Saboteur: An Adventure in Mayhem

I wrote this Saboteur review after having played the Playstation 3 version of the game. It is also available on the Xbox 360, as well as PC.

In the open-world video game Saboteur, You play as Sean Devlin, a hot-headed Irish racecar driver on a mission for revenge in a World War II-Era Nazi-Occupied France. Devlin has vowed to take revenge on the Nazis for killing his brother after an incident at a race track.

The gameplay feels sort of like the product of a combination of Medal of Honor, Mercenaries 2, and Grand Theft Auto 4. Like many open-world games, you have access to a wide variety of weapons and vehicles, and a whole host of people ready to send you out on your next mission. There are quite a few story-based missions, and quite a few more "optional" nonlinear missions to choose from at any given time, so if you enjoy having a variety of choices, Saboteur is the game for you. Also worth noting, most of the "optional" missions actually feel as if they contribute to the storyline, so you won't feel as if you're doing some uselessly mundane task while you go about completing them.

One of the game's more interesting features is it's use of color. In the more heavily Nazi-occupied zones, the game world turns mostly black and white, with the only real color being the red of the Nazi flags & installations. It gives the area a look of oppression & hopelessness. As you complete different objectives, and free the areas from the reign of the Nazis, the darkness is lifted, and replaced by bright, vibrant colors. I should also probably mention that with a little bit of dynamite, you can pretty much blow up any Nazi structure, so eradicating the Nazis from a given zone can be a lot of fun.

Another great feature is the variety of choices you have when attempting to complete a mission. For example, if you are given a mission to steal a truck from a Nazi base, you could run in with guns blazing and steal it outright, or blow up something near the base to draw the guards away while you sneak in & steal the truck unnoticed, or even "borrow" a Nazi uniform, and walk straight past the guards, and drive the truck away, none of them being the wiser. There are almost a limitless number of choices open to you when it comes time to complete your current job. This helps alleviate some of the boredom I had with Grand Theft Auto.

In summary, I found (and still find) Saboteur to be very well worth my time & money. While it feels like some of the other games out there, once you really get down to it, it has successfully carved it's own place in the world, and in my video game library.