Let’s hear it for the anti-hero - Military Video Games, computer games, games, gaming - Navy Times

Let’s hear it for the anti-hero

Are you tired of playing as the same characters over and over in first-person shooters? Marines? Special operators? Marine special operators — in space? Try this one on for size: Sean Devlin, wisecracking, hard-drinking Irishman.

Devlin, an erstwhile race car driver with a vendetta against the Nazis, is the star of the World War II blow-’em-up “The Saboteur.” The chance to spend time with the profane, chain-smoking, whiskey-drinking Devlin is reason enough to buy “The Saboteur,” and its engaging story line and atmospheric setting only enhance the experience.

Devlin is a Belfast gearhead whose misadventures have landed him in occupied Paris in 1940, living in the back room of a bordello, the Belle de Nuit. He has good reasons for hating the Nazis, but at first he just tries to lay low, drowning his conscience in amber solace. Soon, he is pulled into the French Resistance, and Devlin begins to collect on the debt of blood the Nazis owe him, hiding in the open among Parisians and helping to disassemble the German war machine one explosion at a time.

“The Saboteur” was a pleasant surprise: I expected another generic World War II shooter, not a fully realized boys’ adventure novel. Its characters were likable (or hateable) and believable; its gameplay was familiar but solid; and its visuals were imaginative. Video game cut-scenes usually start bad and get worse with each additional minute — we’re looking at you, “Metal Gear Solid” — but I let the story cinematics in “The Saboteur” play on because I was enjoying them so much.

The designers in “The Saboteur” have built a giant version of 1940 Paris, which extends vertically to rooftops where Sean can sneak around unseen. You can shimmy up buildings like a drunken Spider-Man, or you can walk or drive cars through the streets. The city is occupied by throngs of computer-controlled Parisians, as well as many Nazi soldiers. You can disguise yourself as a Parisian or a Nazi and make your way in plain view of bad guys, taking care to avoid them, but don’t look suspicious or they’ll raise the alarm.

In this milieu, you blow up supply depots, take out Nazi officials, steal supplies and take on all kinds of other missions, assembling a network of underground allies. And when the day’s work is done, you repair back to the greatest headquarters of all time, your lair behind the dancers’ dressing room at the Belle de Nuit.

Many of the elements that make “The Saboteur” succeed are borrowed, but it doesn’t rely on any one of them so much that it loses its own identity. Its car-driving and prostitutes come from “Grand Theft Auto”; its black-and-white-with-some-important-colors palette from “Schindler’s List”; its setting from “Inglourious Basterds”; its sneaking-around-and-stealing-clothes tactics from the “Hitman” franchise. You could argue its rooftop-prowling and its interacting-with-crowds dynamic come from “Assassin’s Creed,” and you could cite all these to make a case that “Saboteur” is a pastiche of rip-offs — although, again, I thought it worked.

But even with that elite pedigree, the game still has its flaws — driving and fighting both were tricky at first, and players eager for action will get bored with Devlin’s back story in the beginning of the game. This is definitely not a fast-paced experience.

Also, “The Saboteur” has no multiplayer mode, which has become a standard feature on today’s violence titles. Still, it doesn’t need one, and I give its programmers credit for committing to an immersive, single-player story and not tacking on a forgettable online mode.

I’ve written before that some video games seem like they should have been screenplays or were created just to be made into movies. “The Saboteur” is solid movie material, but unlike those other titles, it succeeds boldly on its own.