the name of revenge. The Saboteur blends elements of Assassin's Creed, Indiana Jones, and Grand Theft Auto to create fantastic results.
There are a few speed bumps in the road, and we are not just talking about the Nazis you run over. A lack of car damage modeling, questionable AI, and some hit and miss dialogue does not kill the gameplay experience, but does mar an otherwise strong final showing from Pandemic. It's a game that if it were given a few more months of work and polish, it would have been an easy contender for game of the year.
Story:
Sean Devlin is an Irish mechanic turned race car driver living it up in the French countryside. Opting to ignore the growing threat of war, Devlin and his best friend and racing buddy, Jules, head off to partake in one of the biggest races of the season. The pair have a run in with an old racing nemesis that turns out to be a high ranking German SS officer, Kurt Dierker. Dierker cheats in order to win the race and both Devlin and Jules break into a Nazi occupied area in order to dish out a little payback on Dierker's car.
This is where the downward spiral begins. Jules is viciously murdered by Dierker and it is at this point where Sean's world turns gray. Quite literally. Sean makes a dramatic escape to emerge into a world where the Nazis have begun to occupy France. The opening sequences of the game do a fantastic job at setting up the rest of the game and provide the player with a great understanding of Devlin's actions.
The rest of the story mainly consists of meeting up with contacts scattered throughout France and completing a given task. The usual and expected plot twists show up here and there but nothing is too surprising and there's nothing that hasn't been done before. Story segments typically begin with a brief conversation with a contact. Afterwards, Devlin will go about completing the task by any means necessary, and the missions end with another dialogue sequence.
No, this isn't Indiana Jones, or is it?
It's all very straight forward but the story elements are often marred by some really curious voice acting by the major players. Odd pauses in dialogue and unexpected voice inflections pull the player out of the immersion far too often. Even Devlin's usually solid performance sometimes comes across as if the lines were simply phoned in.
Devlin himself really pushes across the point that he's Irish and proud of it throughout the entire game. Devlin seems to be the virtual embodiment of every stereotypical idea of a born and raised Irishman. He's a tough, heavy drinking, womanizing, short tempered, don't-take-crap-from-anyone type of guy. The fact that he pushes his heritage upon everyone at every opportunity is amusing at first but the player does not need to be reminded about this fact all the time.
As the game's title suggests, The Saboteur is full of sabotage type missions. Most missions involve Devlin acquiring some heavy explosives and blowing a Nazi target to hell. Even guard towers, fuel depots, and search lights make for great targets for Devlin's explosives even when they are not part of an active mission. All of this is done in the name of revenge. The story is believable and despite some flaws in the story telling itself, it is an engaging experience that will motivate you to keep playing until the end.
You can't help but love the Noir style
Gameplay:
The Saboteur offers up a believable open world experience. Missions can often be completed in a variety of ways depending on your particular play style. If you wish to be stealthy, simply knock out a Nazi soldier, take his uniform and you are free to walk amongst your enemies. However, if you wish to go in guns blazing while tossing grenades you are more than welcome to do that, too. Some missions are certainly better suited to one style of gameplay over the other, but they are never to the point where only one method will work.
Going around and causing a mini riot always makes for a great time. This game does feature a "wanted level" type system, where stronger opposition shows up depending on how much mayhem you cause. Nazi reinforcements arrive by the truck load and sidecar motorcycles will join in the chase should you take to the roads. Get to a certain point and German Zeppelins join in to try and take you down. Yes, blimps will hunt you down in The Saboteur. Think about that for a moment and I can guarantee you'll quickly realize how awesome that sounds. If you're worried about never being able to escape their slow, watchful eye it should be noted that you are able to bring them down easily with mounted guns.
Weapons are procured either from the bodies of those you kill, or through various black market weapon vendors scattered throughout the city. Weapon purchases and upgrades can be made using money earned from completing missions, finding Resistance crates, blowing up towers, fuel depots, lights, or other Nazi points of interest. Money never seems to be an issue for Devlin. A few random bombings here and there and you'll have quickly earned enough for that new rifle you couldn't afford moments earlier.
If you find yourself without a weapon, Devlin need not run and hide. His fists do a more than admirable job of taking down enemies. A rather poor lock on mechanism will keep Devlin trained on an enemy. Slow, powerful punches can be mixed up with quick jabs or kicks. A simplistic grab will allow Devlin to push foes in any direction, often most used to throw Nazis off of the sniper towers. These moves can be upgraded throughout the course of the game.
