By John Walker on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 am.
We’ve not mentioned The Saboteur, the next game from Pandemic, so with today’s announcement of a sale date of 4th December it seems about time. It’s a game about the second Planet Earth War, during which you shoot a species known as “Nazis” in a country called “France”. It sounds simply ludicrous to us. Oh, but tosh and fipsy to my dreadful British cynicism, it’s not as if there aren’t splendid WW2 games. And non-ironic-cor, look, it’s a mainstream game that’s doing something interesting with colour.
Poor Pandemic seem to be a developer stuck in the 70s. Not the decade but the score bracket. Their games (Battlefront, Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior) are always decent, solid things. But they never catch fire. Will Saboteur be the one to see them hit their mark? It’d be nice. But John, what is it about?
It’s about being an Irish race driver, Sean Devlin, living in occupied France and finally have just about enough of those awful Nazi fellows, is what it is. He’s a sneaky, climby, explody special agent. Pandemic describe the action as “quiet in, loud out”, which, amazingly, is the RPS Code Of Conduct. Except we apply it to food. So Devlin can climb up the sides of buildings (and not in that silly Assassin’s Creed way where it does it for you, but with you choosing a realistic path and pressing a button, like games should occasionally involve), sneak along rooftops, sneakily snipe, and blow shit up. All with a careless disregard for accuracy (although not quite to the degree of Mercenaries 2).
It’s an “open world sandbox game”, which presumably means you’ll be able to tackle liberating France in the order you wish, triggering various events and missions at your wish. This is where the colour comes in. France isn’t in a very positive frame of mind, and their “Will to Fight” isn’t up to scratch. This is represented by a greyscale world, with the only colour the splashes of red on the Nazi flags. A sort of reverse-Schindler’s List. As you perform acts of sabotage on the enemy, the locals are inspired by your ways and their Will to Fight kicks in, bringing colour back into the area of the city, and the possibility… sniff… of hope.
This rather interesting idea is somewhat undersold by a press release that begins, “Enter the seedy underground world of The Saboteur, where the women are sexy, the action is epic and revenge is sweet.” But let’s ignore that. It’s apparently “inspired” by a true story. The story of William Grover-Williams, who was indeed a former Grand Prix driver and remarkable war hero who helped inspire the French Resistance.
The Saboteur looks interesting, by which I mean it literally looks interesting. Something I strongly wish more games would dare. I think black and white is a woefully under-used palette in gaming, and the goal of reintroducing colour to the world may be a fairly sellotaped-to-the-end-of-a-shovel-swung-at-your-face sort of metaphor, but it’s one I’m really intrigued to explore. Let’s hope Pandemic find the magic to make this all come together and be something special. Here’s the trailer:
22/07/2009 at 11:52 Flyboy says:
Looks sweet. Really sweet.
22/07/2009 at 11:56 Dominic White says:
I really hope this is good. The art style is exellent, but Pandemics last bit title, Mercenaries 2, was – to put it lightly – unfinished. Red Faction: Guerilla came along later to do everything right that Mercs 2 got wrong, so here’s hoping that Pandemic are taking notes from the competition.
22/07/2009 at 11:59 Bobsy says:
Er. Is that a WW2 helicopter? I suspect alternate-future shenanigans.
Speaking of which, can we have a game based on Robert Harris’s Fatherland?
22/07/2009 at 12:04 Über Nerd says:
Just when you think you saw every iteration of WWII games…
22/07/2009 at 12:14 techpops says:
I’m in.
22/07/2009 at 12:15 Edib0y says:
Somebody should make WW2 Death Camp Tycoon! I think that would be something new…
22/07/2009 at 12:25 wiper says:
Faintly bemused that they based it on a French hero, then made him /Irish/ of all nationalities, considering their position in the war. I guess it’s for the benefit of all the Irish-Americans out there.
22/07/2009 at 12:25 Azhrarn says:
Bobsy said: Er. Is that a WW2 helicopter? I suspect alternate-future shenanigans.
From some of the E3 trailers I’ve seen there are also plenty of airships (with giant search-lights) around, which were getting kind of rare at the time.
So it seems they took some artistic license with the era, which is absolutely fine in my book.
Games don’t need to have perfect historical accuracy, as long as they’re fun to play and have a nice story running alongside it.
22/07/2009 at 12:31 Dante says:
Wow.
I heard about the black and white thing yonks ago, and it sounded fairly interesting, but actually seeing the screenshots makes it even more so. Just lovely looking.
22/07/2009 at 12:37 The Hammer says:
Wow, this game has changed a lot since it was first announced! Seems they’re taking a leaf out of Prince of Persia’s book with the gradual changing of colour, and that DOES look lovely.
I just hope this “based on a real story” angle isn’t as stupid as what Velvet Assassin was. Ew.
22/07/2009 at 12:42 Okami says:
@Edib0y: No it wouldn’t be something new. There actually was a death camp tycoon game for the commodore 64 (and I guess a whole lot of other systems as well)in the 80s, which was about killing as many Jews as efficiently as possible while making as much money out of it as possible. The game featured no graphics (think Kaiser) and had pretty awfull gameplay from what I’ve heard.
