Pandemic Studios swansong is an open world, period tale of vengeance and violence but can it make an impression in a crowded market?

Sean is drunk, foul-mouthed and Irish. Local players (that’s me and you) may find the opening scenes of Pandemic’s The Saboteur a little difficult to bear as our Leprechaun-accented protagonist staggers around objectifying women, glorifying violence and basically being an example of every strained Emerald-isle stereotype ever imagined. But it’s the accent that got to us most, particularly as in our recent interview with lead designer Tom French he insisted that the actor playing him was Irish (he’s not – it’s an English actor called Robin Atkin Downes; I remember him as Byron from Babylon 5 but you probably won’t). Sean’s drawl and pseudo-Irish gutter talk hurt us. In our brains.

But then we were introduced to the games main villain, drawn in stupendously broad Germanic and sadistic strokes and it suddenly dawned on us – The Saboteur is a cartoon!

Granted, the art style and the games extreme creative license with the layout of the French capital should probably have clued us into this fact a lot earlier but once we realised that the entire thing is supposed to be ridiculous, we actually started to have a lot of fun.

So we dove back into Sean’s free form violent adventures; driving fast cars, exploding things and shooting jackbooted terrors in their meaty visages with gusto. As continental stereotypes sneered and ‘Oui, Oui-d’ past us we were drawn into a quest for revenge which happens to coincide with the French resistance. The Paris of The Saboteur is hyper-stylised and highly compressed to make exploration simpler, which leads to frank geographic disbelief as you make the journey from the Eiffel Tower to the Champs-Elysées in seconds.

While you half suspect that the cobbles of the streets might be made from carefully crafted croissants, the closely packed map is actually really charming and means that you are rarely far from your goals or assaulted with an endless barrage of repetitive streets. It also means that when you get out into the surrounding countryside it makes a welcome change.

Adding to the visual appeal of the game is the Will to Fight – a mechanic which borrows liberally from sources like Schindler’s List and Sin City, painting occupied areas in a thick coat of dour greys. As you take out Nazi emplacements and complete missions, these areas will slowly be liberated and colour will seep back into the world. It’s hardly the most subtle effect in gaming history but bringing life back to these areas is a nice immediate reward and a great visual shorthand for your progress.