When Devlin isn't running around blowing things up, chances are you can find him gunning down Nazis or perhaps hitting up the local gentleman's establishment to enjoy the "view." The on-foot controls feel solid and you'll rarely find yourself fighting to do what you want to. It should be mentioned that for this review, most of the gameplay was done using an Xbox 360 controller on the PC version of the game. However, the keyboard and mouse controls were tested and worked quite well. Using the controller was simply a personal preference.
Not as graceful as Altair or Spider-Man but he gets the job done.
Guns typically offer a hip shooting ability and a more precise "iron sight" zoom that gives better accuracy at the cost of mobility. A wide variety of period specific weapons show up as do a number of weapon "upgrades." These upgrades are usually just boosts to the number of rounds Devlin can carry, with a few weapon upgrades offering more damage output compared to earlier iterations of the same weapon. Sean can utilize a simple Gears of War style cover system, but you'll find that it's rarely used except in dire situations or when you're going for pure stealth infiltrations.
Upgrades can also be made to Devlin himself. By repeating certain moves or tasks, new abilities are unlocked that you can make use of throughout the game. Blow up enough sniper towers and soon Devlin will be able to carry more explosives. Another example can be seen once you complete enough stealth kills from behind as the ability to sucker punch a Nazi from the front is then unlocked. Everything the player does typically results in progression being made towards a new perk unlock or a new move.
Another widely promoted feature in The Saboteur was the ability for Devlin to scale the sides of buildings much like Altair of Assassin's Creed. However, unlike the fluid climbing in Assassin's Creed, Devlin isn't quite as graceful. Climbing the sides of buildings is accomplished by hitting a key or button each time you want Devlin to jump up to the next hand hold. It may not be the most intuitive way of climbing the side of a building but it does get the job done when you need to sneak into an area.
In a rather ironic twist, the driving and racing segments in the game leave a lot to be desired. Cars do not handle as well as you would hope they would. They aren't terrible but they are not all that fun to drive. The physics of the vehicles don't seem to matter much and all cars feel nearly identical unless you're driving a slow, heavy truck. Only then will you be able to really notice a difference in the handling between vehicles.
There are various side quests that the player can partake in. Besides the usual deal of weapon smuggling or retrieving cars for a garage, there are various other extras. The player can watch cabaret dances with a few ladies of "The Belle de Nuit" cabaret club. There is also a mini-game that, for a small fee, gives players a chance to win more contraband funds or other in-game perks. Yes, there is nudity included in the game, a lot of it in fact. The PC version features an option that will allow you to enable or disable the topless ladies that are prominent throughout the club. It should be noted that the dances, VIP room, nudity option, and mini-game are only available for free in the PC version and in newly purchased copies of the console version. For those who buy the game used on the consoles, a $3 fee will unlock this additional content.
And here you thought we'd give you uncensored pictures. Tsk tsk.
As far as open world titles go, The Saboteur offers up quite a bit of fun but still leaves a ton of room for improvement. The world never really feels alive. Pedestrians walk and drive around but often without much purpose. If you yank out a driver from their vehicle, they barely react to the grand theft auto that just took place. They may flip you off but they don't ever try to reclaim their ride or react in a way you would expect a person in that sort of situation to react.
In fact, the AI as a whole is severely underwhelming. Foes will give up pursuit the moment you escape an alert area. It feels rather odd to go from a hot pursuit one moment to not even being given an evil glare the next simply because you hit the edge of a red alert circle on your map. If you are spotted, few attempts are made by your enemies to seek appropriate cover and they will simply stand still to shoot at you.
When playing, you almost get the feeling that the game could have been so much greater if it were given more development time and the rough edges smoothed over. However, what is actually offered up to the player makes for an enjoyable experience. You may come away hoping for more but there is still a lot of fun to be had for what is actually included.
Smells that? It smells like liberation!
Graphics:
The visuals are a mixed bag in The Saboteur. Characters are well modeled but their mouths don't always seem to move in sync with what they're saying. Sometimes, their mouths won't bother to move at all (I'm looking at you topless singer in the gentleman's club)! Character animation is well executed but there are cases where the animations look stiff and not quite natural. These are really quite apparent in some of the mission briefing scenes where characters tend to just stand around and make a few repeated hand gestures.
