| Author | Review |
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PeaceSquid
372,626
TA Score for this game: 1,490
Posted on 09 January 10 at 21:25 |
This review has 59 positive votes and 18 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
You know, the games industry would explode and undo creation if a World War 2 game wasn't released every couple of months so. Luckily for us, Pandemic Studios have served up a few rocks of that Nazi killing gaming crack that we need to keep us going. Of course, this is the same Pandemic who completely ruined their Mercenaries franchise by following up the brilliantly freeform original with a game so buggy and glitched that you knew they wouldn't be around for long. Unluckily for them, this became true with EA doing their 'buy a dev studio, destroy a dev studio' trick. They were given enough time to finish Saboteur though, even if the marketing budget behind the game wouldn't keep Louis Walsh in rentboys past next weekend.
Sticking to what they know, Pandemic have offered up yet another sandbox title here. You play the part of the imaginitively-named Irishman Sean Devlin. He's a hard-drinking, chain-smoking racing driver who does a nifty sideline in parkour, markmanship and demolitions. He also hates them gawd damn Sploicers. After rather unwisely destroying a car belonging to the nazi secret agent Kurt Dierker he finds himself getting the German version of the Guantanamo Bay treatment whilst his best mate Jules is tortured and shot for his part in the prank. A quick escape later and he's ready to kick the scheisser out of any teutonic prick in the city. As luck would have it, the city is Paris which is a good thing for two reasons: it's beautiful and you can randomly kill French passers-by if the fancy takes you.
The graphic engine is solid rather than remarkable but to compensate for this, the game uses colour in a stark and beautiful way. Areas under heavy occupation are black and white but lights (from windows or cars) are flashes of yellow while Nazi structures stand out thanks to the use of red. It's a kind of Sin City effect but it looks great. Escape these areas and you'll get the contrast of a bright and breezy countryside. Add to that the welcome - but quite silly if you think about it - car radio soundtrack, which is mainly 1930s jazz, and it's a nice environment for killing Germans in.
After a few getting-to-know-you-and-your-story missions, you are dropped in the middle of Paris with the contact details of some black-marketeers and a few mission markers. The main mission takes you through a series of thefts, assassinations and demolitions as you do your bit to make Dierker and his sausage-eating cohorts pay in every way possible and whilst it's nothing you haven't seen before in countless games, the journey you take is an entertaining one. The gun combat is satisfying, the driving mechanics are yet another nail in GTA4's coffin and the set-pieces are suitably tense and epic.
To give the game an edge over the competition, Pandemic have given Sean the ability to climb and free-run. He's not quite Altair - a 20-a-day habit does that to you - but he's far nimbler than your usual game hero and he can pretty much climb anything in Paris. It's an obvious nod to Assassin's Creed (there's even a sportscar in the game called the 'Altair') but it's not a hollow addition at all. The ability to climb gives you immense freedom in the way you complete your objectives. Say, for example, that you need to steal a car that is guarded by Nazis. You can go in all guns blazing. You can drive at the guards, rig some dynamite in your car and then dive out. You can blow up a nearby target to distract the guards. My favourite plan was to simply climb up behind them and drop grenades on their location. When you add rocket-launchers, sniper rifles and disguises to the mix it gives you plenty of freedom.
Aside from your story missions there are also hundreds of other 'freeplay' objectives dotted around the map. These range from sniper towers, giant flashlights, propoghanda speakers, contraband crates, fuel trucks and more. These are to be destroyed whenever you encounter them which will earn you money for more weapons and ammo. You'll need to find all of them if you're looking for 1000GS though and, trust me, after the first 100 or so it begins to feel like a massive chore. If you can limit your play sessions then you'll be okay but if you're like me - a big, stupid, whorey wronghead who rushes to max games as quick as possible - then you'll probably start getting pissed off after a day or so. Credit to Pandemic though for marking all of it out on the in-game map. At least you won't be scratching around Google for a map. Doesn't stop me wondering why they put in so many of them though, and whether or not Pandemic's mothers bottle-fed them petrol when they were children.