22/07/2009 at 12:44 zombiehunter says:
game looks good… just don’t like the stipid placement in WW2..
ohoooo a hitman/slintercell where u kill nazis! now thats inventive -_-
22/07/2009 at 12:46 KBKarma says:
@wiper: The article
says the guy was Englishnever mentions the guy’s nationality. Where’d I get English from? Half-English, half-French, so the point stands.What I’M interested in is: will they get an actual Irish person to voice him, or get “the next best thing”, ie someone who can do an Oirish accent? I have no idea why the nationality-swap, though.
It looks interesting. Let’s hope it pulls it off.
22/07/2009 at 12:55 N-Al says:
I quite enjoyed Pandemic’s Destroy All Humans 2 (indeed, more than a 70-percenter, actually); if Saboteur is anything as good as that, that’ll do me.
22/07/2009 at 12:58 Lugribossk says:
Black and white are the new grey and brown?
At least it’s a different take on WWII and open-world city games.
22/07/2009 at 13:00 Solario says:
Looks really interesting, but I sincerly hope the nationality-swap isn’t due to any stupid stereotypes (in the audience or the developers) like “French people can’t be war heroes. Because they’re cowards! And they eat cheese!”
22/07/2009 at 13:00 LionsPhil says:
Edib0y: Great, I’m now imagining the Theme Park advisor in full Nazi regalia. “1,000 people visited your park last month, and none of them left unhappy!”
22/07/2009 at 13:03 Optimaximal says:
Looked like a blimp too me… A particularly agile & manoeuvrable one at that!
22/07/2009 at 13:06 Toby says:
^
*slaps own face in despair*
22/07/2009 at 13:07 Cian says:
Looks like a proper Limerick knacker, though mystifying what he’s doing over there dallying with foreign wars.
22/07/2009 at 13:09 LionsPhil says:
To be honest, after the endless downpour of “realistic” WW2 games, one that goes a bit Indiana Jones with blimps and other such Rule of Cool almost-anachronisms is fine by me. As long as we don’t end up with clockwork night-vision goggles.
22/07/2009 at 13:15 CakeAddict says:
Looks like my type of game, but I don’t have the best experience with pandemics games though.
Lets it hope it won’t be some port.
And “Meh” at the black and white thing I would prefer more collor but I doubt it will have much less compared to many games of this Genre.
22/07/2009 at 13:21 SlappyBag says:
This looks like it has a mountain of potential, lets hope Pandemic fills that.
22/07/2009 at 13:22 damien says:
i never understand the kneejerk backlash to “WW2″ settings. while a particular viewpoint of that period (“gruff american he-men in shit-kickers saving the world one more time”) has been mined to death in games, its still a rather massive backdrop for an agile story-teller to get to work in.
(without the moral hazards of the 20th century’s other, less “splendid”, wars too.)
game looks interesting, but i’m a sucker for sneak + slaughter games so i’m probably easy.
22/07/2009 at 13:36 Big Rocks McHuge Nuts says:
and not in that silly Assassin’s Creed way where it does it for you, but with you choosing a realistic path and pressing a button
Um, isn’t that how AC does it? You press a button and push your character in the right direction.
22/07/2009 at 13:44 Bumble says:
Have to say, I’d missed this one totally and whilst after seeing that I do certainly have high hopes for it, that was by far and away the slickest, most stylish and elegant trailer I’ve ever seen.
More power to Pandemic’s elbow and here’s hoping it’s as awesome as that trailer.
And yes, it was a Zeppelin Gunship.
22/07/2009 at 13:48 Larington says:
Colour me VERY intrigued. However, lets hope they don’t overdo the sexiness bit to the extent they did in such a short ad.
22/07/2009 at 13:49 Boyd H says:
@ Big Rocks McHuge Nuts
Actually, pushing is enough..
22/07/2009 at 13:51 Larington says:
Also, they should insert an unlockable gratuitous blurring feature into the game, to make it more like the ad. I mean, jeeze, blurring out a part of a stature?
22/07/2009 at 13:55 Gap Gen says:
Battlezone 2 was great.
22/07/2009 at 14:06 feighnt says:
it sounds like an interesting idea, and has got my attention, but the ad was fairly disappointing to me – i was hoping for a slightly more dramatic, serious, mature thing, but the ad makes it look a bit too… james bondsy for me.
still, no judgments till i see more of it! hoping for the best.
22/07/2009 at 14:08 Physalis says:
Yeah, that blurring was bizarre… in an 18-rated clip, too. Just how dangerously intriguing were those 2-d signboard bottoms?
22/07/2009 at 14:09 DK says:
“Poor Pandemic seem to be a developer stuck in the 70s. Not the decade but the score bracket. Their games (Battlefront, Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior) are always decent, solid things.”
You forgot their Battlezone – a quite awesome above 70 game.
22/07/2009 at 14:12 LionsPhil says:
I’m hoping that that’s down to the usual action bias of trailers, as they have to grab you by the balls in the shortest time possible, and making things explode while people run about is an easy way to achieve that.
22/07/2009 at 14:25 Some Guy says:
I’m getting daja vo about another game that sounds exactly the same exept with a female main character, cant remember the name.
22/07/2009 at 14:29 Azhrarn says:
I recommend watching the “walkthroughs” on Gametrailers (linked here: http://www.gametrailers.com/game/the-saboteur/4577 )
This is E3 gameplay, so I’m not sure how close it is to the game now, but it still looks pretty close.
22/07/2009 at 14:37 Paul Moloney says:
Wonder is the “Devlin” surname a nod to Donald Sutherland’s character (bad Irishman!) in “The Eagle Has Landed”?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Devlin
P.
22/07/2009 at 14:38 Über Nerd says:
“I never understand the kneejerk backlash to “WW2″ settings.”
Perhaps because more time and effort has been spent on making WW2 games then actually waging a World War.
22/07/2009 at 14:41 Alaric says:
No.
Just… No.
I don’t care if it looks cool. I don’t care if the gameplay is good. I don’t even care if the story is good.
I refuse to take any studio seriously that lacks creativity to such a degree that they jump in a decaying pulp (of what used to be a dead horse) of WWII setting. Basically at this point if you resort to WWII – you fail at what you do, plain and simple.
22/07/2009 at 14:44 Wirbelwind says:
There were helicopters in WW2, though not that big. Pretty sure it’s a zeppelin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_helicopters_used_in_World_War_II
22/07/2009 at 14:45 l1ddl3monkey says:
Nice trailer, liked the music (haven’t heard that particular version of Feeling Good for years), made it look interesting. I hope the game itself is as good as the trailer but I won’t hold my breath. Really like the colour scheme, hope it works out.
22/07/2009 at 14:48 Grandpierre says:
Hey, the first Mercenaries was a solid game, if a bit dated in its transparently swapping North Korea for Iraq. Had the war between the factions been a little more fluid, it might have been one of the greats of sandbox gaming.
22/07/2009 at 15:25 sigma83 says:
One of my favoritest most favorite songs evar. EVAR.
22/07/2009 at 15:26 sigma83 says:
Which version is it?
22/07/2009 at 15:33 Smurfy says:
@Edib0y: Me and my friends have a running joke about “Auschwitz Tycoon” that I bring up whenever we talk about a highly inappropriate game such as Velvet Assassin.
22/07/2009 at 15:35 Vandelay says:
Alaric said:
“No.
Just… No.
I don’t care if it looks cool. I don’t care if the gameplay is good. I don’t even care if the story is good.”
The preposterous anti-WW2 games continues unabated I see. It looks like they are doing something novel with the setting, so if the game is as enjoyable to play as it looks like it maybe I will be getting it regardless of the setting. No one seems to be up in arms about Tarintino making a WW2 film. How many of those have we seen, surely there are far more WW2 films then games! Judge something on its own merits, not on what has gone before.
Quite a nice trailer, although not really sure why it needed to be so sexed up. Great choice of music too.
22/07/2009 at 15:36 Smurfy says:
WTF? Devlin? He was the helicopter pilot in Mercs 2. Also Irish.
22/07/2009 at 15:38 Smurfy says:
And they shouldn’t have made the “colour comes back throughout the game :)” thing so big, it should just have been there, so at the end you’d be like “Wait, wasn’t this black and white when we set out?”
22/07/2009 at 15:38 sigma83 says:
Perhaps a relation? Direct descendant?
22/07/2009 at 15:59 Alaric says:
@Vandelay
Preposterous? I beg to differ. What is preposterous, in my opinion, is the complete and utter lack of imagination on the part of the developers.
World War II was a very significant event. Granted that. It was a central event of the past century. Granted that. Naturally it has been used as inspiration for various art forms, from literature, to cinema, to games, to sculpture. I don’t see anything wrong with it as such.
But by now it has been grossly overused. Especially when it comes to games. Cinema too actually. Nine times out of ten there is absolutely no reason to use this particular setting.
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps you could explain to me what exactly is the reason to set this game in WWII. What is it about this particular war, that is necessary in order for the game to work?
As far as I can tell this is a game that focuses on sneaking in, shooting enemies, blowing shit up and getting out. Why can’t it be WWI, Korean War, French Revolution, Russian Civil War, or the Boer war?
All those wars had guns, explosives, soldiers, buildings, etc.
As for the color thing, it’s just a gimmick and can be applied to any setting, unless of course you are able to persuade me that the loss of hope, etc. is unique to WWII German occupation of France.
22/07/2009 at 16:04 Zyrxil says:
The game doesn’t look interesting to me at all. And by that I don’t mean the look, but the gameplay. Very arcadey and watered-down stealth, boring gunplay, uninteresting locations, topped off with a terrible “run to brothel to remove the alarm” mechanic. It’s like they looked at Metal Gear Solid and Freedom Fighters and made a game out of the most badly executed elements of both.
22/07/2009 at 16:06 Dr. Wily says:
“Just… No.
I don’t care if it looks cool. I don’t care if the gameplay is good. I don’t even care if the story is good.”
I hear this all the time, and its always a head scratcher.
Really? You are saying that if it is an excellent, fun game with a great story you will refuse to play it because you have a quibble about the setting? It seems that the one losing out in that situation is you, not Pandemic.
I’ll reserve judgment on the game until I see gameplay, but that trailer was an excellent piece of video.
22/07/2009 at 16:06 JuJuCam says:
It’s actually quite a refreshing take on WWII seeing as it’s about the French resistance. Not a trench in sight!
And I don’t agree that WWII = automatic fail. I actually think it’s getting to the point where basing a game in WWII is a risk that must be balanced by the developer with novel gameplay or design ideas. I mean considering the market saturation of WWII games and the war weariness of the gaming public. In this situation, considering the unique visual design choice, it’s actually probably a better choice than almost any other possibility.
22/07/2009 at 16:12 Alaric says:
@Dr. Willy, @JuJuCam
Unless the use of WWII is absolutely required, it automatically becomes a cliche at this point. Cliches are unpleasant.
Please see my previous post for questions to answer.
22/07/2009 at 16:21 JuJuCam says:
See, what befuddles me is that if this very same game was done set in some fictional place with a fictional occupying force but with WWII era technology and architecture, the WWII complainers would either be all over it or find something else to complain about.
I think the black and white and red colour palette lends itself to this period for a number of reasons, not least of which being the signature red armband swastikas being a quick “shoot me” signal. I think doing some parkour runs around a realistically modelled 1940′s Paris (if they set it in Paris) will be swell. But most importantly to me I think the black and white quite consciously hearkens back to Noir film aesthetic, recalling the likes of Casablanca and, of course, Shindler’s List, not to mention Max Payne. To me it’s not a gimmick, it has very real gameplay and artistic ramifications.
Of course, whether Pandemic and the game itself follows through on this promise remains to be seen, but what a promise!
22/07/2009 at 16:31 Guy says:
I agree with Alaric that setting a game in WW2 when it could easily be set in another time period is cliche. The Saboteur could be set in pretty much any time period with guns and hookers, there is nothing that requires WW2 in it.
There are lots of bits of WW2, like everything up to 1943 for a start or anything involving people who aren’t British/American/Soviet/German, that would make fantastic and interesting games and I would welcome those. [That said none will be made because they won't sell well- only a deeply moddable 'Mount and Blade But For Guns' clone will ever see me playing around with Gideon force in Abyssiniya in '41.] But unless WW2 is integral to the game then why, bar laziness, set it there?
If you want a real objection to the game of course I’d ask why in this modern world of ours people are making a game that so ludicrously objectifies women. Its the same old trap games fall into that swearing and tits=adult and grown up. The masturbatory relish with which The Saboteur presents all its hot-and-totally-cool-with-being-a-sex-worker prostitutes is what really puts me off.
22/07/2009 at 16:40 James Brophy says:
The music really kicks it for me, Looks like fun. Plus ATTACK ZEPPELINS!
22/07/2009 at 16:44 Chaz says:
So despite having to put in my date of birth to watch this, they still blur out the butt cheeks of the dancer he was chating to at the start of the video. Why?
22/07/2009 at 16:44 Dr. Wily says:
@Alaric
To be clear, I don’t disagree with you that WW2 is a cliche and has more often than not been used as a lazy way to try to inject some fake gravitas into games. I am not even saying that this particular game will buck that trend, though it does look a tad more promising that some others.
What I was pointing out is the patent ridiculousness of the statement “Even if it is a great game I will not play it because of X!”. Of course you will play it if it great, and if you won’t -even given its greatness- that is kind of sad.
22/07/2009 at 16:48 Alaric says:
@Chaz,
That is so your fragile psyche is not irreversibly damaged and you don’t grow up to be a child molester, cannibal or lawyer.
22/07/2009 at 16:52 Bobsy says:
Maybe he’s an anti-semite.
Ahem. Er.
I have no problem with WWII games. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with WWII soldier games. Mournfully patriotic trumpet wails, fluttering stars ‘n’ stripes banners, gung-ho-hero squads and all that. The last game of this type I enjoyed was the first Call of Duty, and then only for the Soviet campaign, which was none of the above.
I really like being able to see the war from a perspective other than the battlefield. It’s such a rich period of history for storytelling and this is taking a proper interesting artistic style to it all. The use of red as the only stand-out colour is pretty affecting. Would like to know more, yes.
Sidenotes: Tarantino is finally making Inglourious Basterds, which similarly takes a non-conventional view of WWII.
Extra sidenotes: In the early, PS1-only days of the Medal of Honour series, there was a curio of a game which put you as a member of the French Resistance, and had a slightly less gung-ho approach to gameplay. It was rather good, I recall.
(One day someone will make my idea of an action-adventure about a defecting Nazi soldier in 1945 trying to get across the border into Switzerland. That’ll be aceness.)
22/07/2009 at 17:00 Alaric says:
@Guy,
What makes you say that this game “ludicrously objectifies women?” I didn’t get that sense at all. In the video the guy was in a bar gathering information from a dancer/hooker. It seemed fairly reasonable, since that is the type of woman who is likely to get close to the occupying army’s officers, and as such have some knowledge, etc.
I suppose he could have gone to the library and spoken to some unpretty old librarian woman, but that probably wouldn’t have helped him much. =)
22/07/2009 at 17:00 coko moko says:
crap in my cup of coffee and call me jinborg the dwarf level 67
but it seems like a pretty medium game
and the color crap its really annoying
i don’t want to play my games in black and white
sorry
that’s why in some point in the last century people invented the color tvs and the color photographs
22/07/2009 at 17:07 Dr. Wily says:
@ Bobsy
Just last night I was playing the “Soviets invade Berlin” section of COD World at War which I felt was an appropriate antidote to the usual gung ho flag waving, what with all its executing of prisoners and burning of cornfields full of people.
Those missions and the American mission where you are psychotically burning hordes of people with your magic flamethrower are the closest a game has gotten to making me feel bad about myself as a person.
Too bad the rest of the game was so mediocre.
22/07/2009 at 17:10 Guy says:
“I do, on the other hand, have a problem with WWII soldier games. Mournfully patriotic trumpet wails, fluttering stars ‘n’ stripes banners, gung-ho-hero squads and all that.”
I hate those epic orchestral soundtracks so much I nearly bust a gut every time I hear the first smidgeon of a heroic trumpet. Why they can’t use period music (swing/jazz/jitterbug) is beyond me. I mean its not like it worked for Bioshock or anything…
Actually you could make a list of stuff that will never make it into a WW2 shooty game:
1. Decent music
2. Non-whites (unless you’re shooting them)
3. A sense of humour
4. Angry members of the working class
etc.
22/07/2009 at 17:17 Bobsy says:
@Dr Wily:
I preferred Stalingrad, myself. Entirely chilling, and I’d like to see it used as a game location again
@Guy:
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. How much better would Omaha Beach be with “We’ll meet again” on the soundtrack?
22/07/2009 at 17:18 Guy says:
“What makes you say that this game “ludicrously objectifies women?””
Stuff like the picture on this page: http://www.pandemicstudios.com/thesaboteur/about
Woman without a face (fantasy projection), ludicrous lingerie (wish creation), phallic symbol in upraised position (no explanation necessary), seated male at focus of picture (asserting superiority over the woman).
Having your character live in a brothel surrounded by glamorous prostitutes, all of improbable beauty strikes me a little as objectifying.
Historically prostitutes are the last people you’d go to as a Resistance member. Most were having the time of their lives with the rich, courteous German officers flocking to Paris and would betray Resistance members in an instant.
22/07/2009 at 17:30 Alaric says:
@Guy,
I very much disagree. If we are to over analyze and read into everything this way, then any game (or anything at all) is an evil plot to demean women/gays/minorities/animals/etc. The fact of the matter is, this is not a documentary, but a game. Entertainment. It presents an idealized, stylized version of reality.
What would be achieved if the game was full of ugly, fat, blind hookers dying of syphilis? Would the entertainment value go up? Perhaps, if it was a drama-type game. In this case, however, we are clearly dealing with “L0LZ I KEEL N4TSIZ!” genre. Let’s not expect too much of it.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that when it comes to gathering information, you don’t go to the safest source, but to the one that actually possesses the said information. Those women more than likely do.
22/07/2009 at 17:52 Sonic Goo says:
This game seems to at least have a sense of style, a swagger to it. Let’s hope the function is as good as the form.
22/07/2009 at 18:12 T. Slothrop says:
Nina Simone in my trailer?! FUCKING AWESOME, overbearing remix of said genius? Err… not so much :(
22/07/2009 at 18:17 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Been looking forward to this for ages, I thought it had been canceled or something.
I don’t really get the fuss over “OHSHIT IT’S ANOTHER WW2 GAEM”. There’s plenty of genres that fit into that era, and shitloads of interesting stories to tell. It is true that we don’t exactly need more fps’s/rts’s in the ww2 genre though.
I personally await a stealth action rpg set in occupied eastern europe. A man can dream.
22/07/2009 at 18:27 eyemessiah says:
“What would be achieved if the game was full of ugly, fat, blind hookers dying of syphilis?”
How about normal looking hookers? It doesn’t have to be one extreme or the other.
Their presentation of prostitution thus far has been pretty sexy. Prostitution in the real world is often not very sexy.
Now there is nothing inherently wrong with taking a stylised approach, but this particular form of “stylisation” is pretty much a cliche of its own, particularly in terms of presentation of women in video games.
Maybe it would have been more interesting to take a different tack for a change?
22/07/2009 at 18:38 Marcin says:
So … no one pointed out that a sniper setting up his position probably shouldn’t be flinging bodies into the populated, patrolled streets below?
I couldn’t even watch the trailer past that point.
And I *liked* Mercs 2!
22/07/2009 at 18:44 Dante says:
Er… he’d already fired and been discovered by that point hadn’t he Marcin?
22/07/2009 at 18:46 postmanX3 says:
If it weren’t for the smoking pile of dung that Mercenaries 2 was, I’d be all over this.
As it stands, I’m skeptically planning to buy it, depending on reviews.
22/07/2009 at 18:53 Serondal says:
The hookers in The Witcher are sexy but at the same time pretty dirty eyemessiah. Of course you’re immune to disease so it doesn’t matter ;)
22/07/2009 at 18:54 Vinraith says:
Mercenaries 2 ranks among the greatest gaming disappointments of my life. The original Mercenaries was literally my favorite PS2 game, and I was thrilled that Mercs 2 was coming to PC. Then they release a buggy mess that I can’t even really play. Then they totally fail to meaningfully patch it.
I’m not disinterested in this, but I’m going to have to hear overwhelmingly good things, not only about the gameplay but the state of the code, before I’d ever consider buying it.
22/07/2009 at 18:57 Marcin says:
@Dante: nope, not even close. Check again.
22/07/2009 at 18:58 Serondal says:
Mercenaries was probably one of my favorite games of all time. Being able to jump into a helicopter while it’s still flying and throwing the pilot out to his death is a dream of mine. Was a dream, no more.
22/07/2009 at 19:07 suibhne says:
Been looking forward to this for awhile – or at least looking forward to the possibility of looking forward to this, since nobody’s played it and it might be pants.
22/07/2009 at 19:35 TeeJay says:
@ Alaric says:
“Why can’t it be WWI, Korean War, French Revolution, Russian Civil War, or the Boer war?”
Can these wars be summed up as easily as ‘the good versus the evil nazis’? Would playing as one side in these go down well with an international audience?
The attraction of WW2 as a ‘historical’ setting is that you don’t need to spend a lot of time explaining who the sides are and what they are fighting for, nor do you open a massive can of worms politically/morally/culturally speaking.
A similar device is to have a game fighting “evil aliens” – to enable guilt-free psychopathy. In a lot of settings this becomes far more problematic.
22/07/2009 at 19:47 jalf says:
@TeeJay:I wasn’t aware that WW2 could be accurately summed up in that way either. The funny thing is, if you’re willing to throw away 98% of what actually made the war what it was, and focus exclusively on the “good vs evil” aspect (usually as defined by the winner), then yes, every war ever fought can be summed up as easily.
22/07/2009 at 19:58 Alaric says:
Yea, that’s another issue I have with the WWII setting. The idea that all Germans of the time were evil is idiotic. The idea that their opponents were good is twice as idiotic.
If someone claims to be making a good game, I expect them to make it abundantly clear, that I am not shooting the “genetic evil Nazi #4598674095” but instead Fritz Holtzmann, a 43 year old sausage-maker from Rauschenberg, who has a wife, three children and also takes care of his paralyzed grandmother.
22/07/2009 at 20:17 TeeJay says:
@ jalf and Alaric
If you object to WW2 summed up as “Allies versus Nazis”, just imagine the issues in “WWI, Korean War, French Revolution, Russian Civil War, or the Boer war”.
It is ‘acceptable’ to have a videogame character go on a murder rampage against “Nazis”, but could someone make a similar game set in the Vietnam war?
A large number of countries (including Russia and China) ended up on the “right” side in WW2 so you won’t have your game banned or people coming to burn down your studios. Start having ‘evil’ enemies getting massacred from a lot of other wars and you will quickly run into problems.
Who are the current contemporary targets who it is ‘OK’ to paint as villians? The North Koreans maybe? Generic shady drug dealers?
Of course using “aliens”, “zombies” or “monsters” is another common way of quickly establishing a scenario where it is OK for the player to go out and kill everyone and everything in a gruesome psychopathic manner.
Using WW2 “Nazis” as a generic ‘evil’ may be stupid and ahistorical, but it is still a far safer and easier option for a game developer than picking almost any other historical setting – they are just piggy-backing on contemporary western culture/politics.
22/07/2009 at 20:29 Alaric says:
Why is it that there has to be a group that we can kill with absolute impunity? Am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely ludicrous?
As far as finding someone to paint as villains, anyone will do. All nations, groups, parties, etc. have at times done evil deeds. Just refer to that particular time and you got yourself all the villains you want.
As for the Nazis… Why is it that German National Socialists are considered more evil than Russian International Socialists? They both killed loads of people (but Russians killed more). They both had concentration camps (but Russians had them first). They both attacked and annexed their neighbors (but Russians grabbed more land and people). They both started WWII by invading Poland.
Also, without Stalin’s aid Hitler would never come to power, German constructors would not have the facilities to design their tanks and planes not the ability to field-test them.
Why is it the poor Germans that have to take all this abuse?
22/07/2009 at 20:37 suibhne says:
I think Alaric obliquely makes a really powerful point. The use of the WW2 setting is tied, more than anything, to our nostalgia, in this age of globalization and globalized conflict, for a “good war” – a conflict in which things were (in our recollection) black and white and moral lines are easily (in retrospect) drawn.
A game that addressed the serious moral offenses of the Allies, otoh, would start to get my attention.
22/07/2009 at 20:48 Collic says:
Is anyone else struck by the fact that their using actual swastikas, and not a replacement like most games do.
The iconic symbol of evil looks incredible when you see the red arm bands standing out against the black and white.
It’ll be interesting to see if they lose the swastikas before release. It’s odd but it would be good to shoot nazis dressed like real nazis for a change.
22/07/2009 at 20:51 Zyrxil says:
Is anyone else struck by the fact that their using actual swastikas, and not a replacement like most games do.
Hrm? Plenty of games use swastikas, like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, they just replace it with the Iron Eagle in European territories.
22/07/2009 at 20:55 Collic says:
@Zyrxil
Well, its been awhile since I’ve see one doing it (UK here). Looking at the trailer again it does look suspiciously like it’s going to be trash in any case. well see.