The noir stylized areas are some of the most visually impressive areas in the game. Areas that have not yet been liberated with an explosion or two will appear in a black and white style. Only a few splashes of color show up in these areas; such as a partner's blue scarf or the red of the Nazi symbols. It's almost a shame that completing missions will result in color being restored to an area. Once color is restored the area loses its unique visuals and makes The Saboteur look like any other game out there that uses a lot of bloom and bright, pretty colors. At least with the black and white stylized look it gave the game a very unique feel and really allowed the game to stand out from the crowd.
The damage modeling on the cars is almost non-existent. Running full speed into a wall does not even result in a scratch appearing on your polished ride. To say the lack of damage modeling is disappointing is putting it mildly. Bullet hole decals and blood splatters will appear on your car as Nazis shoot at you, but this does not make up for the complete lack of damage modeling.
A moment of quiet reflection between sprees of Nazi killing
The city itself is decent in its appearance. The buildings within the more dense areas of the city, while not visual standouts, have no real faults to speak of. The countryside includes rolling hills, farms, fences, and houses that dot the roadsides. The lighting and weather effects are quite beautiful, especially when it's pouring down rain in the dead of night as you infiltrate a Nazi stronghold. The rain pours in sheets down helmets and walls, and when combined with the noir style and brief splashes of color it really makes for an engrossing experience.
That's not to say that the graphics are not without their issues. There are some very odd glitches that have taken place during my playtime with The Saboteur. A major issue comes in the form of pop-in . Pedestrians and various objects will suddenly pop into view as you drive down the road. You don't even need to be driving at full speed to witness the pop-in and it can sometimes be quite distracting.
Another graphical oddity involves some interesting glitches in the physics engine. On more than one occasion I witnessed cars glitching into the ground. One particular instance involved a German tank inverting itself as if it were stuck on a rotisserie. This went on for a short while, pushing soldiers aside as it rotated before it blew up leaving me as a suspect in the explosion and running from a hail of gunfire.
Moments after this tank inverted itself, it blew up and caused every enemy in sight to open fire on poor Sean.
Audio:
Music within The Saboteur is a mix of period inspired songs and grand orchestral pieces. The music is not very memorable but it serves its purpose in setting the mood of the action on screen. The period pieces are played when driving around or inside various buildings. The orchestral pieces pick up when the on-screen action gets heated or through various cut-scenes. A larger arrangement of period inspired songs would have been quite welcome, but this is just a minor issue.
Weapons and explosions sound fantastic as one should come to expect in a game where sabotage is a major focus. Rifles pack a very sharp crack with each shot fired, while the more rapid sub-machine gun fire is more subdued in its punch.
As mentioned before, the voice acting is very hit and miss. There are times where the main characters voice acting sounds perfect and full of emotion. Yet, just seconds later, the same characters in the same situation sound as if the voice actors suddenly gave up trying. In my opinion, all of the foreign accents sound great and never came across as phony.
Pedestrians do speak and react slightly to actions performed by Devlin, but nothing noteworthy. They will yell in surprise if they see you climbing the side of a building or if an explosion goes off near them. Other ambient sounds, including the vehicles and weather, are good although it feels as though vehicles could use little more oomph in the engine sounds. Really, aside from the voice acting issues, there isn't too much to fault when it comes to the game's audio.
Even cemeteries can be bright and colorful places
Summary:
The Saboteur is a game that seems to have it all; including sabotage, explosions, killin' Nazis, Nazi blimps, nudity, and an irate Irishman. If you can overlook some of the game's issues you'll soon discover an open-world title that offers up an engaging story and plenty of bang for your buck. Clocking in at well over 10 hours just for the game's main story, this tale of revenge is a largely positive note for Pandemic Studios to go out on.
I, however, wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention that many ATI users are experiencing major issues with the game. While no patch has yet been released, a workaround has been mentioned. The workaround is to set the CPU affinity of the game to run on just one core of a multi-core system. Needless to say, many ATI users and even some Nvidia users are not too thrilled with some of the issues that have popped up. I can say that during the review period, I did not encounter these particular issues, only those few in-game issues that were described above.
