We're all pretty excited about The Saboteur over here. Ever since we got a chance to play it at PAX we've been eagerly awaiting it's December 8th release.
The Saboteur is the story of Sean Devlin, an Irish race ca driver recruited by the Morini racing group as a driver. During a race, Sean's tires are shot out by a German driver wrecking the car. Sean and a buddy decide to find and sabotage the German drivers car as an act of revenge. In doing so, they unwittingly stumble on a Nazi hideout preparing for the Paris Blitz. Sean escapes with his life but his friend is not so lucky.
When Sean's friend is killed, all the color drains from the world, leaving Paris a dark forboding monochrome. Bits of color seep through here and there as accents to the seeming omnipresence of the Nazi occupation. As you work more and more with the resistance in various areas more and more of the color starts to come back. In the eyes of the resistance fighters or perhaps in the glow of the burlesque house signs.
The gameplay is a mix of Grand Theft Auto and Splinter Cell; an open world stealth action game. You may wander the streets as you please though missions will focus you towards specific areas of the world. Dress yourself in a dead Nazi's uniform and infiltrate their bases, use their Kubelwagon to get out as fast as possible once your objective is complete.
Pandemic Studios is exploring many characeristically film noir stylings with the Saboteur. From the gritty look of the black and white Paris, to the acknowledgement of and more realistic portrayal of sexulity in wartime France, the Saboteur could very well pave the way for a new level of maturity in games.
