Mostly a stylized shooter, with limited stealth gameplay. Think Hitman series mixed with GTA3, but with mixed results.
Gameplay: The Saboteur is a mix of various gameplay mechanics. It wants to be a stealth game (like Hitman), an urban sandbox (like GTA3), and a shooter (take your pick). Nonetheless, it does not bring all of these elements together successfully. Sean Devlin, the main character, is interesting and comical enough, and the world in which he lives (WWII Paris) is certainly big and well realized. However, the game does not really let you consistently roleplay Sean as a shadowy saboteur working for the French resistance. Most mission degenerate into a run-and-gun frenzy, even if you try to keep things quiet and secretive. Actually, the game just feels more natural when you are just unloading on Nazis, despite its half-hearted encouragement of the stealth approach. Again, once you get past the hopeless idea of playing this purely as a stealth game, it seems to make more sense, though it hardly distinguishes itself from every other WWII shooter out there.
There are some roleplaying elements in the Saboteur. Sean is more anti-hero than anything else, and his wry humor, gratuitous profanity, and uncanny exploits help to flesh out some of the characters around him. While Sean himself does not noticeably improve over the course of the game, he can unlock various weapons, perks, upgrades, cars, and other things. And there is a good deal of stuff to blow up, from watch towers and fuel depots to tanks and military installations. However, outside of the story missions, just blowing up random things around Paris gets old after a while. The only real payoff is a few dollars here and there and the colorizing of the black-and-white landscape, which is a nice effect. On the PC, the game controls are what you would expect for a shooter and work well. I found the in-game map screen to be a bit wonky, but no big deal.
Graphics: The game looks good. It has a very stylized feel and nicely captures the atmosphere of the time period. Character models and animations are well done, and Paris is beautifully portrayed. There is a lot of attention to detail, and nothing comes off as sloppy in this department. Note: There is some female nudity in the game, but it is not presented in a raunchy way.
Audio: The game has a great soundtrack, and the character accents are very convincing. Also, sound effects--such as gunfire, explosions, and car engines--are all what you would expect. No problems here.
Technical issues: The game comes with a thin manual, though it is functional. There are a lot of in-game tips, so no one should feel at a loss for how to play. I did experience about 5 crashes and freezes during about 30 hours of gameplay (even using the latest beta batch). However, I am not sure whether it was the game's fault or whether it was due to some recent overclocking that I've done to my CPU. Anyhow, the game was largely stable. Also, the DRM system consisted of only a disk check--none of the online authentication foolishness that you find in many PC games today. Finally, I just hated the checkpoint save system, and the game loses a star for this needless frustration.
Value/Replayability: I picked up this game for less than $10, so I feel that I got good value. It might be worth another playthrough in the future, but it is merely a decent game overall. As long as you don't go into this thinking that you are going to play some ultra-smooth character who does all of his work in the shadows, you might otherwise enjoy at least parts of this game. Bottom line, the Saboteur is mostly just a stylized shooter with some limited stealth gameplay.
Pros:
+Graphics and atmosphere
+Music
+Car collecting
+a few of the missions
+Nice selection of weapons
+Reasonable DRM
Cons:
-Not much stealth required or allowed
-Checkpoint save system
-Gratuitous profanity
-Possibly a few bugs