Pandemic Studios, the explosion artists behind Mercenaries and Star Wars Battlefront are trying something new with The Saboteur. That is to say, they’ve been trying something new for the past five years. The Saboteur is the result of five years’ work, according to the enthusiastic Pandemic PR rep demonstrating the open-world shooter to me. A departure from the balls-out action of Mercenaries, The Saboteur is a decidedly dark tale about Sean, an Irish race car driver dragged into the web of World War 2 when his friend is tortured and killed by Nazis. Granted, there are still plenty of guns, explosions, and fist-fights, but The Saboteur seems to be shaping up into something with a fair amount of heart for a free-roaming action game.

The world is absolutely massive, covering areas of Nazi-occupied France and Germany. Players can drive anywhere they like; however, more interesting is the way Sean can scale any building he wants. The Saboteur plays vertically, not just horizontally; both levels I played involved climbing over buildings as well as running through them. Stealth and shooting are both encouraged - The Saboteur features enough options to cover both styles of play. Sneaking around a theater crawling with SS troops, I made do with silent takedowns. However, after a few minutes, I started blasting soldiers away - the transition is seamless, and never did I feel as if I should be doing things the other way. I was never forced into one style, which was quite refreshing.

The defining characteristic of The Saboteur is the use of color - or rather, the lack of it. Most of the game takes place in black and white, something that a Pandemic developer called “an absolute nightmare to get right.” The Saboteur looks torn straight out of a 1950’s war movie, except subtle touches of color - blood, headlights, city lights, etc - are slightly tinted for highlighting. Color will return to areas that have been purged of Nazi troops, and Resistance fighters will aid the player in these areas. It’s a very pretty game, considering how massive the streaming environment is, although a few textures on characters looked quite murky in spots, and aliasing was a major issue in spots. Still, in motion, it’s gorgeous, and it appears that the gutsy move to present most of the game in monochrome paid off.

The Saboteur is a singleplayer experience only - plans for a multiplayer mode were scrapped fairly early in development. That said, it looks to be quite content rich. The player can take part in many side missions, along with the fairly hefty selection of main story missions. There are also races, both optional and story-important. It’s a good thing, then, that the driving physics felt tight and responsive. The controls were slightly more awkward on foot - Sean ducks behind cover of his own accord, which works 90% of the time, but occasionally leads to awkward scuffles with pieces of scenery. The hand-to-hand combat is extremely satisfying, though, with a robust set of moves that Sean can unleash upon foes. The sheer variety of combat options never ceased to be impressive.

It has a way to go - the build we played had a few glaring bugs that needed ironing out - but with a couple of months until the December 8th release date to polish everything up, The Saboteur certainly looks promising.