Completing in-game task will unlock perks for Sean as well. These range from improving your sniper skills by getting five headshots, to new stealth kills, car-stealing abilities, improved explosives and a host of other upgrades. A quick tip: you get to buy two perks - save these for the silver and gold 'mechanics' perks. It'll save you from the chore of collecting all the in-game vehicles. The system works reasonably well though and it's nice to turn Sean into even more of a Nazi-destroying badass.
All in all it's a pleasant mix of the first Godfather game, Assassin's Creed, Mercenaries and Freedom Fighters and, more importantly, it works. Sure the in-the-case DLC code (for unlocking adult content - such as nudity *tsk*), Irish stereotyping (one of the first achievements is called 'a pint and a shag'), repetitive side-missions, cliched plot and slightly clunky controls stop this from being a grade A classic but given the meh-fest of 2009, it's nice to have a game that is happy to put you in a living, breathing city without putting 50 Cent on the soundtrack. Don't expect it to blow you away but if you want a unpretentious sandboxer to while away the hours with, you could do a hell of a lot worse.
I give it a very respectable sieben out of zehn.
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Tasty Pastry
144,354
TA Score for this game: 1,490
Posted on 20 June 10 at 23:17, Edited on 27 November 10 at 22:34 |
This review has 39 positive votes and 7 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Forward Notes: I picked this game up via a lovely coupon for EA’s website that essentially made the game $5. As such the game was obviously surprisingly good for that price. At a $60 brand new price tag, my opinion might have been slightly different, but considering how long the game has been out now, $20 seems like the maximum amount that it will cost in the US. This was one of my first games I played coming off an extended period of non-gaming and a time when I had gotten no more than five achievements in the last two months. I was in a gaming funk per se, and this game essentially kicked me out of it. Let’s get started.
Single Player:
Considering this game has no multiplayer mode, this is where you will be spending all of your time. Single player games with a detailed plot aren’t exactly rare, but a well-done one is. So let’s start with the basics.
You spend the game residing in Nazi occupied France, specifically Paris. You’re an Irishman, fueled mostly by vengeance and hatred towards the Nazis, who is bent on sabotaging the invaders. This includes destroying nazi refueling depots, sniper towers, propaganda stations, and other high profile targets. During this process you of course meet up with other resistance members and attempt to liberate Paris from Nazi control. Many of these resistance leaders give you missions, as well as a central main mission, which keeps the game from being totally linear. You are also able to, at any point, destroy random things around the cities, in total around 400. This means that you are not forced into a playing style that becomes repetitive if you mix things up properly.
The controls work like any shooter game in the modern era, with the control sticks changing view and movement respectfully. You use the D-Pad to select your guns and explosives, while right trigger shoots your gun. Holding the left trigger will keep you stationary as you fire, making it slightly easier to aim. However shooting from the hip didn’t really affect my accuracy that badly. The guns are supposed to be from World War II obviously, so you’ll see your usual suspects, many of them inaccurate. However there is a nice range, including silenced pistols, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and explosives, as well as the machine guns. You’re also very capable of driving armored vehicles – including tanks – as well as jeeps with mounted machine guns. There is also a climbing system that is similar to what you would find in Assassin’s Creed.
Speaking of vehicles, you will spend much of the game driving around the city. The game is very open ended, and those 400 random things you can destroy need space to exist. I probably spent about 1/8th of my playtime driving around cars and trucks getting places. Some people may find that this is cumbersome, but I found that it helped with the realism. You have a mini map on your bottom part of the screen, but you can also pull up a larger map with the pause button.
The story is fantastic in this game. Depending on which characters you talk to changes the type of story you’re going to see. In the end you’re going to be killing Nazis, yes, but many different types of people – from generals to girlfriends to traitors – all spurred on by conversations with random leaders that are as different in motives as they are in persona. I wouldn’t say the game is an excellent shooter, but in terms of fun gameplay with excellent story, it definitely excels.
