You know that Key & Peele skit called The Power of Wings? That's The Saboteur.
The story of Pandemic is a sad, well documented one. So much EA fuckery as they continued their heel turn, and yet so many good-ass 8/10 games. SW Battlefront? Destroy All Humans? Fucking Mercenaries 1+2? Hell yeah brother, those all rule. RIP to the gas mask.
So why does no one talk about the Saboteur? Hell, I consider myself a fan and I only just got around to playing through it. The discourse I've observed on this typically begins and ends at "it was last", and after finishing it myself...yeeeeeah that's kind of its most standout trait, huh.
The game starts off full of promise. Great introductions to a tight cast, action sequences almost on par with the Uncharteds of the world, a solid revenge plot, a fantastic looking 7th gen Paris to get rowdy in, and endless legions of nazis to use as speedbumps. Hopping out of your car to plant a bundle of dynamite at the base of a watch tower and scampering back to your vehicle like a kid with a bag of burning dogshit who just rang a doorbell, complete with mischievous giggles, is the stuff video games were made for.
Then the story bits stop coming. Then the nazis stop introducing new weapons or enemies (until the last act, which are just Bigger Nazis). Then the roughly 3 objectives start repeating. Then the dogshit bag stops being quite so funny because you've done it dozens of times. This is a game where fucking explosions eventually lose their luster, and buddy, you're only halfway.
It sucks because The Saboteur has so many cool bits that just don't come together. Liberating areas and restoring color to entire regions is an incredible hook until you realize that they're only saved by finishing a character's mission chain. Nothing you choose to do matters, Sean can only affect the world through the orders of others. The small handful of setpieces after the first 2 hours all suck to play, though the singular zeppelin is at least pretty. Stealth goes completely out the window and never returns. Climbing is great, but later missions don't make use. The open world is the deadest of any of Pandemic's sandboxes; even Mercs 1 had the deck of 52 to approach however you pleased, meanwhile here there are only small distractions for equally small amounts of money. Moreover, every single mission is solved the same way: guns and explosives. Half the missions even dump you in loud immediately despite the game's attempt to introduce stealth via stealing dead nazi costumes. Shooting this mediocre shouldn't be the most common activity you do.
Sean's entire deal is that he's Irish, he's angry, and he's very good at driving. I wish that last one got more play because these vehicles are actually great! Instead the game has about 4 whole races, and the first one is a scripted loss. All the rest of the driving you do is just from mission to mission, or the end of a job where you need to evade the nazis like you always do - by scooting slightly outside of their range and slamming the brakes, because they're all stupid as shit. Which yeah, they're nazis, but you know what I mean.
By the time you trudge through the game's lengthy, flabby middle and get to the end it's clear that nothing's getting resolved in a satisfactory manner. Characters are written out left and right with single sentences, there's a mole plot that's introduced as quickly as it's resolved (that character sees no comeuppance for collaborating with nazis btw), you reuse an earlier section for a boring shootout in lieu of a big base assault, and there's no final boss fight with the target of Sean's vendetta despite hyping him up for the entire game. The enjoyability curve of this thing is a straight slope downhill, only it's covered with enough grit that you can't even enjoy an increase in speed.
So why 3/5 if it falls apart so completely? Man, listen, those first few hours are peak. Like "this is the best nazi murder sim where the main character's last name isn't Blazkowicz" levels of good. In the admittedly few moments where The Saboteur is firing on all cylinders it's the best Pandemic game. I don't take issue with folks who love this, especially if they haven't played it in ages or didn't finish it back in the day, because that's the best way to experience it. Pandemic deserves to be remembered as masters of their craft even if that's a bit revisionist.
Obligatory fuck EA.
The story of Pandemic is a sad, well documented one. So much EA fuckery as they continued their heel turn, and yet so many good-ass 8/10 games. SW Battlefront? Destroy All Humans? Fucking Mercenaries 1+2? Hell yeah brother, those all rule. RIP to the gas mask.
So why does no one talk about the Saboteur? Hell, I consider myself a fan and I only just got around to playing through it. The discourse I've observed on this typically begins and ends at "it was last", and after finishing it myself...yeeeeeah that's kind of its most standout trait, huh.
The game starts off full of promise. Great introductions to a tight cast, action sequences almost on par with the Uncharteds of the world, a solid revenge plot, a fantastic looking 7th gen Paris to get rowdy in, and endless legions of nazis to use as speedbumps. Hopping out of your car to plant a bundle of dynamite at the base of a watch tower and scampering back to your vehicle like a kid with a bag of burning dogshit who just rang a doorbell, complete with mischievous giggles, is the stuff video games were made for.
Then the story bits stop coming. Then the nazis stop introducing new weapons or enemies (until the last act, which are just Bigger Nazis). Then the roughly 3 objectives start repeating. Then the dogshit bag stops being quite so funny because you've done it dozens of times. This is a game where fucking explosions eventually lose their luster, and buddy, you're only halfway.
It sucks because The Saboteur has so many cool bits that just don't come together. Liberating areas and restoring color to entire regions is an incredible hook until you realize that they're only saved by finishing a character's mission chain. Nothing you choose to do matters, Sean can only affect the world through the orders of others. The small handful of setpieces after the first 2 hours all suck to play, though the singular zeppelin is at least pretty. Stealth goes completely out the window and never returns. Climbing is great, but later missions don't make use. The open world is the deadest of any of Pandemic's sandboxes; even Mercs 1 had the deck of 52 to approach however you pleased, meanwhile here there are only small distractions for equally small amounts of money. Moreover, every single mission is solved the same way: guns and explosives. Half the missions even dump you in loud immediately despite the game's attempt to introduce stealth via stealing dead nazi costumes. Shooting this mediocre shouldn't be the most common activity you do.
Sean's entire deal is that he's Irish, he's angry, and he's very good at driving. I wish that last one got more play because these vehicles are actually great! Instead the game has about 4 whole races, and the first one is a scripted loss. All the rest of the driving you do is just from mission to mission, or the end of a job where you need to evade the nazis like you always do - by scooting slightly outside of their range and slamming the brakes, because they're all stupid as shit. Which yeah, they're nazis, but you know what I mean.
By the time you trudge through the game's lengthy, flabby middle and get to the end it's clear that nothing's getting resolved in a satisfactory manner. Characters are written out left and right with single sentences, there's a mole plot that's introduced as quickly as it's resolved (that character sees no comeuppance for collaborating with nazis btw), you reuse an earlier section for a boring shootout in lieu of a big base assault, and there's no final boss fight with the target of Sean's vendetta despite hyping him up for the entire game. The enjoyability curve of this thing is a straight slope downhill, only it's covered with enough grit that you can't even enjoy an increase in speed.
So why 3/5 if it falls apart so completely? Man, listen, those first few hours are peak. Like "this is the best nazi murder sim where the main character's last name isn't Blazkowicz" levels of good. In the admittedly few moments where The Saboteur is firing on all cylinders it's the best Pandemic game. I don't take issue with folks who love this, especially if they haven't played it in ages or didn't finish it back in the day, because that's the best way to experience it. Pandemic deserves to be remembered as masters of their craft even if that's a bit revisionist.
Obligatory fuck EA.