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Pandemic's swan song will be heard by few, but appreciated when the final curtain goes down.

Pandemic Studios has had a rough go of it as of late. Having to try and live up to the greatness they created with Star Wars Battlefront, dealing with the critical failure in Mercs 2, and not to mention being given their pink slips pretty much sums up their bummer of a year. The now extinct, but not forgotten company's final contribution to the video game world wouldn't have set the world on fire, there is no denying that their passion still wasn't at an all time high while making it. The Saboteur is marred, but not by execution, but trying to do too many different genre styles in one title. None of the game's aspects are horrible, just flawed, with the results feeling unpolished, but still quite enjoyable from opening credits to final curtain.

The Saboteur is an open world, action adventure game, that takes a pinch of GTA, a dash of Assassin's Creed, mixes in some visual Noir black and white flair like Mad World, and tosses in a little racing action for good measure, leaving an odd taste that goes down well enough, but just seems undercooked to be called perfection. You play as Sean Devlin, an Irish mechanic who is hell bent on getting revenge on the Nazi scum that took his loved ones away from him. With the help of the French Resistance, British Intelligence, and a butt-ton of weapons and explosives at your disposal, you can accomplish this feat easier than going it alone.

One thing that sticks out is the use of the black and white visuals. When the French are in fear or the game is overtaken by hostiles, those areas are in black and white with touches of color for blood, fire, etc. When these areas are free from tyranny, they become bright and colorful and full of life. It's like Okami, but more brutal, sexually subjective, and for mature audiences. Even if the rest of the game is considered by many as forgettable, this is easily one aspect that this reviewer will always give note to.

The mission set ups provide the most enjoyment as they will have you getting your feet wet in all the general aspects in the game. Here you will get a great taste for the melee fighting, use of weapons, utilizing disguises, climbing walls, exploring the many hiding spots and area, and even lend your gear box savvy in some racing elements. As mentioned, you have to appreciate the developers for "borrowing" ideas from games like GTA and Assassin's Creed, but like many great unfinished jobs, it seems like the task of trying to satisfy too many genre specifics became too daunting of a task. While many of the game implementations are handled very well, none of them feel especially polished. This results in many collision detection issues, frame rate drops, control sensitivity issues, unresponsive and dumb AI at times, and while there are none that are terribly problematic, they fail to ever feel like one aspect of the game took president over another. In the end you feel as like a lot of jobs were taken on, but none were finished completely, leaving a slight mess for someone else to sweep up after. As, is, the game never fails to feel entertaining as any of the game it mimics, but will never get the satisfaction of living in the memories as any of the games it attempts to imitate.

I quite enjoyed my time with The Saboteur, and while we can't reverse time and wish things could have worked out better, the story was well told, the acting believable, the action enjoyable, and the new ideas implemented will inspire future games, but when all is said and done, the game just feels unfinished in too many areas to feel like a AAA title. Not to mention, the timing of the game's release is just as poor, as it is sure to be buried in the mass of critically acclaimed titles, which will no doubt result in poor sales. All things considered, with a little more time all the game's faults, from execution to sales numbers, could have possibly been rectified. As is, it is a shame The Saboteur will find its audience in a bargain bin and be appreciated after the game has made its initial run. By then, the attention, much like Pandemic themselves, will be dead.