Release Date: December 8, 2009 (North America)
Reviewed On: PC (Also available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360)
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
ESRB Rating: Mature (Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language)
PEGI Rating: 18+
OFLC Rating: MA 15+
The Saboteur, Pandemic Studios' last hurrah, comes in the form of an open world action title set in German occupied France during World War II. Playing as Sean Devlin, a character based on actual war hero William Grover-Williams, players will climb, sneak, and shoot their way through a number of varied missions all in the name of revenge. The Saboteur blends elements of Assassin's Creed, Indiana Jones, and Grand Theft Auto to create fantastic results.
There are a few speed bumps in the road, and we are not just talking about the Nazis you run over. A lack of car damage modeling, questionable AI, and some hit and miss dialogue does not kill the gameplay experience, but does mar an otherwise strong final showing from Pandemic. It's a game that if it were given a few more months of work and polish, it would have been an easy contender for game of the year.
Story:
Sean Devlin is an Irish mechanic turned race car driver living it up in the French countryside. Opting to ignore the growing threat of war, Devlin and his best friend and racing buddy, Jules, head off to partake in one of the biggest races of the season. The pair have a run in with an old racing nemesis that turns out to be a high ranking German SS officer, Kurt Dierker. Dierker cheats in order to win the race and both Devlin and Jules break into a Nazi occupied area in order to dish out a little payback on Dierker's car.
This is where the downward spiral begins. Jules is viciously murdered by Dierker and it is at this point where Sean's world turns gray. Quite literally. Sean makes a dramatic escape to emerge into a world where the Nazis have begun to occupy France. The opening sequences of the game do a fantastic job at setting up the rest of the game and provide the player with a great understanding of Devlin's actions.
The rest of the story mainly consists of meeting up with contacts scattered throughout France and completing a given task. The usual and expected plot twists show up here and there but nothing is too surprising and there's nothing that hasn't been done before. Story segments typically begin with a brief conversation with a contact. Afterwards, Devlin will go about completing the task by any means necessary, and the missions end with another dialogue sequence.
No, this isn't Indiana Jones, or is it?
It's all very straight forward but the story elements are often marred by some really curious voice acting by the major players. Odd pauses in dialogue and unexpected voice inflections pull the player out of the immersion far too often. Even Devlin's usually solid performance sometimes comes across as if the lines were simply phoned in.
Devlin himself really pushes across the point that he's Irish and proud of it throughout the entire game. Devlin seems to be the virtual embodiment of every stereotypical idea of a born and raised Irishman. He's a tough, heavy drinking, womanizing, short tempered, don't-take-crap-from-anyone type of guy. The fact that he pushes his heritage upon everyone at every opportunity is amusing at first but the player does not need to be reminded about this fact all the time.
As the game's title suggests, The Saboteur is full of sabotage type missions. Most missions involve Devlin acquiring some heavy explosives and blowing a Nazi target to hell. Even guard towers, fuel depots, and search lights make for great targets for Devlin's explosives even when they are not part of an active mission. All of this is done in the name of revenge. The story is believable and despite some flaws in the story telling itself, it is an engaging experience that will motivate you to keep playing until the end.
You can't help but love the Noir style
Gameplay:
The Saboteur offers up a believable open world experience. Missions can often be completed in a variety of ways depending on your particular play style. If you wish to be stealthy, simply knock out a Nazi soldier, take his uniform and you are free to walk amongst your enemies. However, if you wish to go in guns blazing while tossing grenades you are more than welcome to do that, too. Some missions are certainly better suited to one style of gameplay over the other, but they are never to the point where only one method will work.
Going around and causing a mini riot always makes for a great time. This game does feature a "wanted level" type system, where stronger opposition shows up depending on how much mayhem you cause. Nazi reinforcements arrive by the truck load and sidecar motorcycles will join in the chase should you take to the roads. Get to a certain point and German Zeppelins join in to try and take you down. Yes, blimps will hunt you down in The Saboteur. Think about that for a moment and I can guarantee you'll quickly realize how awesome that sounds. If you're worried about never being able to escape their slow, watchful eye it should be noted that you are able to bring them down easily with mounted guns.
Weapons are procured either from the bodies of those you kill, or through various black market weapon vendors scattered throughout the city. Weapon purchases and upgrades can be made using money earned from completing missions, finding Resistance crates, blowing up towers, fuel depots, lights, or other Nazi points of interest. Money never seems to be an issue for Devlin. A few random bombings here and there and you'll have quickly earned enough for that new rifle you couldn't afford moments earlier.