Single Player Score: 9/10
Multiplayer:
There is no multiplayer
Multiplayer Score: N/a
Graphics/Sound/DLC/Intangibles:
Graphically the game is above average. As previously mentioned, the whole of the area that you can explore is well detailed, with many interactive items. The game is also excellent at including citizens and random Nazis strolling around. The game emphasizes the beauty of its landscapes by including “scenic points” (think Assassin’s Creed) in which you get a panoramic view of the area when you climb a high building. I smiled when I got the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
That being said, I was overall disappointed with major character graphical design. Although, as I mentioned, they do a good job of making each character an individual, their facial textures leave something to be desired. Although the game isn’t atrocious at it, I would have liked better lip synchronization as well. In general though, the game is above average for the eyes.
I rather liked the music that would play in the game. It would become suspenseful when you were acting suspicious or trespassing in Nazi territory. Gunfire sounded good, and the dialogue was fine, though my mother, who happened to be watching a couple parts, giggled at how over the top it was.
There were some things that really irked me about the game though that changed it from an amazing game to an above average game. Firstly, it’s made by EA, which in my experience basically translates to “there is going to be bugs”. I experienced this lovely little thing. At one point every single character in the game disappeared for me – literally everyone (keep in mind that you always see someone walking down the street). Even the guys that sold me guns disappeared, so I was incapable of continuing the game. I had to hard restart my Xbox and revert to an old save file. There are other glitches mentioned online if you Google it, with some people complaining of characters walking through walls.
Speaking of save files, I really dislike EA’s save feature system. Although the game has a lovely auto-save feature, the manual save left much to be desired. If I wasn’t connected to xbox live (which I often wasn’t, thanks to poor internet, and no need since it was a single player game) the game was incapable of figuring out the date and time (even if I had previously connected to xbox live earlier that day). This often made it so I would have to guess and check save files instead of just hitting “continue”. The game is also incapable of saving you in a location, so retries of a certain part of the game can become tedious and frustrating.
On the positive side, the game did some things well – it included four difficulties. On the easy difficulty you can just kill Nazis, which is what I spent a good part of the meta-game doing. On the hard difficulty you really set yourself up for a challenge. The game also has an “alarm” system – similar to Grand Theft Auto – where, depending on the level of mayhem you cause, creates a level 1-5 alarm. Each increment adds a new opponent – with level 5 bringing in large tanks and Zepplins. This can be fun when you just want to goof around. There are also a lot of upgrades to get that keeps the game interesting as you play.
Graphics/Sound/DLC/Intangibles Score: 7/10
Achievements:
The achievements are relatively straight forward and sensible, which can be both good and bad. There is absolutely no achievement-related-incentive to play the game on any difficulty harder than easy, which depending on your achievement whore level, may entice or deter you. You’ll get most of the achievements simply by playing through the story (all the secret ones for example), and some of the odder ones are relatively easy as well.
However there are some more difficult ones; notably getting all of the gold perks. Some of the requirements for these can be missable, and are often very time consuming and frustrating. Some are just tedious (read: not difficult), like getting 20 double kills with a sniper rifle (one shot, two kills). It’s easy to make the shot, but takes a bit to run away, return, and do again. One of the gold perks took me roughly two hours for just a part of an achievement. I still have yet to get that achievement, as well as some others (spending excessive amounts of money) that can lead to a lot of grinding. You might as well call all of the liberation achievements as grinding too, seeing as you will have to destroy 400+ random targets in the game. Luckily you can buy maps in the game that put white dots on your map to show you where all these secondary targets are.
In short, an easy 500, and a tedious 1000, but at least it’s straightforward. You know the requirements, you know where everything is, it’s just time consuming.
Achievements Score: 7/10
Final Score: (7+7+9)/3 = 7.6/10 = 3.8/5
Final Thoughts:
I found this game to be very enjoyable throughout the story mode and main side quests. I still haven’t 100%ed it because I didn’t want the game to become a tedious grind. I was really rather irked by the glitches that the game had as well as the save feature. However, given its now cost, I definitely recommend picking this one up.
Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it.
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Sashamorning
460,364
TA Score for this game: 1,490
Posted on 08 August 10 at 05:20, Edited on 08 August 10 at 06:51 |
This review has 41 positive votes and 10 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Saboteur was released in the middle of the busy 2009 holiday season, and as a result was unfortunately overlooked by many. This is a shame since Pandemic Studio's final offering was one of its best, an atmospheric sandbox game set in WWII Paris at the height of the Nazi occupation.
The game revolves around Sean Devlin, an Irish race driver pressed into service by the Resistance, who want to make work of his abilities to blow things up. As a result, much of the game is spent driving around Paris in fast cars, bombing various Nazi targets in what is ultimately a very fun game.
The mood of the game is set from the beginning. After a prologue involving an initial race, Sean finds himself in Paris, which is portrayed in stark black-and-white, with very little grey. The only colors noticeable at the beginning are the bright red symbols of the Nazis who patrol the streets and occupy various buildings. As you progress through the game, destroying propaganda speakers, watch towers, AA guns and larger specialty targets, the colors of each neighborhood brighten as the residents become more defiant and willing to support the Resistance. As a result, moving from dark areas to colored areas and back give you an idea of which neighborhoods are friendly and which have more Nazi opposition.
There is a lot to do in The Saboteur, including blowing up bridges, sniping targets, shelling Zeppelins, and driving--yes, lots of GTA-style driving--around the gorgeous French countryside. On the other hand, the driving can be tedious. There's no real way to fast travel to locations, and some in more remote parts (especially in later stages of the game) can be tedious to reach. There's also a bit of stealth as you try to infiltrate various places to blow up, but you can kill Nazis and take their uniforms, which helps quite a bit.
All of the achievements are readily available, but it will take some time. Maps are available that mark the locations of each Nazi target, and this helps to move toward the not-quite-collectible bombing locations. The good news is that you don't need to destroy 100% of them... there are a few extra in case you have difficulty reach a couple.
The price of the game fell quickly, reflecting sales numbers, which is a shame, although it means you can find the game fairly cheaply. As a result, this romp through Paris is easily worth the money. Replayability is questionable, and some of the collection missions can be tedious (car collecting comes to mind), but those don't put a damper on what is a very fun and solid game.
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Drakenden
258,111
TA Score for this game: 1,490
Posted on 08 January 10 at 16:49 |
This review has 22 positive votes and 6 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Set in the Nazi-occupied Paris, France, during the World War 2, this game grabs your attention with its freedom, the size of the map and the size of its explosions.
You are Sean Devlin, an Irish mechanic who also likes to race, friend with an Italian stereotype old man and Jules, his French sidekick. Sean gets pulled into the Resistance, a group of rebels whose goal is to kill Nazis, destroy Nazis outposts, assassinate more Nazis... well you get the picture. The story itself is nothing out of the ordinary, but it's the setting and everything else that makes this a good game.
First, this game is a third-person shooter/action kinda a breed between GTA, Assassin's Creed and Mercenaries 2. You can climb buildings and run freely, assassinating Nazis while trying to stay stealthy and out of sight, à la Assassins's Creed. You can also steal cars, jeeps, and even tanks in the later game, to drive and bring back to your garage, not unlike GTA or Crackdown. About 20 different guns are available to you, including sniper rifles, RPGs and silenced pistols. Grenades and dynamites also come in handy for your 'splosion needs.
The HUD is also clean and well designed. If you happen to get spotted by Nazis while doing something suspicious (climbing a building, being stealthy, pulling out a gun), your suspicion meter starts filling up, and if it gets full, you sound an alarm, like the ones we are used to see in the GTA series, with different lvls (from 1 to 5). The more s**t you stir, the higher the alarm will get, and bigger and badder the Nazis who will hunt you down will be.
