Before the war moves into France, Sean competes in a race in Germany—I hated the race sequence because it's unnecessary, but what you don't know is that you have to drive to the race in an old truck, through open countryside, while you and your buddy chat it up. I'm all for fleshing out a character but really? A long car ride? I can't wait to see the game that uses your dentist making small talk to fill you in on the plot.

The intro doesn't stop there, though, as you also must compete in the race and then get into some serious hooligan action which in turn leads to the demise of your best buddy at the hands of a Nazi. Now, surprise, you hate Nazis and want revenge. After that hiatus into ponderous back-story country, we return to the entertaining part of the game – killin' Nazis.

As Sean, you have one goal: revenge. Your main mission is to find the bastard who killed your friend, and if by chance you manage to help the people of France, then so be it. With this attitude, you join the resistance and begin your work.

The missions in The Saboteur work as any GTA-clone, open-world game does – go accept mission, run mission, get reward. The difference here is that you can directly control the level of conflict in most missions with a bit of pre-planning. Throughout occupied Paris, there are numerous guard positions, sniper towers, etc… that can be blown up or otherwise dismantled, to create one less place for the Third Reich to spawn. If you're having trouble with a particular mission because of snipers, then go demolish their towers. This single part of the game has provided me with more entertainment than it ever has ever had a right. There's just something about freeform destruction that makes me smile.

There are a few things about The Saboteur that, if they had been tweaked even a small amount, would have made this a "must-have" game. The controls and the way your character moves just aren't… right. Maybe it's because The Saboteur was released so near Assassin's Creed II, but the fact that your character must climb buildings makes me expect a similar control scheme. What we get feels rather clunky. For each new point in the climb you must hit the button to jump. You can't easily hop to another ledge to your left or right, you have to jump horizontally. It’s laborious.

Finally, other than freeform destruction, nothing about the gameplay in The Saboteur is all that compelling. It's your usual collection of "go here, do that" missions peppered with races, prisoner rescues and the occasional large-scale explosion. Not that this is a bad thing, but it certainly doesn't offer much in the way of a new experience and, if you pair that with middling controls, brings the overall enjoyment down a level or two.

It's a shame that Pandemic is no more, as The Saboteur is a worthy effort marred by lackluster gameplay design and wonky controls. As it is, nothing really separates it and makes it unique. Despite the cool setting, this is by the numbers game design that you’ve played a million times before.