The Saboteur™

Windows crashes when closing this game. unplayable in 2025.

Killed some german men, than exploded some military equipment and stole some cars with guns. Than I went home and tried the game. Pretty good game tbh.

Jokes aside, this was my first time playing this game. Most of the other reviews were by people who played this game during 2009. Not me. I found out that this game is a mix of gta, assassin's creed and ww2. This game aged very well. From the soundtrack, to the action shootouts. Only thing I didn't like is the stealth. Its kinda boring and feels out of place. During this review I'm not done with the story, but I like where its going. Def worth buying.

very fun running people over and shooting...those.. people

I love this game.

This is a fantastic action adventure. It's a combination of Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed set in occupied France during WWII. You can steal cars and climb buildings. You can get in disguises to evade detection. There is a wide range of missions, and side quests to keep you busy. The driving in this game is so much fun. The shooting mechanism is excellent. Super fun.
The environment is very immersive which makes the game unique.
Occupied areas are black and white, after you carry out missions in certain areas and kill Nazis reducing their influence, the environment becomes colourful. Giving a sense of liberation.
The soundtrack is also very good. The music fits the scenes and the times nicely.

The story in a nutshell is this, you are an Irish mechanic to get revenge on the Nazi who killed your French best friend.

The cons:
Climbing the wall can be a bit clunky sometimes.
The combat is a bit awkward. Doesn't always work well.
During shooting, the automatic cover function is a bit slow to detect and doesn't always protect you from gunfire even when it's supposed to.

Overall, the is is an awesome game. I highly recommend it.

good game

I've had an excellent time with this game.
Blowing up Nazi infrastructure is a fun gameplay loop, but i recommend taking breaks, because it really isn't that exhilarating.
Story in this game is basically an average Jason Statham movie so i have no further comments to it.
Characters in this game are kinda bland and forgettable, but the MC Sean "Irishman" Devlin has cool lines like "Top of the morning to ya or whatever time it is" and "Motherfvck!"

If you like Red Faction:Guerrilla, then you probably like this game too.
They're pretty similar as in "The story is bland but the gameplay is fun"

While fun, the game is poorly optimized and controllers just don’t seem to work when it feels like this game was meant for controller play. Maybe one day, this game can get a remake?

TLDR its just GTA but your in france fighting germans as the resistance

The gameplay is fine, if notably old looking. The aspect ratio on a wide screen pulls me out of the game play, it looks so bad. But what's fun is that very often when you go to save the game to exit, the game will lock up the computer. And not just some of that weak sauce, "go to task manager and kill the process" stuff, but just locks the whole rig up. Reboot the machine lock-up. Not worth the grief.

This game kicks ass. I wish I had found it as a kid during the 7th gen. Absolutely wonderful hidden gem.

GOLDEN CLASSIC ! GREAT GAME GOOD NOSTALGIC FUN

Super underrated gem from the 360/PS3 era, great atmosphere, great gameplay, holds up today and worth playing. RIP Pandemic, EA ruined you.

This is my favorite Assassins Creed game so far! Here you have dynamite, good stealth, fast cars, flamethrower, hundreds targets to sabotage and thousands nazies to kill. Maybe graphic not aged so well, but this game is quite unique and still played well in 2025. And thats sad, there were never any sequel or games with similar design. The most similar gameplay experience you can get in Red Faction Guerilla or Watch Dogs Legion.

Just Cause meets Sniper Elite.

GTA-esque game with Assassin's Creed-like climbing.

Its missions are kind of open so you aren't obligated to do anything in particular and can accomplish your objective in a way you see fit, whether it is infiltration through disguises, stealth or guns blazing.

Pretty good storyline that doesn't feel bloated or cut short, charming varied cast of characters.

It's a good game.
I would not try to 100% it however. Don't waste your time with that. Just do what you need to do to get "money" then focus on the main story stuff and perhaps a few choice perks to unlock.

10/10 music and presentation. The colorful and lively resistance areas leading into the cold, greyscale Nazi areas adds a lot to the atmosphere. The gameplay is pretty standard stuff for when it was released.

I never thought that a game that you could describe as "Assassin's Creed mixed with GTA" could be this fun and engaging. Super fun to go around 1940 Paris either assassinating or massacring Nazis in free-roam and missions using a wide variety of weapons from dynamite to a full-auto sniper rifle. Driving's not half-bad either.

This isn't meant to be a super deep review, but if you like older AC games, enjoy the GTA series, and/or hate Nazis, this game probably has something for you.

