The Saboteur Updated Impressions

When you're a saboteur working deep within the heart of Nazi territory, it's good to have an escape plan. When the heat is on, you're going to need to have an out, whether it's as simple and straightforward as shooting your way through your enemies, or as sneaky as leading them into a resistance ambush. In our recent visit with EA Pandemic, we got a chance to see how protagonist Sean Devlin could make an escape during the new cemetery mission, which culminated in a massive firefight alongside resistance allies.

Our demo began with Sean meeting up with Skylar, his contact within the British SOE and his on-again, off-again love interest. The objective in this particular mission is to infiltrate a Nazi-held Parisian cemetery and make off with a particular trunk within their possession, and it's broken down pretty simply: Sean gets the trunk, Skylar gets an escape vehicle. In this specific mission, there are several possible ways to get to your goal, and we got to see a bit of it all in a demo.

Using stealth, our hero is able to get the drop on a German officer, whom he finishes off with a satisfying neck snap. With that dirty business out of the way, Sean quickly changes uniforms to disguise himself, which allows him the freedom to wander the cemetery so long as he doesn't draw unnecessary attention to himself. Simply running about is enough to draw wary glances from the other soldiers patrolling the area though, and after a suspicion meter around the minimap fills completely, Sean is unmasked and forced to fight. With the alarm sounded, a combination of clever gunplay and cover is used to silence his enemies, followed by the careful application of elbow grease on a nearby switch to silence the alarm.

As Sean infiltrated a mausoleum and got closer to his goal, it became apparent that though The Saboteur is a historical game, a few creative liberties were taken with the level design and architecture, which gave off a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe. As lead designer Tom French said, the development team wanted their game to be more inspired by history than based on it, and this is further apparent with some of the more fantastical elements, such as the giant patrolling zeppelins that soar through the Paris sky.

With a blend of stealth and brute force, Sean is able to find the trunk he's looking for and finish off the Nazis guarding it, triggering a cutscene that brings color to the area and summons Skylar with a truck. Together, the two have to deliver their cargo to a resistance base, but since the Germans are hot on their tail, they've got to shake them loose first. Now that the resistance has been inspired by your deeds, they're not afraid to take the fight to the streets, and Sean is prompted to bring his pursuers to an ambush zone. With a little bit of color in the area, resistance fighters help by attacking the Nazis harassing Sean, and once he makes it to the ambush zone, things get a little out of hand. From within the ambush zone, Sean, Skylar, and their allies fend off several waves of German soldiers in an all-out firefight, and upon victory they are free to finally deliver the sought-after trunk to their resistance base.

The Saboteur may be treading familiar ground in its World War II setting, but it's definitely doing it in a completely new way. Keep an eye out for more coverage on this upcoming game, and look for it to hit store shelves on December 8 for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.