| The Saboteur | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Pandemic Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Distributor(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Designer(s) | Tom French |
| Engine | Odin Havok |
| Version | 1.03 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 |
| Release date(s) | AU December 3, 2009 EU December 4, 2009 NA December 8, 2009 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure, open world |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | Optical disc, download |
System requirements
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The Saboteur is an open world third person action-adventure video game set during World War II in German-occupied France. It was published by Electronic Arts and the final game to be developed by former Pandemic Studios, which has been defunct since the game's release.
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The game's protagonist, Sean Devlin (based on war hero William Grover-Williams), is a hard drinking Irish racecar mechanic,[2] a regular among the racing groups of Paris. After being cheated out of a win in the 1940 Saarbrücken Grand Prix by Kurt Dierker, a Nazi colonel, Sean and his best friend Jules Rousseau seek revenge and sabotage his prized racecar. After being captured, Dierker executes Jules during interrogation under the belief they are really British agents sent to spy on him, but Sean escapes. The rest of the storyline chronicles Sean's fight to kill Dierker. He is recruited by the French Resistance and its leader Luc, and British SOE, who help him throughout the story. The story takes place during World War II and the German occupation of France, but the war itself is used as a backdrop to the main story, which is about Sean's fight to avenge Jules' murder, protect Jules' sister Veronique, and kill Dierker.
The game has been called the developer's swan song, since Pandemic Studios was liquidated after its completion.[3]
After the game was released, customers reported that the game was unplayable with an ATI graphics card.[4] Some game retailers, including Direct2Drive, have placed a warning on their web sites declaring problems with the game's compatibility.[5] A workaround requires the user to disable multi-core processing entirely, which would significantly decrease their computer's performance.[6] Pandemic employees have acknowledged the issue and released a beta patch on December 18, 2009.[7] The patch report currently state that users with quad core CPUs will possibly have severe streaming issues, which requires restricting the game to a single core as a workaround.[8] This is despite the game's recommended specifications listing a quad core CPU.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 72.07% (14 reviews) 75.37% (44 reviews) |
| Metacritic | 76/100 (20 reviews) 73/100 (69 reviews) |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B- |
| Computer and Video Games | 6.9/10 |
| Eurogamer | 6/10 |
| Game Informer | 8.00/10 |
| GameSpot | 7.5/10 |
| GameSpy | |
| GameTrailers | 7.6/10 |
| IGN | 7.5/10 |
| X-Play | 3/5 |
Reception for The Saboteur has been generally favorable. As of January 2010, The Saboteur is rated 73/100 on Metacritic on the Xbox 360.
IGN rated The Saboteur a 7.5/10, praising its sound, black and white visuals, and "cheap thrills", while criticizing its unpolished gameplay and somewhat silly animation.
Gametrailers gave the game 7.6/10, calling the game yet another open-world destruction game of 2009. The game was praised for being fun, although the site criticized the choppy voice acting, varying graphical quality and the unpolished end product.
X-Play rated the game 3 out of 5, praising its unique look and setting, and the variety of gameplay, but criticized its poorly-executed story, enemy AI, and various glitches.[9]
The PlayStation 3 version has been noted for its anti-aliasing technique on a console that has traditionally had difficulty with AA. Using one of the PS3's Synergistic Processing Units to perform after-image edge detection and blurring, under optimal conditions it manages equivalent to 16xAA.[10][11]
The game was frequently compared to Velvet Assassin, released the same year and featuring similar asthetics and gameplay styles.[12]
The music which appears in The Saboteur is: