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.
Just last week The Saboteur made a quite in approach to Paris, France for a PR event but most definitely made a loud out statement with Andy Burt of GamePro. Andy was able to snag Tom French & take a stroll down the allies of down town Paris.
GamePro - Video Interview
Watch the full Interview with Tom French & Andy Burt HERE.
Interview: Tom French (Left) - Chris Hunt (Right)
Yesterday afternoon Pandemic played host to an "Open House" event for The Saboteur here at our studio. In that Mike Schramm from Joystiq was able to sit down with Lead Designer, Tom French & Art Director, Chris Hunt for a 2 on 1 interview after Mike was able to get a pretty in-depth hands on with the game.
French did a quick presentation before our interview, where he told the story of William Grover-Williams – the racecar driver-turned-saboteur that the game's protagonist, Sean Devlin, is based on – as well as the cinematic influences on The Saboteur, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Third Man. Afterwards, we sat down with both designers to talk about why you'll find plenty of color, but no ghost guns (you'll see) or multiplayer in their upcoming game.
The first thing was just -- there was a mention in the presentation you just did that echoed what we've heard from readers online, and that is: "Not another World War II game."
Tom French: (Laughs)
And I think a lot of people have discovered since the game has broken out that it is not another World War II game. But what was the reaction of your staff when you said, "we're making a World War II game," and then how did you subvert that, do it a little bit differently?
The Belle de Nuit nightclub is the focal point of The Saboteur in more ways than one. Part cabaret, part dive bar, part hideout, the “Belle” was the first Paris location to come to fruition during the game’s development. It’s a lively place frequented by Parisians and occupying Nazi forces alike. It also serves as the base of operations for the Saboteur himself, Sean Devlin. Besides playing a central role in the story, the Belle also gives the player a look into the wild nightlife of World War II Paris. With the venue’s opulent early-20th-century veneers and architecture and its dark yet vibrant atmosphere, the artists and designers have created the perfect centerpiece for the game.
The Belle Stage: Concept Art
The idea for the Belle actually evolved from several locations developed by the game’s writers and designers. They wanted a sexy cabaret, a place to showcase burlesque acts and dancers and they needed Sean to have a hideout. They wanted a seedy dive bar where the French Resistance could meet and scheme, and there also had to be a place where the Nazis and French could be on neutral ground under the same roof at the same time without sparking confrontations. As the story and design became more solidified, these elements merged into a single location that could serve all of these functions simultaneously.
The Belle Exterior: Concept Art
From here the art team got started with preliminary design work. We began looking at traditional places in Paris for inspiration such as the Moulin Rouge and Le Lido de Paris. Another strong influence was "Rick's Café Américain" from the classic film Casablanca. However, given the multiple roles the establishment would serve, we decided we needed to put our own touch on the building. We knew we wanted the Belle to have “seen better days”; it had to be old but still functional. The architecture had to be rife with 1920s Art Nouveau décor inside and out. The space also had to be large enough for show performances, for patrons to sit or walk around, and to house private areas that could be kept hidden from the Nazis.
Pre-order your copy of The Saboteur today and make your enemies die at the blade of their own steel with an exclusive Nazi knife, stolen from your enemies.
This in-game weapon gives you the ultimate revenge with a silent and swift execution maneuver, available only to those that pre-order The Saboteur.
Best Artistic Design
