Joystiq impressions: The Saboteur
A race car driver. 1940s Paris. An Irish accent. Zeppelins. Black and white. If you tossed these items into an active blender -- and it would have to be a pretty big one, what with you chucking Paris in there -- the end result would probably resemble The Saboteur, which is more simply described as a World War II game that features no American presence. Can you believe it's been more than two years since it was announced?
We spent some time with the game recently (and a slew of other EA titles -- keep your eyes open for further coverage over the next few weeks), and talked to lead designer Tom French, from Pandemic, who guided us through the streets of Paris. Check out the gallery of brand new screens below, and head past the break to read all about this innovative WWII title -- now with vintage racing cars!
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In The Saboteur, you play as an Irish mechanic-turned-race-driver, Sean Devlin, who's off to Germany to participate in a racing event with his beloved Morini Aurora speedster (both car and company are part of the game's fiction). However, his plans get derailed when a "tragic incident" occurs, leaving him in Nazi-occupied Paris. We hate it when that happens.
As a result, Devlin adopts yet another career shift: from driver to "saboteur," you see. Though you'll spend most of the game shooting Nazis and going on missions that damage the Wehrmacht, there are still a few racing levels tucked in throughout the game. You can roam freely through the streets of Paris in your own car, and Devlin can commandeer other vehicles as well, akin to a Grand Theft Auto set the early '40s. We didn't see too much of the driving, but Devlin's Aurora seems like quite the desirable car. We wish they'd make some real ones!
The world of The Saboteur is presented in both black-and-white and color, with a change caused by an element dubbed "Will to Fight." If an area is completely Nazi-controlled and oppressed, it'll appear in black-and-white with various different color cues showing up vibrantly: think Nazi banners, explosive barrels and other points of interest. Once you complete the main mission in that area, it will fill up with wholesome colors and life will return to the streets.
In the black-and-white areas, however, you'll see groups of Nazis harassing people, and you can choose to get involved with those or bypass them depending on your mood. We drove past a big German armored vehicle with scads of soldiers milling around, randomly stopping Parisians and giving them a hard time at gunpoint. Since we were on a mission and pressed for time, we had to forgo running the bad guys over and simply drive by. Oh, the guilt! There will be several such situation in each Will to Fight area, and they look like ideal places to get into skirmishes between missions.
Devlin can carry two different weapons (which can be picked up along the way), and two different types of grenades or explosives, thanks to the satchel slung around his neck. One fine moment had him firing a Panzerfaust at a zeppelin hovering overhead, which exploded in spectacular Hindenburg fashion and crashed to the ground. There are a lot of period weapons in the game, naturally, but Pandemic has also taken some larger-than-life liberties -- or so we're told. The Saboteur also uses some sort of a perk system, as revealed by a "You've unlocked the Gunslinger perk" message on screen. Pandemic remained mum on the details, however.
There's one obvious thing that Devlin shares with the Prince of Persia, Altair and Ezio from Assassin's Creed and Nathan Drake from Uncharted: his love for climbing (quick recap: mechanic, race driver, saboteur, climber!). You can climb just about every building in Paris, and yes, that means you can scale the Eiffel Tower. We're not sure how often resistance fighters were scaling buildings and sliding down wires in the 1940s, but then they probably weren't racing shiny cars around either. Climbing does offer you a pretty spectacular view of Paris, particularly at night -- they don't call it the city of lights for nothing. Oh, and there's the whole climbing to a good spot and shooting your enemies thing.
The level we saw required us to blow up a massive Nazi cannon (approachable from multiple paths) that was set to fire on a resistance locationand. An engineer stationed on the cannon could be taken out at long range with a rifle, which would halt the firing countdown and afford you more time to stealth your way in and plant explosives. Otherwise, you could go in guns blazing and simply storm the location. According to Pandemic, all missions feature the same choice between stealth or storm, or even a combination of both.
After that, we were briefly dropped outside Belle Nuit, a Mucha-esque themed Parisian nightclub near the Moulin Rouge. We weren't able to venture inside yet, but Pandemic promised us that the interior is a full-fledged nightclub similar to Rick's Café Américain in Casablanca, complete with German soldiers mingling with citizens from all walks of life.
The Saboteur does not have a release date, and could very well be coming out in 2010. We spotted some frame rate issues and some graphical pop-in, but nothing too ghastly for an early build like this. The game has a very ambitious take on the WWII setting, and the version of Paris created for the game is gorgeous and invites exploration. You'll find that hopping in a car and tooling around might be your quickest route from Point A to Point B, but we suspect climbing is how you'll best enjoy the sights.
We like the fact that you're not part of an army unit in this game, and that it allows you to see the war from a slightly different angle. There's still a lot of the game we haven't seen, including several key "racing moments" that should be in the final build and even areas outside Paris. We'll certainly be taking a closer look at this game in the coming months. Viva La Resistance!
