If you're not careful The Saboteur will sabotage your Now Playing list.
First, the obvious; The Saboteur is one sexy game. From its Sin City-like use of black-and-white to the cabaret girls that put GTA IV to shame this game will definately stand out in a crowd.
Alot has been said about The Saboteur in comparison to other games. First it is definately a (c)lassic sandbox game in the st(y)le of Grand Theft Auto and although it lacks the staggering number of mini-games it does have a couple. Gunplay is pretty standard 3rd person shooter in the st(y)le of Uncharted with a working cover mechanic. The protagonist, Sean Devlin, possesses the climbing ability of Altair and can use pounded Nazi uniforms as disguise a la Prototype.
All in all that sounds pretty incredible, like a super-sandbox game, but what The Saboteur lacks is polish and what that means is the gunplay is a little rough around the edges and bullets lose their potency at longer range. The driving, while not as unwieldy as GTA IV, feels stiff and requires you to adapt. Although Sean can climb he does so with rapid button pushes instead of fluid ascension. All this can be attributed to Pandemic's imminent shut down and the holiday deadline enforced by EA, which is a shame because if this game about an Irish saboteur could have been released on the ultimately appropriate Saint Patrick's Day then it would have surely scored much higher on Metacritic.
But despite all this The Saboteur will take you by surprise. It manages to rock even with the handicaps its been dealt. The game world is immersive and large and the mechanics work well. Enemy AI is tenacious and they will move to flank your last known position. Their vehicular skills are such that it's actually easier to escape them on foot and if they've been alerted to your presence you'll find no safe quarter on rooftops. At a Level 5 Alert there's nowhere safe in Paris but every other Alert Level can be escaped by simply stepping outside the search radius if you can manage to break their pursuit.
The character of Sean Devlin is devilishly likeable. A pure caricature of an Irish toughguy you'll find him cracking wise whenever he's not cracking Nazi skulls. He's a hard drinking, hard fighting, ladies man who smokes like a truck and regenerates like Wolverine... and good thing that, since he can soak a good amount of bullets during an alert.
Standing and fighting with the Gerries isn't advisable. Much like Red Faction: Guerilla you need to hit your target and get out. Even in the 'freed' sections of the city you must remember; Paris is still occupied and if you cause enough of a ruckus you'll have practically the entire Wehrmacht to deal with. To aid our hero he is capable of donning disguises that are competant at a distance. Since he's only wearing the shirt and caps and keep his original pants you can't expect to pass a close inspection but it is entirely possible to do even the most complicated missions entirely incognito.
The add-on (included in a new purchase) The Midnight Show opens up a lot of 'blue' content, rendering some very nice toplessness and adding another mini-game. It also adds 4 burlesque shows, 3 solos and 1 3-girl show. Don't be fooled, the 3-girl is the worst of the offerings, but the singles are easily hotter than GTA IV's strip club scenes... and despite bearing actual nudity they are much more tasteful as well.
Overall The Saboteur will blow your socks off if you give it the chance. It may pale next to the games whose elements it borrows but it does a lot with what it has. Others may see a lackluster effort in Pandemic's swan song but if you scratch a little beneath the surface you'll realize they did the absolute best with what little time they had... and we all benefit from it.
Graphics: 8 - The characters are modeled well and the use of color is brilliant. Don't expect hyper-realism but they get the job done.
Music: 9 - An era-appropriate soundtrack really sets the mood and the voice work is well done, despite some modernization of speech.
Gameplay: 8 - The game's mechanics, while seeming a little stiff at first, turn out just fine after you get into it and you can find yourself in some pretty exhilirating situations.
Replayability: 8.5 - There are over 1300 freeplay targets to hit. I dare you to hit them all in one go.
St(y)le: Umpteen-billion - This game is a beautiful, sexy beast.