• Information
• Gamerip

Year: 2009

Type: Gamerip

Composer(s): Gabriel Mann; Rebecca Kneubuhl

Number of tracks: 35

Rating

★★★★★

Le Jazz Heur

After my last review of games with Nazis in Wolfenstein 3D we now come to another game with Nazis: The Saboteur. In the latest project from developer Pandemic Studios (Star Wars: Battlefront, Destroy All Humans!), we are not a Polish one-man army that opposes the regime. Nevertheless, in Sean Devlin, an Irish racing driver and mechanic, we control a character who is no less capable of fighting back and who, as the eponymous saboteur, quickly becomes a member of the French Resistance.

Fun fact: According to Wikipedia the character is based on the real-life William Grover-Williams, who worked as an agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France and was captured and later executed by the Nazis in 1943.

To prevent his fictional image from suffering this fate, we can gradually liberate open-world Paris and its surroundings from the influence of the Nazis in 2009's The Saboteur . This may sound a lot like GTA meets Assassin’s Creed - and indeed, the Ubisoft formula with recurring elements and tasks begins to take shape for the first time in this game - but The Saboteur has one thing over its peers: stylistic confidence.

The districts, which are still under the rule of Hitler's helpers, are dominated by black and white tristesse, interspersed only with bright yellow and red, as we might remember from the Prototype-games or the movie Sin City . This not only looks stylish, but also lends the game a wonderful melancholy (especially in the rain). At the same time, the return of the bright colors breathes a certain satisfaction into our actions when we successfully sabotage another Nazi base. Despite its rather functional story and various technical problems, I definitely had a lot of fun with this gem, but that's just as an aside.

Soundtrack time! Although they are not on the cover, Gabriel Mann and Rebecca Kneubuhl are responsible for the soundtrack, having already worked in this combination on the last installment of the Spyro-series (The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon). However, we don't hear their art on the gamerip of Gamerip of The Saboteur as its 35 tracks consist almost exclusively of (more or less) contemporary jazz songs from the early 20th century and their Instrumental-versions.

Accordingly, video game enthusiasts should find tunes like Somebody Nobody Loves by Ella Fitzgerald bringing back memories of the Fallout-games, while representatives of the swing/jazz department, such as Koop Island Blues (feat. Ane Brun) by Koop, Walk the Walk (Steve Sidwell) or Blue Theme (Robert Farnon), connect to the Mafia- and L.A. Noire-synapses. To me, the faster, agent-like pieces also give off a bit of a No One Lives Forever or Sam & Max-vibe (Walk the Walk by Steve Sidwell, The Finger Points to You by Maxayn), but that just might be me.

With Feeling Good by Nina Simone, a much-quoted song from pop culture has also found its way into the score, which always works for me. I also like Sprintis Remix, which, as a reduced piano version, makes my pianist's heart beat faster.

Meanwhile, the theme comes from film composer Christopher Young, who primarily writes for horror and thrillers, including films such as The Grudge, Hellraiser, as well as Spider-Man 3, and stays close to the melancholy mood of the game and the rest of the score. In its almost 1.5 minutes, however, the piece does not manage to develop any further. The Action Mix doesn't make the whole thing any more exciting, just like the pompous Jazz Mix. Only the Piano Version adds a little more emotion, but it still doesn't get a top score.

All in all, the The Saboteur-gamerip is therefore more of a nice old-school jazz/soul collection, which will certainly please genre fans, while for others it will serve as atmospheric background music for the next 30s party or pen & paper session.

• Gamerip

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