The Saboteur's Lead Designer, Tom French has sat down with PlayStation.Blog once again to give the community more information about The Saboteur. In this last installment of the PlayStation.Blog Tom introduces you to some of the great characters of The Saboteur.
Hello readers, I’m back again, and The Saboteur is actually out today! I am truly excited that it’s finally available and you can all play it now. Today, I want to talk about the different characters in The Saboteur. Because the game is very story driven, it was extremely important to us to have a good solid cast of characters for Sean to interact with along the way while trying to get revenge on Dierker (if you’re confused by what all that means, see my previous posts). Our mantra for creating our cast of characters was “everyone has a problem.” This was important because it meant we had to create back stories for all the characters to give them grounding and purpose in the world of The Saboteur. While we have a lot of different characters in the game, there are some really key players you should know about.
Jules
Jules – Jules is one of the most important characters in the game because his death is the ultimate motivating factor for Sean’s romp across occupied France killing Nazis. It was a big risk to take to count on delivering Jules as a character. We hope the player likes him so that when he dies there would be an emotional connection and natural motivation for the player. Personally, I’m really happy with the delivery of Jules in the game.
Veronique
Veronique – Veronique is Jules’ sister and another key character in the story. Before the war, Sean has basically an attraction to Veronique, but then again, he does to most women. After Jules dies Veronique helps keep Sean grounded, tying him into the world of the Resistance, and ultimately giving him something to fight for.
Read about more characters at the full post on PlayStation.Blog
During our trip to Pairs in October The Saboteur team in France made sure to cover the event from head to toe & have recently released their coverage from the event. Members from the development team such as Lead Designer, Tom French & Product Manager, Jim Ferris were able to chime in & give you guys a new look at The Saboteur. This video being from France some pieces are in French but interviews with the development team are in English.
I am very proud to communicate today that The Saboteur has officially gone “GOLD” on all 3 planned platforms (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & PC). This has been a very difficult week for Pandemic Studios, but does not change the fact that a team of amazing people worked very hard to make The Saboteur a great game that fans will be able to enjoy this holiday season. As planned, The Saboteur will be available across Europe starting December 4 and throughout North America on December 8. Vive La Resistance!
The Saboteur is Golden
Last week Lead Designer, Tom French headed out to the Moscow game show & had a chance to sit down with PlayHard.ru and give an in-depth look within The Saboteur.
PlayHard
We really like the "Quiet In / Loud Out" concept of The Saboteur. This means that you better be stealthy and sly until you reach your goals and then you can blow everything up on your way out like a Hollywood action hero. The game will feature a lot of cool weapons and vehicles to drive. It will be up to you to restore the Will to Fight amongst the local population what will in turn add more colors to the big and open in-game world. Some days ago in Moscow we met Tom French, the Lead Designer of The Saboteur, who shared a lot of intriguing details about the upcoming game with us during his World Tour which also included visiting San Francisco and London.
PH: How does this character’s development work?
TF: Actually, you upgrade your skills and just the more often you do something the better Sean becomes in it. If you like sniping enemies and you shoot enough of them in the heads, with your newly earned sniping perk your scope drift will stop. If you keep on doing that, your kick will stop. You somewhat just keep on improving in everything as you play. There are three layers of our perks. They start being pretty easy to get and you'll get them simply while playing the game. Levels Two and Three will require some additional work, like setting micro-goals for yourself and that will be on top of our whole story.
PH: How can you describe the gameplay?
TF: The Saboteur is very much a Sandbox game. We tried to pull a player to do exciting things and wanted our missions to be big, like the level-based missions rather than your typical Sandbox assignments. There are many cool opportunities in the game, where you could break your enemy’s neck, go to the skies or make a bomb go off. You can use any way you like to reach your goals: to climb up a wall, kill everyone inside a building or even plant explosives under a car. We just provide you with the tools and you decide how you want to play with them.
PH: How do we get new assignments?
TF: You get new missions from different people representing the Resistance and after talking to various characters. You just have to visit places, which resemble Resistance Headquarters in our game world, and with that information, you will be able to get to the backbone of our Sean’s vengeance story. Optional tasks are combined in the missions' threads, you can complete them, unlock new weapons shops, and activate the Resistance forces in certain areas. You also get contraband as a reward, which is our in-game currency. Contraband includes vodka, whiskey, caviar and things like that which people wanted to get at that time. Then you can take your assets to the black market where you will be able to get new weapons and gear for Sean or improve the Resistance strength as well.
PlayHard.ru full interview with Tom French Here!
If you’re looking to make sure your PC is up to snuff to handle all the bells and whistles of The Saboteur you will want to make sure your PC is in line with the following specs.
