Ahhh... Paris, the City of Love: home to beautiful women, eye popping city sightings, cafés at every corner, and... Nazis? Pandemic Studios has turned this once beautiful city into a living, breathing nazi deathtrap waiting for overconfident Parisians to walk right into it. Word on the street is that these evil game developers have done this on purpose to entertain the increasing number of gamers nowadays. But these evil developers can't be all bad can they(?), bringing life back to the WWII genre which seemed to already be down a very long tunnel to be left for dead. That's right, Pandemic has created 'The Saboteur', a WWII game that doesn't have you battling your way up the beach on D-Day or spraying through the jungle to cut down crazy Japanese Banzais. It surprisingly turned out to be a huge success too, but why was it?
Sean Devlin, an Irish race car driver has experienced this brutal nazi invasion first hand, they killed his best friend, threatened to kill the people closest to him and left him nothing but a vengeance of pure hatred and a few tricks up his sleeves. The story basically starts to take off when a German officer scams a race from him and takes his glory. For kicks and a bit of vengeance, Sean and his friend trespasses into a Nazi HQ to destroy his prized car. Little to no surprise you get caught by this German which leads to a series of events that changes your character's life forever. That's basically the introduction to the story plot, after that you get into the action the whole way through to drive the nazi bastards of of Paris. Sean Devlin can jump buildings, gun down innocents and wreck havic, he's basically like the Ezio/Niko of World War II.
The city of Paris in this game is purely admirable in The Saboteur. France by itself is amazing, but the Developers do such more to it to make it so much more unique any other game. Generally speaking, Paris is made all in black and white to emphasize the depression the Germans has caused the citizens during the initial stage of the invasion. As you complete the story one mission after the other, pockets of color will open up all around the city to symbolize that there is hope in the inevitable time of destruction and chaos. It also represents the regions where 'The Resistance' and other civilians are influenced to fight back to gain back the city that has under siege.
In the end, 'The Resistance' is what gets you through the whole mess. They introduce you to the black market, which gives you a chance to buy weapons you've always dreamed of (MP 40s, Silenced pistols... that kind of stuff), and they also give you the choice to upgrade your character and your weapons, given that you have the money to do so. But ultimately they get you involved into the story line and give you missions that will help you along the way.
What really makes this game last long are the free play events that are scattered around the whole world. These free play events range from jumping off marked ramps with your car and braking boxes of Contraband (the money currency used) to blowing up Nazi watch towers and fuel depots. Depending on the difficulty or value of the event you finish decides how much Contraband you get to spend at the Black Market. For example: Blowing up a fuel depot will get you more moolah then if you broke open a box of contraband. It's not like there are barely any of these events around the city either, they are all over the place, to many to count even, which gives the title a life far greater than you would ever expect.
The only thing to bug this game about is really the players movements and the animations around the city. I'm not a big fan of driving in this game, since there are barely any crashing or damage physics and climbing is a real pain in this game, considering that you have to keep tapping 'A' to ascend farther up something.
Final Note: This game is the GTA IV of WWII. It has the same feeling with different atmosphere and a whole entire uniqueness. The way they color the city is great and the game has a bunch of replayability. The only thing to looked down upon is the way animations happen, such as the building climbing. To make this really short, buy this game, or at least rent it because it isn't something to laugh about.