All that being said, I am compelled to mention that the way the game treats women in particular isn't amazing. The inclusion of jiggle physics in particular was kind of weird to me, a character that's otherwise pretty cool has a disappointing backstory, and this game's only DLC is just a vehicle to add another car and some super-easy-to-miss private cabaret dances. Nothing insane, just kinda disappointing, even for a game from like 2008.

Runs great on Steam Deck

Came to fight the naz!s, stayed for blowing up France

A forgotten game. The graphics are dated but it's still a fun game to play.

I played this game when it was first out on the 360 and have wanted to play it again. I enjoy the story it is fun and you get to shoot Nazi's which everyone loves. There are some cool mechanics in the game (the colour arrives once you liberate an area) and overall its a fun game. Only problem i had was the screen size which was easily adjustable by creating a config file

missions not showing up after completing lots of those little white things. can happen to you. waste of my time.

I mean, it's just not good. I mean that with all due respect.

The game is an attempt to use the GTA gameplay model, throw in some building climbing, make it a Nazi theme, and then give it about a C- average and you've got this game. Everything about it falls short of the level of execution you'd want from the game. I am trying to keep in perspective that this game is 2009 but that was when GTA 4 came out. That said, metacritic shows this game with a 73/7.8 while GTA 4 has a 98/8.3.

The storyline is moderately entertaining and the only thing that had me even remotely interested is the satisfaction of killing Nazi's, but that can only take you so far. The game ends up turning into more of a driving sim than anything else given the amount of time you're driving without fast travel options (or at least none I discovered). The map is peppered with ways to accrue currency but it is so boring and repetitive while also every time jeopardizes the risk of drawing attention and of course that leads to a whole world of annoying situations in escaping the alarms. In fact, the whole alarm/heat system if you will is generally tiresome.

The graphics are of course tired, as expected. I like the noir element where very little color is present except with very specific highlights followed by a sort of "healing" of areas as you move the story along. The combat is... well it's very arcade and simple. As is the driving generally speaking.

Overall, it's not that this game is terrible, but it's also not great. It's very average and mediocre, and at this stage where the population of games out there to be played is limitless, I wouldn't suggest using your limited time to play this game. I see what the developers were trying to do, but in the end it just feels like a game that tried to ride the coattails of the success of GTA with their own twist and ended up making something so blah that it raises the question of if any of the team who made it would even recommend it.

A WW2 game that reminds me a lot of Assassin's Creed and GTA.

It's Just cause, but you're killing Nazis in Paris. When you start the game go to options and switch nudity on, it's hilarious.

killing Nazis doesn't get better than this

This port is INCREDIBLY questionable but holy fuck this game is funny

Autosaves don't actually work, and manual saves send you back to the closest safehouse

You play as Sean Devlin, an irish racer fighting Nazis in World War II. You get to blow stuff up, sneak around, and cause chaos in Paris. One of the cool things is how the game world changes from black-and-white to color when you take back areas from the Nazis. The driving and fighting are okay, but it's really cool how you can approach missions in different ways. The story is about revenge, and the game has a great atmosphere. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good time if you like open-world games and blowing things up.

Most interesting game with great atmosphere and story alongside with "fanservice" if may I say, you can change it from start menu option if you know what I mean. This game is amalgamation of Assassin Creed, GTA, racing game, Hitman, and etc. Buy it and you won't regret it. Because of EA takeover, sadly this game is the last game from Pandemic Studio before closed permanently by EA.

¶ One of the most underappreciated open-world games available is The Saboteur. In the game, you take on the role of Sean Devlin, an Irish racer who is seeking retribution in Nazi-occupied France. Occupied Paris feels gloomy due to the game's distinctive black-and-white art style, and it is immensely exciting to restore color by liberating regions, but that "special" noir sense quickly fades.

¶ The AI is occasionally stupid, the parkour is clumsy, and the game is a little janky, but it's still a lot of fun to blow up Nazi strongholds, sneak through enemy facilities, and avoid crazy automobile chases across Paris. This game has soul despite its flaws, and the soundtrack is amazing and the atmosphere is excellent. This could have been the beginning of something epic, therefore it's unfortunate that Pandemic Studios closed after this. This game is a must-play if you enjoy open-world mayhem and classy historical settings. One of my favorite video games as a kid.

the main character is Jacksepticeye 6/10

I got to kill Nazi/commy bastards.

Highly Recomended
10/10

it's like a ww2 GTA in a way, but with more jank but in a good way.

Amazing game, this really is a hidden Gem, I can tell that already and I have only played for a couple of hours so far.

You might want to check out Reshade mods and Flawless Widescreen mods as this game is quite old, but once you tweak things a bit, it looks great on a modern system too.

