The Saboteur: Review

Hey, a World War II game! Don't lose interest just yet though, The Saboteur is definitely of a different sort than we're used to on this subject.

The game is actually less about the war than it is a simple revenge mission for protagonist Sean Devlin. You see, Sean is an Irishman who fixes and races cars for an Italian guy and hangs out with a couple of French people; did you get all that? Now some Nazi guy seems to think Sean and his French friend are spies for the British and ends up shooting Jule (the French guy). Understandably mad, Sean decides to kill all the Nazis.

The game's story is almost action movie simplistic and it never really tries too hard to be anything more, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The presentation more than makes up for the lacking story, though it may seem to be spread a bit thick. Taking place mainly in Paris with other parts in small chunks of Germany and some other undisclosed place that I assume is Ireland, the game is first presented largely in black and white. The Nazis have drained all the local color and spirit. It's certainly very stylish, though it serves to contrast with the color you see later on. After you complete some major missions the region experiences an explosion of color with neat effect, though in color the city sort of looks boring. The environment is still interesting though as the people believably populate the city along with the occupying Nazis who will periodically beat up or shoot civilians (Nazis are kind of jerks remember?).

In order to effect these neato color effects and Nazi killing, Sean moves "deftly" about the rooftops of the city. I quote "deftly" because this free running mechanics feels utterly broken. For some reason Sean's climbing ability is linked to madly tapping the A button and in so doing he will climb in seemingly random directions. Poor form, especially right after Assassin's Creed 2. Even when mashing the button, the mechanic doesn't seem to work all the time and there are numerous times when a quick getaway is needed that Sean will simply decide against climbing up the damned rail! Climb! Go you bastard! Maybe the mechanic is hackneyed by the overly slow animations, but it could have been done better.

The stealth mechanic works much better however and it feels genuinely cool to sneak up on a bad guy and punch his head to death so you can take his clothes. Just like in Hitman, it's a good thing all the bad guys wear the same size as the hero. Being in disguise is really helpful in a lot of missions and helps to add depth and alternate routes to mission completion that makes the experience more organic. Most of the missions offer tons of ways to complete them.

It also helps that the Nazis aren't all that smart. When shit gets crazy and you have to run for it to one of the provided hiding spots, so long as a Nazi isn't looking directly at you they'll forget about you. I don't remember hearing that Nazis couldn't see people who were peeing in notice board posts, but that's okay it's at least funny.

Some of the glitches are not as funny however, and the game is pretty buggy. Some bugs are to be expected in a game this large, but there are far too many to excuse, unless floating Nazis and two-headed Nazis that spawned into each other are intentional. Ugh. There are even a few times that easily get you stuck in geometry that may force you to blow yourself up.

Probably the most fun you'll have though is blowing up things. Sean keeps a whole bunch of bombs on him at all time which you use to blast sniper towers, fuel depots, tanks, and all sorts of other Nazi property. The cool thing is that if you blow up enough stuff, there are fewer Nazis around making escapes a lot easier. This is a very cool mechanic that should absolutely be copied.

Lastly, one thing that bothered me about the whole thing is the language in the game. Not the foul stuff, that's okay, but the language in general. The game is all in English (except for incidental German screaming) which is understandable, but which language are they speaking? It should be French, but the Germans understand them. It could be German, but the French don't all speak German. It couldn't be English because it takes place in France. Perhaps I'm just nitpicky, but I like stuff like that to be explained.

The Saboteur is a good game overall. It probably wouldn't win any awards, but it has some good ideas that I hope will garner it a sequel. It also has some troubles that need to be addressed before a sequel would be worth shelling out $60 for. If you are dying in this mini-game drought, pick up The Saboteur, you'll like it.

Assassin's Creed 2 Review

The first Assassin's Creed brought us a whole slew of gameplay innovations, but the sad fact of it is that the game itself was overlooked or disliked by many.

Thankfully though, the game was made by Ubisoft and they have a nice little reputation for taking fan grumblings and turning them into gold.

The story continues on where the first left off with protagonist Desmond Miles and his new Assassin friends making an escape out of Obstergo (the evil company run by the evil Templars). Remember the modern parts of the first game where you could either walk slowly or slightly less slow? Now Desmond can punch up fools!

Ezio DeFiorenze is the main star of the show this time though, having left our more ancient ancestor Altiar behind. Taking place mostly in renaissance Italy, AC 2 adds a few totally new elements to the Creed. The addition of swimming is definitely fitting with the setting and a natural progression, though I can't help but feel that it either could have been fleshed out a bit more or left out entirely. I won't complain too much with how many ninjas in other games can't swim at all.

For all the flying that goes on in the trailers, there is precious little of this actually in the game. Good thing too, the controls for the glider and indeed the mission structure itself really felt hackneyed and tacked on.

Though for all the minor complaints, Assassin's Creed II does a lot more right than wrong. The free running is back in full force with all the runny, jumpy, climby we've come accept if not love. The animations for it are silky smooth too, easily transitioning from one move to the next without skipping a beat. There will still be the odd moment where Ezio will decide he'd rather fall 3 stories to his death than grab the damned ledge, but most errors like that can be chalked up to user error.

The monotony of the previous game has been largely erased with mission structure being less structured with things you must do. This however sort of forces the story to be told through more cutscenes than before, which isn't necessarily bad, but there is something to be said for organic story presentation.

One of the best new additions to the game though is the fact that all the collectibles now actually do something when you get them. They also mostly tie into the story in some way, giving the most time conscious gamers something to sidetrack to for a bit.

The new economy system is worth mentioning. While it's easy to see where the idea was going, one can't help but feel that this system never quite made it. The game tries to emphasize customization, but who is really going to buy anything after they can just get the strongest weapon? Also, about half way through the game, you pretty much have money coming out of your ears, effectively breaking the economy idea anyway. It's nice to feel rich, but it strips away motivation.

Altogether though, Ubisoft really did well with the improvements so the series. If you hated the first Assassin's Creed, this one probably won't make a believer out of you, but if you sort of enjoyed the first, the second is a must.