E3 ‘09: The Saboteur

Pandemic (Mercenaries, Star Wars: Battlefront) looked to history for the inspiration for its next FPS, The Saboteur. The game pits you in the role of a soldier well versed in the skills of sabotage, who’s working with the resistance during the Nazi occupation of France.

You’ll take on specialized missions throughout the game, to take out high-priority Nazi targets, though other objectives will present themselves as the game unfolds. Much like the protagonist in Assassin’s Creed, the main character here has the entire city as his playground, and he can climb, jump, and slide his way to any thing and everything you see. (Yes, Nazi Paris is an open, free-roaming world, complete with vehicles you can drive.)

The game’s big innovation is how it uses color as both a storytelling device and a gameplay mechanic. As you sabotage Nazi installations and free various parts of Paris, those areas will turn from black & white to color. Colorized bits of black & white locations will also clue you in to objectives like secondary targets. The color-vs.-black & white technique is also a creative license motif used to illustrate the horrors of life under Nazi rule. It’s a fascinating visual contrast that should make for a really interesting gaming experience.

Images: Copyright 2009 ©Pandemic.