Quiet In, Loud Out!
Name: The Saboteur
Console: PS3 | Xbox 360 | PC/Mac
Developed by: Pandemic Studios | Electronic Arts
Release: December 8th
Please allow me to re-introduce you (See older posts) to the Saboteur. A game that hasn’t got even half the bloody hype it deserves. I saw the first trailer for this game long ago, it was less than two minutes of an aggravated irish accent narrating his lifestyle. Nothing out of the normal, he loves his friends, his cars, and his women! Quickly it flashes to a game generated scene where we witness said Irishman, named Sean Devlin, sneaking up on an unsuspecting SS officer before delivering the line “Pray god find you…before I do!” and proceeding to gruesomely snap the officer’s neck. Cue “Feeling Good” by the incredible Nina Simone (There that’s one good thing you’ve got out of this article already). There you have it, one of the most interesting and stylish teasers you will ever seen.
Since that trailer, it was a very long wait until we heard anything else. I started to assume that the EA of today thought it didn’t need another World War II action adventure, and pulled the plug. Until May earlier this year that is, when Playstation Magazine had a blowout. Going so far as to feature it as their cover game, and spend an entire four pages detailing it’s unique and fresh take on Germany’s occupation of Paris. Save to say I was more than a little bit excited. In fact, less than an hour after reading the magazine, I had my own take up here for you to enjoy. You can enjoy my dreadful prediction on FIFA10 while your reading. “>
Done? Good cause there’s now a lot more to talk about. In the older article, I mentioned how this would play out to something like a WWII version of Assassin’s Creed. Well today I still hold that view. Sean will climb and explore Paris much like Altair would. Leaping from building to building, crapping ledge after ledge, ploughing nose first into buildings and falling to his death. Oh yes it’s all there. Much of the mechanic’s are still the same as before, as in nothing really new has been shown. A variety of weapons, gadgets, vehicles, missions and locations have been shown so feel free to look at them at your leisure…after your done reading please.
What sets the Saboteur out from the rest of the WWII malaise in recent years is the fact it’s not a simple war sim. It brings a living, breathing Paris under German control. The once lush & beautiful city has been left a bland paletteof black, red & grey. However you can change this. Working with french resistance and British SOE, Sean can bring the Will to Fight back into Paris. He can’t liberate it, but he can resurrect the life of what is essentially a ‘dead’ city. Once he completes a special mission, the colour will actually bleed back into the city and the citizens of that area will show a newly found resilience in the face of their oppressors.
The most shocking thing of all is that this over the top and bizarre concept of a race car driver fighting the Germans is actually based on real events! William Grover, former Bugati Grand Prix race car driver and a damn good one at that. He wasn’t Irish, the Irish idea is a mystery, he was of dual nationality being French & English. This made him the perfect man to become an SOE operative. So when he made it to England, he was retrained and reinserted into France. He spent months building intelligence networks, sabotage cells, reception committees for British Parachute Forces, weapon lots, vehicles, and helped create a deep and versatile network of community spies. Sadly though, the SD captured him in 1943 and consequently had him executed him in 1945 alongside fellow resistance member Francis Suttill. Today both are honoured as key members of the SOE’s effort in WWII, but one wonders does Grover’s tragic end have any indication to Devlin’s? We’ll have to play and see.
Watch you’re backs this holiday season when the Saboteur breaks cover on December 8th!
All in a days work…
3 Comments
I hope this game turns out great.