22/07/2009 at 21:00 Fumarole says:
“I refuse to take any studio seriously that lacks creativity to such a degree that they jump in a decaying pulp (of what used to be a dead horse) of WWII setting. Basically at this point if you resort to WWII – you fail at what you do, plain and simple.”
Refusing to play a game based simply on the historical backdrop means you fail at being a gamer… pending the game itself being good, of course.
22/07/2009 at 21:16 TeeJay says:
@ Alaric
“Why is it that there has to be a group that we can kill with absolute impunity? Am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely ludicrous?”
Do you mean from a gaming point of view?
Red team versus Blue team.
Plants versus Zombies.
Knights versus Dragons.
etc.
It isn’t true that “anyone” will do as villains, if you are trying to make a video game that will sell well and that a large number of people can relate to. You need to make something that people can identify with and that won’t cause an almighty shit-storm at that level (some controversy is OK but go too far and people will just hate you). Making something that completely flies in the face of the values, beliefs and ‘myths’ of your target audience may be artistically brave but isn’t really a sane decision for someone trying to make a popular FPS.
Games have been set in Vietnam war and various other conflicts, and shown both sides (had both sides as playable campaigns). Games have shown a more ambiguous side to things beyond back and white morality. However these are typically more ‘serious’ don’t lend themselves to the mass slaughter style gameplay, that having “zombies” does.
Is it OK to have “Nazis” (Germans) as simply another type of free-to-kill “zombie”, while so many others seem to be offlimits? Maybe it is, but this is a wider cultural and political issue, not just one confined to game developers.
Game developers haven’t *invented* this concept they are just following it (albeit they take it to the furthest extremes, moreso than most movies).
“Nazis” as an ‘evil enemy’ have transcended being merely a historical concept (otherwise why not – like you ask – have a whole range of historical and contemporary equivalents?) and have become more a ‘symbolic’ archetype. This isn’t just about numbers of people killed, but also reflects current ‘western liberal’ anxieties. ‘Commies’ during the cold war were also a generic and stereotyped ‘evil’ but since then they have faded away from movies and games. There are various other ‘stereotypes’ used in various movies and games – the mega-corporation, the fanatic cult, the evil mafia gang, the evil CIA plot, the mad scientist, the devil worshipper etc… the henchmen of whom often end up getting shot to pieces because they are wearing the wrong badge on their uniform.
These concepts / memes / ideas weren’t invented by game developers and exist outside of games. Game developers typically adopt these ideas because the audience can immediately grasp what is going on. Sometimes games put a twist on things, do a role-reversal (you are now the mafia not the police) or have the player being double-crossed by all ‘sides’, but in other games the developer just wants to have a setting that allows a simply ‘shoot the baddies’ gameplay, and isn’t trying to create a ‘twist’.
I think it is too much to ask game developers to rewrite western attitudes and thinking about WW2 and “nazis” – although out of all media, they have probably taken things both the most extreme (nazis as zombies) and sympathetic (axis as playable faction).
22/07/2009 at 22:01 Nerd Rage says:
Grand Theft Kraftwagen: Paris
22/07/2009 at 22:29 Gutter says:
Nazis’ UNIFORMS are iconic, not the Nazy themselves. You’ll never kill Nazies in plain clothing in a game.
If Nazis were Asians or Black, you wouldn’t see them in games, because of racial sensitivity, but Nazies are caucasian with a cool outfit, so it’s ok to kill them.
Case closed.
23/07/2009 at 01:28 The Fanciest of Pants says:
@Gutter
For sure. Say what you will about the Nazis, but they were goddamn snappy dressers.
The SS uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss :>
23/07/2009 at 01:37 Mister Yuck says:
Alaric has just discovered that there are no such things as good guys and bad guys in the real world. Soon he will discover that people play video games to escape the real world.
23/07/2009 at 02:11 feighnt says:
i’m inclined towards what Alaric said… minus such a strong antipathy towards WWII setting for games. it is certainly a cliche, BUT, as some people – alaric included, i think – pointed out, there’s a lot that could be told in the WWII setting which ISNT. the problem isnt that we’re saturated with the WWII setting, but that we’re saturated with games about US 101st paradropping behind enemy lines in normandy, or US troops landing on the beaches of said province, followed by wandering and fighting around french farms till the game ends. frankly, i’d love to play a game where, say, you were part of the Ethiopian forces fighting against Italy, or a game depicting the battle in Greece… or, you know, how about a game that deals with ITALY at all (it’s as if Italy wasnt involved in the war, it’s been so forgotten!). why not have a game with a decent narrative which is about Spanish Anarchists fighting in the resistance in France (as there were many Spanish refugees in France, including many Anarchists, after the Republicans lost the Spanish Civil War, who went and fought in France) or why not a game where you’re playing, not as an American or Brit, but as a chinese soldier – Nationalist or Communist or otherwise – against the Japanese in mainland China? the big problem with WWII games (or, most fps’ers, anyway) is that they’re only willing to depict a tiny portion of the war.
