The Saboteur™

Simply amazing game. U need to play it

It has an excellent and engaging story, but it gets repetitive and tiresome. There are not that many ways of tackling a mission, and there are literally hundreds of side objectives to complete which basically involve blowing something up. And you need to complete a fair bit of them to unlock better weapons and equipment.

I mostly play open world and sandbox games. Unfortunately for me, I also like human history but it's difficult to find historical open world games. For instance, I bought Assassin's Creed just because I like to go around "historical" locations. Needless to say, when I discovered The Saboteur I could not stop myself from buying it. So what do you do in this game? You're part of the French resistance and take the role of a historical Irish character in Paris. Your job? To kill as many nazis as possible. Cool, but how is the game? The Saboteur is a good game, but it fails to deliver a truly consistent experience. This is explained by the fact that while there are several options to tackle objectives, the more viable approach is usually brute force. I tried to use stealth, however this game does not really suits this kind of playstyle. Too often enemies will see you behind a tree or you will have to face too many nazis at once. Stealth requires real planning and even some luck. This game is easy to play but hard to master. There is a main storyline, giving some break from your typical open world experience. There are also upgrades, many historical weapons and hundreds of "free-play targets" all over the city. I personally like The Saboteur but it's difficult to say "oh yeah, you should buy it". Sometimes it's a mixed bag and there is a strange learning curve, even though the game is supposed to be "casual". Optimization is not too good for some reason and I experienced few crashes here and there. For 5-10 bucks? I would reccomend it.

Ever wanted a GTA game set in World War 2? Neither have I, but once the game started, with it having a big emphasis on stealth & sabotage, I actually got excited to play it. Sadly, instead of letting you explore this interesting world, you're instantly whisked away into a series of rigid missions. And many missions later, once you get some time to roam the map unperturbed, you realize there's just not much to do living under a hostile regime. Climb a ledge & you're labeled a spy. Look at a soldier sideways & you're shot. So having to go from point A to B, all I could do was breath & tread lightly. Not very fun. There is that GTA wanted level mechanic, so you can escape trouble, but here it just feels wrong. Having the Nazis forget you by simply hiding or driving far enough from them just feels off. Sadly, everything else taken from GTA feels off too. Cars are slow & hard to maneuver, and are a great way to get unwanted attention, so why steal them. You can beat people up, but it's too easy and there's no reward in it. You can shoot people, but weapons' aim is so bad, it's quicker to kill them by punching them. And like in GTA there is a plot to tie it all together, but it's extremely nonsensical, and features walking stereotypes. The acting in this game ranges between amateurish & cringe-worthy, but seeing the dialogue, even good acting couldn't save this game. The script seems as if taken word for word from a 70s action movie parody, or some teenager's fanfic. It's as if they were penned by a writer with only an afternoon to spare, & no desire to do the work he got payed to do. Who then got studio notes to sexualize every second sentence. This game does try to move you by having a minor character killed, but seeing as he got me killed in a mission by randomly opening fire, giving away my cover, who cares. But frankly, I couldn't care less either way. With this game's many loading screens & cutscenes, I felt like I was watching a movie with mini-games wedged in.

And it has mostly nothing to do with Mafia(s), other than a similar 40s-60s time period. And it came out before Mafia 2. You could also call it Red Faction/Just Cause 2: WW2 Edition.