Your main fun will be with the Freelance targets. There are over 1500 targets to destroy around the map, scenic spots to climb to, generals to assassinate, ramps to find with a car, collectibles to grab, etc. All these will take most of your playtime. And the more you destroy, the more contraband (money) you receive to spend on weapon upgrades, ammo, cars, etc. It's an incentive for doing the biggest badass explosion you can.
The sound effects are spot on, the voice acting is pretty good, and the choice of music playing from the car radio is excellent. If you are looking for a different sandbox-type game, this game might be a good grab for you. For all you achievement seekers, this one is a fairly easy 1000, but will take quite a while (40h+).
Oh did I mention that if you grab a brand new copy you also get a DLC code for free burlesque topless dance shows?
P.S.: That was my first review, so don't be shy and comment. Thanks! 
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PickAxPete
152,631
TA Score for this game: 1,171
Posted on 11 October 10 at 01:24, Edited on 11 October 10 at 18:58 |
This review has 12 positive votes and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Saboteur combines two over-used videogame tropes - the open world sandbox game and the World War II setting - and slaps an arty color filter over everything. Throw in some heavy influences from the likes of the Mercenaries series and Assassin's Creed, and there's your game. But despite not being overly original, The Saboteur still ends up as an enjoyable experience.
In The Saboteur you play as Sean Devlin, a hard-drinking Irishman (Redundancy alert!) who spends his time racing cars in Europe. Although full-scale war hasn't broken out yet, it's looming on the horizon. Eventually war does happen and Sean finds himself in Paris, which has fallen to German forces. This version of Paris is bleak and dreary: there are German troops on every street corner, and the whole world is black and white and overcast, save for yellow lights coming from windows; bright red Nazi flags and armbands; and the tinge of blue worn by French Resistance fighters. The visual style screams "Art!," but it still manages to work.
At first, sullen Sean wants nothing to do with the French Resistance, preferring to spend his days sitting in a bar feeling sorry for himself. But he soon sees the Resistance as a way to get payback on the Nazi Gestapo officer/race car driver who murdered his best buddy. With a little help from his new friends, Sean decides to take back Paris one city block at a time.
If you've played any of the titles from the Grand Theft Auto/Saints Row/Mercenaries triumvirate, The Saboteur will seem quite familiar: there's a huge open map full of streets, roads, and buildings to explore; there are lots of vehicles to test drive; and there are civilians and enemies walking about in equal measure. Missions will have you blowing things up; rescuing people; killing key enemies; or delivering items and people to certain locations. Causing too much death and destruction will bring enemies down on your head and the longer you evade capture, the stiffer the opposition becomes.
In between missions you can explore Paris and the surrounding countryside at your leisure, looking for hidden items, activities or just things to blow up. A freeplay mode turns off the plot, so if you just feel like ignoring the story and causing mayhem at will, you can.
Yeah, it's all been done before. But The Saboteur does it pretty well nonetheless.
To help fuel his war effort, Sean gains contraband from completing missions and destroying German equipment. Contraband can then be exchanged at underground weapon shops for guns, ammo, and explosives. The best and fastest way to earn contraband is by blowing up German structures, vehicles, and installations; it's all clearly marked on your map and there's a ton of it, ranging from watch towers to fuel dumps to anti-aircraft guns to propaganda loudspeakers to searchlights, and much more. Blowing stuff up in The Saboteur is surprisingly engrossing and it's easy to lose hours to this activity. Attaching remote-controlled bombs to tanks, fuel drums, rocket launch pads, and watchtowers and then watching them go up one after the other with the press of a button never gets old.
Destruction in The Saboteur isn't just fun and profitable, but it also has a strategic purpose: knocking out observation towers and searchlights will make escape easier later on; when you're being chased down the street by a bunch of Germans on motorcycles, you'll be very glad that the sniper towers and armored car you blew up three hours ago aren't around to harass you as you speed by.