In one review, the acting has been described as a 'cheesy spy movie' plot, I would tend to agree with this but this just adds to the charm of this game, there are a number of 'laugh out loud' moments.

Definitely worth the 9 pounds I just paid for this in 2025

killing nazis is always fun, i will 10/10 recommend this to anyone who despises nazis

I'm not entirely sure how I stumbled into the Saboteur. Maybe it was the Zero Punctuation review of Nioh among all things. Soon enough, I started seeing posts in my algorithm that glazed this game as a forgotten gem, and while I can see where they're coming from, a lot of people neglect to mention the amount of jank this game is covered in. The parkour feels janky, the mission design always almost asks you to escape Nazi's (which is surprisingly hard) at the end, as if the concept of a mission ending any other way was new. The shooting has some moments of jank. Cars are unreliable in their handling. The story feels weirdly janky. There isn't a fast travel system, or waypoint system, or shortcut for the full map, making navigating a nightmare. And my god. Is the steal absolutely bizarre. Every system that goes into the steal mechanics are all poorly executed.

I think this game is ultimately good. It has moments where things come together, and what it does is enjoyable, it's just similar to a half-baked cake. It's yummy, but can feel like a slog and a bit structurally weak.

One of my favourite GTA3 clones from the Xbox 360 era.
My only complaints are really minor:

• that the Nina Simone banger over the end credits wasn't written until 1 year after VE day
  
• the lead not being French felt like some focus group said "PC has to be an anglophone or it will hurt sales". At least he wasn't a fucking American again.
  
[*] top-tier car collecting perk is somewhere between "aggressively hard" and "outright impossible". The perk benefit isn't super essential, though, so you can just decide to not try for it.

amazing game, just a little buggy, C'mon EA, we know you can do better.
the story is gripping, and mechanics are pretty decent. think Just cause/Asassins creed with better music
Also, best main character ive seen in ages

I've played this game on 360 back in the day. There's no steam achievements, but it's still a great game. Is it outdated? yes, but it is an older game after all. It's still worth the money. Graphics are passable on high settings. It could use a remaster but lets be real they ain't gonna remaster this masterpiece of a game. You can turn off or on the nudity, which I turn on, cause it's a mature game. I recommend it to anyone who likes beating, and blowing up Nazis which has been a great pastime for us gamers amirite, yes i know I am. Still a gem.

My apologizes for my review as i am not a great reviewer. I blame the moonshine I drank, since i rarely do reviews. But I had to least this one.

9/10

I wish they added the achievements.

Amazing game screw you EA for shutting a gaming company that's littraley better than you sucks that there's no achievements but they probably will cuz they only realesed it in 2024.But yeah the story is about a Irish guy named Sean Devlin who has a Nazi target Kurt Dierker and yeah the game is very good the story is very very good in my top 3 favourite video games of all time and trust me Ive played alot of video games.

GTA but set in WW2 with clear enemies
i love it

The first game I've ever played! And this one made me love playing games.

Beat this game on console years back. One of my favorite single player games. i recommend for anyone looking for a stealthy fun open world game.

This game is exceptionally good value for the money, the graphics are decent enough, in fact i bought a Microsoft 2018 game and i think the graphics of this game were much better. The old time feel is great tho could use a few more songs which begin to get repetitive, tho it does have a really nice cinematic score when the action occurs this build up the tension nicely. The jumping and climbing can be a bit perilous at times and feel a bit clunky however you get used to it.

The video settings were not accessible to me from the main menu and thought in the beginning i would not be able to run the game, however if you the ignore video settings and press play, it works fine. There are ways to access the video setting through the config file if u search the forum but i never bothered..

The open world in the game is very good, it feels fun driving in the french quaint countryside, and you can unlock some nice sporty cars. The car physics handle well.

You can tell a lot of work went into this game, the voice acting is good and the cut scenes are interesting.

The only annoyances i had was even tho i selected a fast car as my main getaway car, if u are far out in the countryside for some reason they will deliver the basic starter car which is an old clunker. I tried many things such as blowing up the car of which it should not be available for delivery but still gets sent anyways. Whilst annoying it is still manageable u can car- jack a slightly better car if needed.

You get the impression that the game was supposed to have a lot more missions and content as the amount of collectables dotted around the map are insanely plentiful. Certain regions feel as they were supposed to have more resistant cells and NPC contacts for mission and to use as temporary base for that area, so gets annoying that if u save in that far region it puts u back into the city on the next load up,

That being said this was an awesome game to play and very much enjoyed it. Once all the missions are complete and the end credits roll, you can still continue in the world and take out more enemies of which are like mini missions anyways with some collectable guarded more so than others. if you were to continue to collect the items around the map this would increase play-ability for many weeks if not months as there is simply a crazy amount to get.

