I played 4 and a half hour of this and that was enough. Fortunately I got it on sale. It's a shame, because I think they could have done so much more with the setting. The gameplay is very tedious. Two examples: 1. One unit per tile seems a terrible mechanic in combination with the map design. So you will end up shuffling units around in order to advance. 2. Unless you "sleep" units then you have to click through all active units to end your turn. As a result, you feel that your activity in each turn is very minor and most of the time you are clicking through units or waiting for the AI. Each faction has a technology tree but its hard to be excited about the majority of the perks in them; they're just boring things on the way to something useful.
The saboteur takes gameplay elements from GTA and Assassin's Creed then combines them with occupied Paris in WW2. The main story is excellent with good variety with each setting but the continuity between missions begins to creak at the end, as if the developers ran out of time or money for a cut-scene. The Saboteur has good pacing as a result of smooth combat in combination with a robust main character, Sean. The currency of the in-game world is contraband; you gain this by blowing up Nazi targets such as tanks, fixed gun emplacements, towers etc. Taking them on, especially in the city, tends to become a chore relatively quickly. Fortunately there are far, far more targets then necessary to cover your in-game expenses but it's a shame there isn't another benefit. The game engine has some annoying quirks, particularly with the destructible environment. Some things, such as fences and posts, can be destroyed when driving but you'll come to a stop after hitting a small bush. The game's controls, particularly when climbing, aren't great either and I found them more lethal than the enemy on early levels. Some people have mentioned stability issues. On a PC with i5 processor and ATi/AMD R9, I had two or three crashes when playing through but this didn't significantly detract from the experience (largely because of the auto-save and quick save, F5, functions). All in all, it's still a good game but let down by a lack of variety with the open world activities.
