The Saboteur: Hands On Impressions [Xbox 360]

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Posted November 29, 2009 by DMoore in News, PS3, Xbox 360.

BeefJack has had some hands-on time with (the sadly no-more) Pandemic Studio’s upcoming tactical WWII title, The Saboteur. Here’s what we’ve got to say about it.

The Saboteur tells the story of racing driver Sean Devlin who is doing his best to defeat the Nazis currently occupying France, where he is trapped. His story is based on real life resistance fighter William Grover-Williams and makes for a refreshing change of pace than the usual WWII fare.

In fact, refreshing is a word that pretty much sums up the whole experience. So many people say that World War II is tapped out in the gaming space, but this title proves them wrong and how, with a strong visual style, great gameplay and action packed story there might still be some life in the genre yet.

The demo I played took place as Sean tried to escape a Nazi stronghold. At first you brutally break a guards neck as he is leaving the room, letting you wonder around. Unfortunately, that guard didn’t have any weapons, so bare fists it was as we pulled the left bumper to initiate sneak mode.

This meant we could get up close and personal with the next guard before turning out his lights. Speaking of which, this game is in black and white for the most part so be prepared.

The visual style is brilliant as it really gives the game a unique feel. Only parts of the world are coloured, in this case the guards uniform and his red arm band were given a nice coat of paint, letting you easily distinguish him from the background.

The next guard had a gun and I could finally get to grips with the shooting, which seems very solid. Pulling the right trigger fires while clicking the left stick in will zoom to a more over the shoulder perspective, allowing those wonderful head shots.

The game isn’t just about action though, and if the guards see you before you kill them they will sound an alarm, like in a lot of stealth games, so it pays to either bring swift death to the enemy or sneak around and blindside them.

Once you get to a small courtyard however, there are enemies galore and the alarm is sounded anyway, trigging an intense firefight as you try to fight your way past and eventually end up commandeering a armoured car. The game then shifts to an intense chase as you speed your way from the stronghold being chased by enemies, all whilst watching as Nazi troops slowly take over the town you reach and speed through.

Its great that the car becomes visibly bullet-ridden as you fly past enemies and head on out to a small farm. Unfortunately this farm, owned by a friend of Sean’s is being torched by the bad guys, so its up to you to take them down as soon as you can and save your friend and his daughter.

The game really looks great during this sequence as the fire really pops due to the black and white colour of everything else, and blasting explosive barrels and enemy troops never got old, especially as I fought my way through a flaming barn to save the damsel in distress.

In all, The Saboteur is shaping up to be a very unique World War II themed title and indeed  a very unique game regardless, if developer Pandemic and keep up the pace and intensity show in this demo for the entire game then this could just be one of this years dark horses.

Tagged as EA GAMES, Hands-On, Impressions, Pandemic, The Saboteur