I should also mention before playing ensure your task manager is set to always on top as sometimes when exiting it crashes and the only way to end the task is with Ctrl _alt_ delete. If your task manager is not set to always be on top the game will cover the task manager and you wont be able to kill task.

I loved this game when I first played it on my XBox 360, and replayed it recently in my steam deck. It’s 16 years old but still holds up - the storyline is absorbing and the gameplay is so much fun. Blowing stuff up, creeping around, climbing buildings in the city, escaping nazis, running around the countryside. It looks beautiful, and has loads of replay value.

Terrible. It tries to be a cool stealth game, but fails miserably.
Game mechanics are clunky and outdated.
It could've been an Assassin's Creed killer, but instead it feels like something completely messed up.

Don't get me wrong it was a great idea, setting and good soundtrack, but the execution is a big let down.

Art of Sabotage.

[hr]Seeing this classic EA masterpiece finally released on Steam last year was great news for me. In short, The Saboteur is an open-world action game set in WWII, where you play as an Irish resistance fighter, Sean Devlin, taking on the Nazis in occupied Paris and seeking revenge.

What I love about this game is it feels like a mix between Grand Theft Auto (for the open-world and free-roam aspects) and Sniper Elite (with its stealth and sabotage mechanics). Being a saboteur is all about The Art of Sabotage. The graphics are dated, but the voice acting has so much charm and style, and the story is perfect. Also, the facial expressions? It's great.

Tons of great features in this classic game. Completing tasks unlocks perks, and if you're struggling to unlock the next perk, you can just buy them from a shopkeeper. Also, you'll get a punishment perks, such as hiding spot is disabled for 1 minutes. (How did I know? I’ve had a few accidents while driving). Sean has ability to climb buildings like Assassin's Creed. How the color changes around you as you exploring the city and how it affects the environment. Hiding spots when you're being chased. Calling the Resistance to aid you in the battlefield. My favorite hiding spot is kissing a woman.

Main missions are marked with gold square while side missions are marked with black and white square. Green marks hiding spots, and white marks Nazi targets for sabotage. Side missions are repetitive, but it's a good way to earn contraband and bring color back to the city.

Contraband is your currency for buying weapons, upgrades, and other useful stuff. You earn it by completing side missions, blowing up Nazi stuff, such as towers, alarms, vehicles, and fuel depots.

I only hate there’s no shortcut key to open the full map—you have to go through the pause menu every time.

As great as it was in 2009.

On of the best endings I have ever seen. That piano melody is perfect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SgnzDsq-Lw

Art style > graphics

Feels like Mafia mixed with Sniper Elite. Had a lot of fun playing this one.

These old games have more of a style and charm than most modern games.
not even an hour and i'm hooked.

Edit : got it on gog. It's working fine with the exe available on reddit (see below). No performance issue, 1080 without stretching. This version should be removed tbh or slashed to 99ct as a tinkering project. Otherwise, it's a really good game.

I don't recommend this version because it doesn't work for me but I'd recommend people to try. There's not a lot of games like this anymore.
Be sure to test it right away. Despite all its known issues, steam refused my refund for being after 14 days of purchase.

I've recently discovered this one. It looks like a really nice game and I wish I could have played it back in the days.
For the very little that I was able to play, it really feels like Mafia 1 but in WW2 europe. It seems to have some good game mechanics, sound, music AI and scenario. The whole package.

However, after trying every patch and mod I could find on the web, the best I could get is a highly unstable experience that would end up in freeze and crash (win 10 / nvidia 1660ti / ryzen 3600 ). I'll check elsewhere as gog seems to have an updated version (the gog patch is available but doesn't work on this version).

If you're having issues, look up the pc gaming wiki website and the .exe available on the reddit thread "i cannot run the saboteur gog version on my new pc". Afaik that's a compendium of all available tips and tricks you could try.

Edit 2 : it's a really good game and very much worth it for anyone who enjoys older games and Mafia I. I've finished the story but without the PS3 achievements it's much less fun to push on.
However the game is still open to explore afterwards because the main story doesn't go through every part of the map.
There's a lot of fun vehicles from slow tractor to powerful tanks. Lots of weapons as well. The story is interesting and the character are nicely designed and voiced. If the steam version had worked it would be a complete recommend.

Again, for me the gog version was it because they actually updated the game, apparently not just the exe because using that exe (available to download) on the steam version is no use.