Thursday 28 May 2009

Hype Pipe: The Saboteur


Let’s get one thing straight - everyone loves Nazis, just look at Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and The Boys from Brazil - it’s also no coincidence that the only Indiana Jones movies worth watching are the ones with Nazis in. But if there is one thing I love more than watching Nazis, its killing Nazis, which brings us onto the upcoming release from Pandemic Studios, The Saboteur.

The Saboteur is GTA style open world game, (yes! I know what you’re thinking “not another one” but please stick with me it does get interesting) set in and around Nazi-occupied Paris. You play the part of Sean Devlin, an Irishman and former race car driver who has it all; money , fast cars, easy women, and a heavy Richmond Superkings habit. He doesn’t care about the war until the death of a loved one forces our rebel on a mission of revenge as well as liberating Paris with a little help from the resistance along the way.


So what sets it apart from every other GTA clone you ask??? Well what if I told you that the game starts out with the visuals set entirely in Black and White!!! I say entirely, there are the deep crimson reds of those iconic swastika flags and armbands on the enemies making sure you know who to take out, explosions and fire also bring colour to that oppressive visual style, think Sin City and you know exactly what I mean. Now this may sound like a gimmick to make it seem different from every other GTA clone out there but I assure you its not, it’s the main function and purpose of the game. As you progress through the game and complete numerous stealth, driving, and all out balls to wall the shooting missions you will start to liberate areas of Paris and when this happens colour sweeps in to all the textures immediately relieving that feeling of oppression, and you can walk streets safely knowing you won’t run into any goose-stepping Gestapo.


Another aspect of the game is that it doesn’t have to played at ground level, buildings, lampposts, iconic landmarks can all be escalated not so dissimilar from Assassins Creed, I’m going to guess not as fluid, you are a Irishman after all not a highly trained swan diving cloaked assassin but nevertheless a welcome mechanic which could work in the stealth missions as well as using viewpoints to spot the colourless areas in the city which need liberating. Also thrown into the mix is a melee combat system as well as a cover system, walk into any part of the environment and Sean takes cover ,to step out of cover just walk away, ill be interested to see how that works as so far I have only played games where cover has been assigned to a button, it sounds more fluid but I guess the proof will be in the pudding, which we will see come Q4 of this year.

I’m a big fan of Pandemic’s past work, Christ I’ll even defend Mercenaries 2, (it was flawed but a hell of a lot of destructive fun) but please share in my enthusiasm and check out the teaser below.

Bojack85

No comments:

Followers