REQUIRED SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS:
OS: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7
CPU: Core 2 Dual Core 2.4GHz or AMD equivalent
RAM: 2GB or more
DISC DRIVE: Dual Layer 1x or faster DVD Drive
Hard Drive: At least 7GB of free space
Video: Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX with 256MB of VRAM or ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB of VRAM
Sound: Direct X 9.0c compatible sound card
Suggested Configuration:
OS: Windows XP - SP3 or Windows Vista - SP1
Processor: Quad Core running at 2.8 GHz or equivalent
Memory : 2 GB RAM (Windows XP) or 3 GB RAM (Windows Vista/7)
GPU: nVidia 8800 GT graphics card
VRAM: 512 MB
G4TV's X-Play was able to snag Lead Designer, Tom French & get the latest build of The Saboteur in their hands. Tom talks about the game's environments, sandbox gameplay, missions and more.
Gamespot.com got an exclusive look at The Saboteur within their "On The Spot" show which featured our very own Lead Designer, Tom French. Tom sat down with Gamespot's Associate Editor, Shaun Mcinnis & showed us more ways the Saboteur will shine coming into this holiday season.
On The Spot
Not only did Gamespot get to see the game, but they also had a chance to play the game. Once they finished up they quickly posted their updated impression of the game.
In this stylish World War II-era sandbox action game, you play Irish racecar driver Sean Devlin on a vengeance quest to topple the Nazi occupation of wartime Paris. Throughout the course of that quest, you'll hide out in brothels, kill and impersonate German officers, and bring color to a world gone gray. After a recent demo courtesy of lead designer Tom French, we can now add dealing in the black market and unlocking (light) skill upgrades to that list... Read more
Skylar
Skylar St. Claire. The blue-eyed, blue-blooded heiress of the St. Clair dynasty is a race groupie, a thrill seeker, and a freak between the sheets.
Skylar was expelled from Cambridge University when it was discovered she’d been making naughty home movies with her professors and using the films to blackmail her way straight to the top of the class. The head of Britain’s Special Operations Executive heard about Miss St. Claire’s exploits and offered her a chance to ply her special brand of “undercover work” in the service of King and Country. D
Driven by a sense of patriotic duty… and an unquenchable thirst for excitement… Skylar went back to school, scoring straight “A’s” in: Surveillance, Sabotage, Infiltration, and Assassination 101.
Skylar
Before the war, Skylar toured Europe posing as a notorious party girl with a taste for professional drivers – a cover she was born to play. Miss St. Claire built a network of contacts from Monaco to Berlin. Her travel journal reads like a tour book of the European underworld – a Who’s Who” of hustlers, criminals, and spies.
When Skylar is mixing business and pleasure, she’s been known to mix it up with professional drivers, including a certain Sean Devlin.
Skylar and Sean met for the first time the night of the Monaco Grand Prix in ’38 – a head on collision that ended in a king-sized bed at the Ritz Carlton. By the time Sean’s hangover wore off the next day, Skylar was long gone. But two thrill-seekers living life in the fast lane were bound to run into each other again.
This week The Saboteur took a trip to the bay area to demo the PC version for the first time in North America. Associate Producer, Cory Lewis & Community Manager, Mathew Everett had a chance to meet with the guys at GiantBomb.com & preview the game.
The Saboteur: Sean Devlin
Sean Devlin is a stranger in a strange land. An Irishman on the run, his past shrouded in mystery, Sean thought he’d found a happy home working as a mechanic with the Morini Racing team in France. Sean eventually earned a spot on the professional racing circuit, racing alongside the best drivers in the world. Then the War came, and Sean’s dreams of a life on the track were washed away in a storm of fire and blood. Sean never chose this war, but he couldn’t escape it either.
Sean was caught on the wrong side of the border when the shooting started. He lost his home and his best friend in the same night. That night he fled to Paris with a price on his head and the devil on his heels. He’d hoped to get away from the killing, but it was not to be. You see, Devlin’s the sort of man who doesn’t go lookin’ for trouble, but it always finds him, soon enough.
Before long, Sean fell in with the Resistance, and started in a new line o’ work. Killin’ Nazis is his trade, and Devlin’s a man who knows his tools. He’s traded in his wrench for a rifle, his engine block for a home-made bomb. If it shoots or goes “boom”, this Irishman knows how to use it. Some say Devlin has a natural gift for violence. Others whisper that he was raised in the work by his father back in Ireland. If Devlin knows the truth, he isn’t talking.
Sean’s war is a war in the shadows. A war fought by rebels, spies, and assassins. It’s true that Devlin never liked the idea creepin’ around in the dark or shootin’ a man in the back. He’d prefer a straight up fight, all things considered. But when you’ve got an army of Nazis, swarmin’ over the city like a plague of locusts, and Kraut spies on every street corner … the situation calls for that special brand of deviousness the Irish call “skullduggery.”
No one can say where Sean will be from one day to the next. The war brings him to all sorts of strange places. But chances are, you’ll find him on the rooftops of Paris, when the moon is full and the streets are quiet. You’ll see him clambering through the arches of Notre Dame like a spider in the rafters … stalking his prey… waiting for the right moment to strike.
To some, the Irishman’s come to the City of Lights a savior. For others, he’s the Angel of Death. But whether he’s friend or foe, Sean Devlin’s never a man to be taken lightly.
Best Artistic Design
