The Saboteur Preview

Impressions

One of things we found most interesting about The Saboteur was the proprietary engine that the entire game has been built around, called the ODIN Engine. Built on Pandemic’s extensive knowledge of building open world games, which has mainly come from the Mercenaries series, the engine allows the entire game to be seamlessly put together without load screens.

How the engine is able to do this is actually very clever too, relying on the tall, narrow tenements that are so characteristic of the Paris skyline. You can’t roam anywhere in Paris without seeing them and they ingeniously, realistically, block out a fair bit of your horizon. That means that the game can continuously build whatever is around the next corner and intelligently watch player actions in order to make sure there’s no waiting for textures or geometry to fade into view.

It also shouldn’t need to be pointed out, but the ODIN engine is incredibly powerful when it comes to polygon-pushing power too. The graphics in the game, from the curvature of the femmes at the Moulin Rouge to the blazing explosions that prove a job well-done, are perfectly captured.


The fact that Pandemic has also noticed and compensated for the difference between good graphics and good presentation with the Will To Fight colour mechanic bodes well too.

The main problem that’s facing The Saboteur at the moment then is the rising number of other AAA games that have almost the exact same feature set in a different setting – many of which have also impressed us. While The Saboteur has player inspiring civilians in the open-world setting of World War 2 Paris, Red Faction: Guerrilla Wars is doing a very similar thing on Mars and Brütal Legend is doing it in Tim Schafer’s crazy fantasy-land. That’s some pretty stiff competition.

The Saboteur does have some unique features that set it apart, granted. Players can climb buildings, bomb things, kill Nazis and look at semi-naked women – but can those ideas compete with the ultra-physics of Red Faction or the totally surreal humour of Brütal Legend?

Judged on its own merits, The Saboteur looks like it’s shaping up to be a quite a good game – but so do the others too and, while we’re undeniably interested by The Saboteur, the competition does seem to have a bit more of a unique edge.


One thing that is keeping us interested in The Saboteur though is the apparent strength of the storyline, as it is often that you come across World War 2 action games that have a plot beyond ‘Kill faceless Nazis forever and ever.’ The character of Sean Devlin seems likeably roguish and excellently fleshed out – certainly far more than most computer game character, who’s defining attribute is usually a penchant for wearing more belts than they’ll ever possibly need.

The world of The Saboteur, not all of which is confined to the city of Paris, seems exciting and awash with personality too – definitely more so than the generic Martian setting of Red Faction. There’s a constant sense of quiet reluctance and uneasy obedience among the Parisian natives in The Saboteur and that comes across subtly, but clearly, to again make the setting feel distinct from most other World War 2 games.

How well that all-important sense of character is realised in the full game (and not just in the carefully scrutinised sections on show to press) is going to be vitally important for The Saboteur if it wants to wow us – so rest assured that we’ll be watching it very closely indeed.

The Saboteur will be published by Electronic Arts on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be available later this year.