Since many of The Saboteur's key targets are located on rooftops or other high places, developer Pandemic bestowed Sean with the Assassin's Creed-esque ability to climb nearly any surface. While not especially graceful to see in action when compared to the likes of Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia, the vertical element in The Saboteur offers an extra dimension to the game; you'll use rooftops and wires a lot to get around in The Saboteur. Rooftops also have hiding places where you can duck out of sight when the heat is on.
Hiding places are pretty important in The Saboteur since as soon as you start doing unusual things in the vicinity of German soldiers they'll become suspicious, and if you don't get out of range quickly enough the alarm will be raised and the bullets and grenades will start to fly. Fortunately Devlin is just as handy with firearms as he is with explosives, so expect to find yourself in plenty of gunfights. There are lots of objects to take cover behind and Sean can absorb ludicrous amounts of damage before dying, which means you can throw caution to the wind and just go in guns blazing. While it's possible to don enemy uniforms and move about undetected in The Saboteur, shooting first and asking questions later works every time.
What also helps in gun battles is the short memories of enemies: you can often trigger an alarm, run an inch out of the enemy's viewing range (at which point the alarm stops) and then go back about your business as if nothing had happened. It's possible to take out entire Nazi bases this way, with the dumb soldiers just not being able to deduce that the Irish bloke with the funny hat is the same guy that keeps running in and out of the base planting bombs and shooting people.
Planting bombs and shooting people ties into The Saboteur's perk system, which awards you with character upgrades and access to better weapons and vehicles. There are about a dozen different perks (each with three separate tiers) to win, and some of them are kind of tricky to get. Perks make parts of the game easier, so it's worth your time to get as many of them as possible. Particularly handy is the perk that allows you to plant explosives without causing suspicion just as long as you're wearing a disguise.
As mentioned earlier, most of the The Saboteur is portrayed in black and white. Completing key story missions brings color and life back to the game, as your actions inspire the people of Paris. Seeing an area once drained of color and spirit spring back to life not only looks cool, but is also a good way of marking your progress. With the curtain of oppression lifted, Parisians are a bit braver and will frequently fight German soldiers on the street; not enough to make much of a difference, but enough to let you know that your actions are meaningful.
The Saboteur's plot is fairly well-constructed, with some decent dramatic cutscenes here and there. There are a few twists and turns to keep you guessing, even though the story itself has no real surprises. The cast of characters is alright - the main villain is appropriately hissable - but the cartoony French accents bleed some of the drama away. Most players will put about 20 hours into the game before reaching the final cutscene.
Visually, The Saboteur has its ups and downs: the landscapes look okay, but most of the attention in the level geometry was obviously spent on iconic Parisian landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe; both of these locations look great. Most of the rest looks World War II generic, although there are some nice-looking buildings scattered around. Still, the graphics are atmospheric. Character models aren't bad, with Sean looking the best; no surprise there. Coming in a close second though are the exotic dancers at the nightclub where Sean hangs out. Explosions, fire and smoke are rendered decently. The Saboteur's frame-rate is pretty steady, although it does briefly stutter from time to time.
The sound in The Saboteur is mostly good: explosions, gunfire, and engine noises are nice and loud, and the music - consisting of some original compositions and period-era songs - is above-average. There aren't that many different songs though, which means you'll hear the same few over and over while you're driving around. Voice-acting isn't bad: Sean sounds appropriately Oirish, and the Germans speak authentic-sounding German. Once again though, the French characters sound like they're channeling Pepe Le Pew much of the time.
For those who like achievements, it's worth noting that getting all 50 of The Saboteur's Xbox 360 achievements relies less on skill and more on grinding. If you have a lot of time to spare, all 50 achievements can be yours. People who just plan on finishing the storyline and then never touching the game again will probably have around 25 - 30 achievements next to their names when all is said and done.
The Saboteur was developer Pandemic's last game; they closed their doors not long after the game released. While they didn't leave the world with a beautiful corpse, The Saboteur is a more than respectable epitaph.