i understand TeeJay’s point, but, in all honesty, i think it boils down to an argument as to why it would be a little bit more *difficult*, but that’s no real excuse frankly – with some sensitivity and creativity, they could do a game about another aspect of WWII, or one of the many other wars which could be fruitfully depicted in games. i mean, it’s not like they’re not doing this to some degree anyway – Modern Warfare spent most of the game fighting against middle eastern forces. has there been a vast ouctry against this game… and hasnt this game been successful? i’m sure some were offended, but the game handled things well enough to preemptively defuse some of this.
the problem, really, is that people are thinking the *must* depict your opponents like robots, or super-evil semi-humans. no need for that at all, and there are plenty of games out there which have you fighting against people who *arent* necessarily stereotypically hideous villains. furthermore, while WWII (or, the invasion of France, anyway) is similarly overused in *cinema*, you’ll also note that there are a greater degree of movies which break the typical inhuman depiction of germans during that era as being universally monsters – or, for that matter, which dont depict the “heroes” as being necessarily utterly altruistic and courageous. *and* there are also plenty which have a lot of excellent, gripping action all the same! so, frankly, i fail to see an excuse. and, hell, as someone pointed out, World at War actually had the decency to try to mix things up a bit, morally speaking – and with some success!
23/07/2009 at 02:16 feighnt says:
mister yuck: not all gamers are the same. there are plenty of people who watch *movies* just for some dumb fun, an escape from life, but there are plenty who like something deeper. same goes for games and gamers, even increasingly more-so these days.
23/07/2009 at 02:45 tim says:
I think Nazis are ‘zombie’ enemies because it’s easy to do. Expressing pathos can be hard in a game, especially since most games require some sort of action to play, and killing things is a very effective action.
Also, I understand people who wish WWII games were more than just American, British or Russians, but really – even if you play as Chinese or any other nationality, it’s going to be the same game. Except you won’t be in France. Perhaps a Hitman-style game playing as a member of the French Resistance would be different…..but I doubt it.
23/07/2009 at 02:46 Chemix says:
I agree that TeeJay is right on why most developers do what they do, albeit I don’t think it’s too much to ask for them to do something out of the ordinary; with that sort of thinking, we’d still be playing pong, but NEXT GEN pong, with HDR lighting on glass balls with fully realized reflections of the other objects in the game: the black background, and 2 ridiculously detailed bars that bounce the balls back and forth.
In the case of this game though, it may be a little too much to ask, as the game is taking an artistic deviation (which is akin to Flower and Prince of Persia among others), which is further made different from the known seller by not only having color increase with your violent acts, but being desaturated all the way to black, white, and bloody red. This stands against a strong heavy use of gray, green, and brown filters that pervade almost all WWII games since “realism” was introduced. I’d like more, but they’re taking a step out of line, and we should encourage them to take more.
Nazis are generic bad guys that were under an ideology that everyone can agree was immoral to everyone except the Nazis, and furthermore and more importantly, the Nazis, in their 1930′s-40′s form, are dead, and neo-nazis don’t make up a significant sales fraction. Germans (99.9% of which are not Nazis) are a significant sales faction however (until games get officially banned in Germany and piracy skyrockets there, more so if already) and are thus distinguished from Nazis in video games by a general lack of civilians, non-combatants, or limiting the scope of the game to some evil Nazi project ran by hard core Nazis to kill all non-Nazis (Wolfenstein, yeah, you, I’m looking at you).
23/07/2009 at 03:26 TeeJay says:
Player, Attack Thyself – Why Japanese gamers love avenging Pearl Harbor
http://www.slate.com/id/2096112/
23/07/2009 at 05:59 JuJuCam says:
Remember when every Star Wars game was a graphically updated reiteration of the same battles as the last Star Wars game? There were some deviations, but mostly it was the iconic original trilogy battles over and over and over again.
Then the first KOTOR came out and we had a taste of a whole universe that anybody who didn’t read Star Wars novels hadn’t heard of before. We discovered there was more to it than tangling AT-AT’s up in tow cables at the Battle of Hoth.
WWII from a gamer perspective is like that. We need to see more of it than Normandy and trenches.
It occurs to me that another thing that attracts me to this game is that the strong Noir aesthetic brings with it a potential for intrigue and mystery. I have absolutely no basis to believe that this type of plot will be present besides how the game looks, so I guess I’ll have to wait till it’s released before I cast judgement on that element. But crucially, I’m not turned off simply because it’s “just another WWII game”.
23/07/2009 at 09:52 Paul Moloney says:
I think games should have Illinois Nazis instead.
I hate Illinois Nazis.
P.
23/07/2009 at 10:59 The Sombrero Kid says:
looks brill and ahem I’ve been badgering you to cover this for months :P
23/07/2009 at 16:31 Alaric says:
Haha! I’m with you, Paul! Any game where I get to defeat Daley, Stroger, and various other Blagojeviches gets my vote! =)
23/07/2009 at 20:04 Adventurous Putty says:
People, have some heart. There’s zeppelins; no matter how bad the game is, that little bit of steampunk-esque retrofuturism should be enough to inspire plaudits.
23/07/2009 at 23:46 TariqOne says:
Cool art direction.
And yeah. Gadzooks, man. Simplistic historical perspective aside, if I have to kill one more Nazi in a game I’m going to totally freaking batshit.