If you find yourself without a weapon, Devlin need not run and hide. His fists do a more than admirable job of taking down enemies. A rather poor lock on mechanism will keep Devlin trained on an enemy. Slow, powerful punches can be mixed up with quick jabs or kicks. A simplistic grab will allow Devlin to push foes in any direction, often most used to throw Nazis off of the sniper towers. These moves can be upgraded throughout the course of the game.
When Devlin isn't running around blowing things up, chances are you can find him gunning down Nazis or perhaps hitting up the local gentleman's establishment to enjoy the "view." The on-foot controls feel solid and you'll rarely find yourself fighting to do what you want to. It should be mentioned that for this review, most of the gameplay was done using an Xbox 360 controller on the PC version of the game. However, the keyboard and mouse controls were tested and worked quite well. Using the controller was simply a personal preference.
Not as graceful as Altair or Spider-Man but he gets the job done.
Guns typically offer a hip shooting ability and a more precise "iron sight" zoom that gives better accuracy at the cost of mobility. A wide variety of period specific weapons show up as do a number of weapon "upgrades." These upgrades are usually just boosts to the number of rounds Devlin can carry, with a few weapon upgrades offering more damage output compared to earlier iterations of the same weapon. Sean can utilize a simple Gears of War style cover system, but you'll find that it's rarely used except in dire situations or when you're going for pure stealth infiltrations.
Upgrades can also be made to Devlin himself. By repeating certain moves or tasks, new abilities are unlocked that you can make use of throughout the game. Blow up enough sniper towers and soon Devlin will be able to carry more explosives. Another example can be seen once you complete enough stealth kills from behind as the ability to sucker punch a Nazi from the front is then unlocked. Everything the player does typically results in progression being made towards a new perk unlock or a new move.
Another widely promoted feature in The Saboteur was the ability for Devlin to scale the sides of buildings much like Altair of Assassin's Creed. However, unlike the fluid climbing in Assassin's Creed, Devlin isn't quite as graceful. Climbing the sides of buildings is accomplished by hitting a key or button each time you want Devlin to jump up to the next hand hold. It may not be the most intuitive way of climbing the side of a building but it does get the job done when you need to sneak into an area.
In a rather ironic twist, the driving and racing segments in the game leave a lot to be desired. Cars do not handle as well as you would hope they would. They aren't terrible but they are not all that fun to drive. The physics of the vehicles don't seem to matter much and all cars feel nearly identical unless you're driving a slow, heavy truck. Only then will you be able to really notice a difference in the handling between vehicles.
There are various side quests that the player can partake in. Besides the usual deal of weapon smuggling or retrieving cars for a garage, there are various other extras. The player can watch cabaret dances with a few ladies of "The Belle de Nuit" cabaret club. There is also a mini-game that, for a small fee, gives players a chance to win more contraband funds or other in-game perks. Yes, there is nudity included in the game, a lot of it in fact. The PC version features an option that will allow you to enable or disable the topless ladies that are prominent throughout the club. It should be noted that the dances, VIP room, nudity option, and mini-game are only available for free in the PC version and in newly purchased copies of the console version. For those who buy the game used on the consoles, a $3 fee will unlock this additional content.
And here you thought we'd give you uncensored pictures. Tsk tsk.
As far as open world titles go, The Saboteur offers up quite a bit of fun but still leaves a ton of room for improvement. The world never really feels alive. Pedestrians walk and drive around but often without much purpose. If you yank out a driver from their vehicle, they barely react to the grand theft auto that just took place. They may flip you off but they don't ever try to reclaim their ride or react in a way you would expect a person in that sort of situation to react.
In fact, the AI as a whole is severely underwhelming. Foes will give up pursuit the moment you escape an alert area. It feels rather odd to go from a hot pursuit one moment to not even being given an evil glare the next simply because you hit the edge of a red alert circle on your map. If you are spotted, few attempts are made by your enemies to seek appropriate cover and they will simply stand still to shoot at you.
When playing, you almost get the feeling that the game could have been so much greater if it were given more development time and the rough edges smoothed over. However, what is actually offered up to the player makes for an enjoyable experience. You may come away hoping for more but there is still a lot of fun to be had for what is actually included.
Smells that? It smells like liberation!
Graphics:
The visuals are a mixed bag in The Saboteur. Characters are well modeled but their mouths don't always seem to move in sync with what they're saying. Sometimes, their mouths won't bother to move at all (I'm looking at you topless singer in the gentleman's club)! Character animation is well executed but there are cases where the animations look stiff and not quite natural. These are really quite apparent in some of the mission briefing scenes where characters tend to just stand around and make a few repeated hand gestures.
