Saboteur will have a gameplay mechanic where the occupying forces will be suspicious of the player, rather than simply detection as in many stealth games. Sure, there is going to be a detection element, particularly when the game’s main character Sean is in a place he isn’t supposed to be, but the detection and suspicion elements while related, will be separate. It comes down to how the Nazi’s perceive Sean in the game, and there are various things that will raise suspicion – such as perhaps carrying a gun out in the open. It will be important to remember that the Nazi forces in Paris are occupiers, and not out to arrest everybody on sight. This leads us to combat.

Fighting is going to be a mixed bag, where Sean, being a brawler, will more likely when needs be, grab an enemy by the shirt collar and headbutt them or give a quick knee to the groin. Don’t look for big martial arts style moves from the main character. There will be plenty of “traditional” weapons to use when found, though nothing was mentioned of improvised weapons, such as bottles and chairs. Hopefully we’ll be hearing more about that soon.

Of course, players might just want to run over the enemy. Every vehicle is able to be used. The “if you see it you can drive it” rule of open world sandbox style games applies here. We were given a short list of some of the vehicles that players will see: motorcycles, cars, bicycles, tanks, and planes. That’s it – no details. One wonders if the whole plane thing means more than one city is going to be used, or if it will be used as a means of escape at the end of the game back to Ireland.

The game is titled Saboteur for a reason. There will be acts of sabotage to carry out. This isn’t going to be a “blow everything up” type of game, like Pandemic’s Mercenaries titles, but instead the violence will be very targeted. Story missions will include things such as stopping a Nazi weapons train, publicly fighting a Nazi in a public place such as the Eiffel Tower, setting fire to a specific location or assassinating a Nazi leader at a rally. There will be some sections where players will get to “go all out” and just let bullets fly, such as in the middle of a Nazi headquarters, but by and large, Sean isn’t out to destroy Paris.

The missions are designed to help move the story along, and come at a rather linear pace. There will be a variety of side missions that players can undertake in order to gain access to certain weapons, equipment or abilities. These side missions are to be available at any time throughout the game, though the story missions will be linear in nature and accessibility. Not much was said about how the side missions and storyline would interact, as well as what abilities would be gained or how that would be incorporated. Just expect that side missions will be needed to really get the game completed well.

Musically, the game will feature some licensed music, but not much can be revealed just yet. Currently there are plans to have some be-bop jazz and swing performed by modern artists. This will give an authentic auditory backdrop while giving the player something fresh to listen to.

There is still plenty left to learn about the game, such as how large the map is, if there will indeed be two “locations” to play in (that plane leads to some interesting possibilities), voice talent and multiplayer. Right now the developers are looking at incorporating multiplayer in some fashion, either in co-op or competitive, but ultimately it will have to be right for the game.

Saboteur has been in development for 2 and a half years, and is currently looking at another year before it is ready to be released. The partnership with BioWare has greatly helped Pandemic be able to fully realize their vision for Saboteur, in that now the studio has the ability to self-finance projects completely, as well as learn certain aspects from one of the great studios. Not so much a teacher/student relationship, it’s more like a “peer review” where the two work together. Of course, having one of the great storytellers in the videogame space working with you has to help greatly.

The story, setting and gameplay styles all sound good, and Pandemic has released some very good games lately. This doesn’t automatically make Saboteur a great game, but does leave up hopeful for the final product. We have to wait on final judgment until we see more.

Originally from DigNews