Yesterday while the site was taking a big dump when everyone came to check out Devin’s article about the Wolverine leak (damn you digg effect!) I was trying to get you these beautiful screens from The Saboteur. Our friends over at Pandemic Studios sent them all over, along with the news that their official site has finally gone live (right here).
According to the Q&A on the site Lead Designer Tom French describes the game as “a Pandemic Studios blockbuster, larger-than-life open-world action game that takes place in Paris, France, during the 1940s. That’s right, that means Nazis are swarming the city. You play as Sean Devlin, an Irishman who is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and something he cares about very deeply gets hurt. And when Sean gets hurt, he isn’t the kind of guy who tucks his tail between his legs and runs — he fights back. So this is a personal revenge story set in Nazi-occupied France, and, because it’s an M-rated game, there is a very distinct style and edge to the experience that will appeal to more mature gamers.”
It definitely looks fantastic. Back when I toured the studio during the Lord of the Rings Conquest Community Day we were stunned by the Saboteur artwork on display, because the game had such a cool visual style.
The various gameplay systems that they’ve talked about so far definitely make it sound like a blast- there’s of course a huge emphasis on disguises and being unseen as you infiltrate the Nazi areas. You’ll also need to collect various papers and identification in case you’re stopped and questioned. In one of the funnier little bits, if an inquisitive Nazi comes too close to you, you can grab the nearest woman and make out with her to erase suspicion. Course, she might slap you and give you away.
The game also appears to have a lot in common with Mercenaries 2, as far as the fighting and shooting systems, which ain’t bad in my book.
The news is starting to slowly trickle out of Pandemic now, so you can expect to hear much more about this game in the coming months.