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This review has 12 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
EA's foray into the world of sandbox games brings us The Saboteur, an open world game that sets you as a racecar driver in Nazi-occupied France. You must join La Resistance against your Nazi oppressors, essentially single-handedly taking on all of Germany's best in gay Paris! Fun, right? You better believe it! The storyline is actually quite interesting considering the more recent sandbox games have you focusing more on shooting pidgeons and working on your muscles. But where The Saboteur makes up a lot of interest in story, it lacks in other departments when compared to the all-mighty ruler of the sandbox game: Rockstar. Let's explore!
First, the story is quite intriguing to me. There's been a ton of WWII games over mutiple different genres and platforms so you have quite a lot to choose from. But this one stood out for me when I first saw the trailers as a fun take on a whole different region: subtle terrorism against the SS. The fun aspect is there, the serious side is there, the ridiculousness of an Irish racecar driver taking on the greatest killing force of the last 20 centuries is there and very odd, but it works! You tend to find yourself becoming lost in the fun of the story.
Story: 8 out of 10
My opinion of the graphics of the game have to focus around the whole "black and white parts/colour parts" mentality. Let me explain: when you are strolling around a place still occupied by ze Germans, you'll be immersed in black and white. But, should you liberate the area by completing missions, the B&W dissipates and leaves a world of colour and sunshine.
The detail in the game is pretty good, though not as detailed as I have seen in other games. For that, the score drops. But when looking at the standard Paris landmarks, the game highlights them with great effectiveness and style.
Graphics: 7 out of 10
The gameplay is solid with a few hang-ups here and there with controls. There is one glaring issue with this game, though: hundreds of repititive side missions. I have never bought more TNT and C4 for more Nazi lookout towers, radar dishes, searchlights, and propaganda speakers than ever before! You are literally roaming the highlands of Paris with your map out spotting white specks that denote a new thing to blow up or kill. Not the greatest joy in gaming life, that's for sure! I get it: the Nazis were bad. But it's not like they had limited resources and couldn't replace a set of speakers blaring out anti-Allies messages! Let the speakers go and focus on the big ticket items!
Gameplay: 7 out of 10
The music and sounds of the game are amazing! Imagine the best of the Grand Theft Auto radio stations, deduct the chatter, and fill it with classic big band music. It's amazing to drive around in cars that both look and sound the part.
The sound effects are great as well with booming Anti-Air guns, zepplins floating around the horizon, screeching tires and gunfire abundant.
Sound: 9 out of 10
If you are a sucker for the achievements, you'll be around for a while. Like I mentioned, there's enough shit to blow up than ever seen before or since! It could be worse, though. You could be hunting pidgeons!
Replay Value: 8 out of 10
Overall, this game is quite a treat and a bit of a disappointing one-off for our friends at EA. Pick it up on the cheap and enjoy!
Overall: 8 out of 10 |
Nick Mnemonic
88,791
TA Score for this game: 1,490
Posted on 30 December 09 at 17:27, Edited on 01 January 10 at 06:26 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This game is WAY better than I anticipated. It is also very addicting with all the hours you can spend completing side missions. You are an Irish race car driver in Nazi occupied France, and you are assisting the resistance in fighting back against the German forces as a “Saboteur.” It’s like a really cool Grand Theft Auto that takes place in a very unique time and place. There are many different weapons and vehicles to collect, very beautiful locations to visit, and a plethora of great content. It’s really too bad that the studio who made this game (Pandemic) no longer exists because with games like this I’d be a fan for life!
Graphics:
For a sandbox type game, I'd give the graphics a 10/10. There are, of course, games out there with better graphics, like Modern Warfare 2. But for the type of game this is, I was very impressed!
Audio:
The sound in this game is great. It totally fits with the era and location of the game. The music playing when driving, and inside accessible buildings, really brings this game together.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is very good for this type of game. It can get a little frustrating when climbing up buildings and monuments, but it's not nearly enough to take any credit away from the game.
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