Lots of bad reviews and a turkey award or two seem to be the thanks to Pandemic studios and their efforts to make their mark on the gaming world.
After lackluster success with Mercenaries 2, Electronic Arts announced the team’s disbandment before their swan song was over. The Saboteur was released in December 2009 to a not-so-anticipated audience and the mainstream media proceeded to trash the game. Granted, the different versions were riddled with bugs and the PC version suffered from crippling compatibility issues with ATi cards, but now that the game has been fixed, it’s worth a look and Pandemic deserves a proper obituary, if you will.
I went into the game with very little expectations other than knowing that it was a GTA sandbox and featured black and white visuals and some Nazi destruction action in the WWII city of lights: Paris. The controls were familiar, the graphics (on a heavy gaming PC) were excellent, and the soundtrack from the start was something others strove for.
The initial impression was that of a pleasant surprise. Sean (the lead) moved, sounded and behaved satisfactorily and was quite a capable hero. The cast and voice acting have been completely criticized, but I had no problem living with both. In fact, Inglorious Bastards and Allo’ Allo’ with a dose of seriousness to keep things from getting out of hand was good enough for me. Maybe the voice acting isn’t as ear-drilling if the person isn’t German, Irish, French or British.
The main story is a bit bland but lacks the repetitiveness that most sandbox games suffer from. The main and side missions are varied and feature checkpoints for the clumsy and I can’t remember a mission that I would have hated or been completely frustrated with. This is something that rarely happens with similar open-world games and a godsend for us less twitch-oriented gamers. As the additional mouse + keyboard and Xbox pad work perfectly together, the pad is recommended for driving and the mouse for letting the guns do the talking.
Then we come to the meat, the side activities are just wonderful. There are enough free game activities to keep even the most seasoned gamer busy for weeks. Literally hundreds of dots litter the map of Paris when you’re looking for things to do. Blow up fuel depots, anti-aircraft stations, train bridges, supply trucks, propaganda loudspeakers, watchtowers, assassinate generals and other dignitaries, sneak into bases and silently take out entire squads of unsuspecting Nazis, steal cars, tanks, motorcycles and assault vehicles or run away. on rooftops for supplies and vantage points… and this list only scratches the surface of what you can do in Paris if you so choose. To top it off, you get new abilities (touch of death, for those silent looting from the front lines, etc.) and gear (weapons, cars, explosives, etc.) by accomplishing certain feats.
The game’s stealth mechanics have been criticized as being a difficult and less efficient method of progressing through the game, but I disagree. If you’re stealthed, I’d say you can expect that you’re not going to advance as quickly through an enemy base as if you chose the frontal assault and managed to pull it off. I really enjoyed the puzzle aspect of trying to take an entire base without a single alarm and the satisfaction after having done it was just overwhelming for me.
And then for the main character of any sandbox game, the city and the surroundings. I don’t know if you have to be older or what is the reason why Paris spoke to me more than Liberty or Vice City or even the wasteland that I previously had as an insurmountable environment. Maybe the gloomy black and white graphics with red blood and flags with the very atmospheric soundtrack and the return of color when an area was liberated were the gimmicks that got to me, but I have to say I don’t expect any sandbox to top Paris in the short term. Beautiful, just beautiful.
92 points and an essential tag
Gorgeous:
graphics
Atmosphere, environment and soundtrack
Paris
Abundance of things to do and achieve
stealth and escalation
Cabaret
Donnerwetter:
Brief, but what’s the rush? There is a lot to do in Paris after the main story.
some bugs remain
A pinch of humor could have saved a lot
Go get this game, it’s already very cheap 😉