The noir stylized areas are some of the most visually impressive areas in the game. Areas that have not yet been liberated with an explosion or two will appear in a black and white style. Only a few splashes of color show up in these areas; such as a partner's blue scarf or the red of the Nazi symbols. It's almost a shame that completing missions will result in color being restored to an area. Once color is restored the area loses its unique visuals and makes The Saboteur look like any other game out there that uses a lot of bloom and bright, pretty colors. At least with the black and white stylized look it gave the game a very unique feel and really allowed the game to stand out from the crowd.
The damage modeling on the cars is almost non-existent. Running full speed into a wall does not even result in a scratch appearing on your polished ride. To say the lack of damage modeling is disappointing is putting it mildly. Bullet hole decals and blood splatters will appear on your car as Nazis shoot at you, but this does not make up for the complete lack of damage modeling.
A moment of quiet reflection between sprees of Nazi killing
The city itself is decent in its appearance. The buildings within the more dense areas of the city, while not visual standouts, have no real faults to speak of. The countryside includes rolling hills, farms, fences, and houses that dot the roadsides. The lighting and weather effects are quite beautiful, especially when it's pouring down rain in the dead of night as you infiltrate a Nazi stronghold. The rain pours in sheets down helmets and walls, and when combined with the noir style and brief splashes of color it really makes for an engrossing experience.
That's not to say that the graphics are not without their issues. There are some very odd glitches that have taken place during my playtime with The Saboteur. A major issue comes in the form of pop-in . Pedestrians and various objects will suddenly pop into view as you drive down the road. You don't even need to be driving at full speed to witness the pop-in and it can sometimes be quite distracting.
Another graphical oddity involves some interesting glitches in the physics engine. On more than one occasion I witnessed cars glitching into the ground. One particular instance involved a German tank inverting itself as if it were stuck on a rotisserie. This went on for a short while, pushing soldiers aside as it rotated before it blew up leaving me as a suspect in the explosion and running from a hail of gunfire.
Moments after this tank inverted itself, it blew up and caused every enemy in sight to open fire on poor Sean.
Audio:
Music within The Saboteur is a mix of period inspired songs and grand orchestral pieces. The music is not very memorable but it serves its purpose in setting the mood of the action on screen. The period pieces are played when driving around or inside various buildings. The orchestral pieces pick up when the on-screen action gets heated or through various cut-scenes. A larger arrangement of period inspired songs would have been quite welcome, but this is just a minor issue.
Weapons and explosions sound fantastic as one should come to expect in a game where sabotage is a major focus. Rifles pack a very sharp crack with each shot fired, while the more rapid sub-machine gun fire is more subdued in its punch.
As mentioned before, the voice acting is very hit and miss. There are times where the main characters voice acting sounds perfect and full of emotion. Yet, just seconds later, the same characters in the same situation sound as if the voice actors suddenly gave up trying. In my opinion, all of the foreign accents sound great and never came across as phony.
Pedestrians do speak and react slightly to actions performed by Devlin, but nothing noteworthy. They will yell in surprise if they see you climbing the side of a building or if an explosion goes off near them. Other ambient sounds, including the vehicles and weather, are good although it feels as though vehicles could use little more oomph in the engine sounds. Really, aside from the voice acting issues, there isn't too much to fault when it comes to the game's audio.
Even cemeteries can be bright and colorful places
Summary:
The Saboteur is a game that seems to have it all; including sabotage, explosions, killin' Nazis, Nazi blimps, nudity, and an irate Irishman. If you can overlook some of the game's issues you'll soon discover an open-world title that offers up an engaging story and plenty of bang for your buck. Clocking in at well over 10 hours just for the game's main story, this tale of revenge is a largely positive note for Pandemic Studios to go out on.
I, however, wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention that many ATI users are experiencing major issues with the game. While no patch has yet been released, a workaround has been mentioned. The workaround is to set the CPU affinity of the game to run on just one core of a multi-core system. Needless to say, many ATI users and even some Nvidia users are not too thrilled with some of the issues that have popped up. I can say that during the review period, I did not encounter these particular issues, only those few in-game issues that were described above.
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 9/10
Total Gaming Network Rating: 8/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 9/10
Total Gaming Network Rating: 8/10
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