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Developer Diary #3: The Saboteur for PS3



Posted by Tom French // Lead Designer, The Saboteur

Hey guys, I just got back from my little world tour (San Francisco, London, Moscow, whew!) showing off The Saboteur’s open-world/sandbox gameplay and perks system, so I figured this might make a good topic to add to my developer diary series on The Saboteur for PS3.


One of the reasons we built a scaled down version of Paris was to
make sure we could create a world filled with stuff to do. Every block
of Paris has content in it; in fact, it’s not just Paris but our entire
world is filled with plenty of stuff. So what is all this our world is
filled with? The Nazi occupation, which includes things like sniper
towers, AA guns, Nazi tanks, SS generals, propaganda speakers, search
lights, radar dishes, and more. These occupation targets are like a
collections mechanic, but instead of passively finding these things in
the world and walking over them, you’re blowing them up.
There are roughly about 1300 of these spread throughout our entire
game, so you see I wasn’t kidding when I said every block has content
in it. You also earn contraband for destroying these Nazi objects,
which is our currency in the game because money was worthless during
the war. Their destruction is persistent so taking these out in advance
might actually help you with a mission in that area later on because
you’re not getting attacked by a sniper anymore, for example. There’s a
great risk/reward for destroying this stuff, though. If the Nazis see
you, you’ll raise suspicion and someone will blow a whistle, setting
off the alarms and bringing in Nazi reinforcements. So you should
always make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into when
deciding to destroy them, because you might get a bunch of Nazis onto
your heels. You’ll then have to either escape the alarm area or cool
down the alarms by using one of the game’s hiding spots like the
rooftop shacks or public “pissoirs.” This is actually a good time to
work on your perks.


Perks are a way for the player to improve Sean’s
skills. You see, Sean’s a racecar driver by trade, not a soldier, and
he gets better by doing things. Blow up enough Nazi installations and
Sean will plant explosives faster. Kill enough guys with a machine gun
and Sean will better understand how to hold the gun, reducing the
recoil when firing. Shoot five guys with a scoped rifle and the drift
will be reduced, making it easier to aim with a scope. Each perk has
three tiers to it. The first tier is pretty easy, but tier two and
three require the player to set more micro-objectives. Take sniping for
example; tier two requires fifteen head shots with a scoped rifle. But
the rewards get better the higher tier the perk. Perks sometimes
improve skills, unlock all new mechanics (e.g. the ability to plant
explosives in a car while driving, then bail out creating a car bomb),
or unlock weapons in the black market shops.



The black market is the place where Sean can stock up with all kinds
of gear by trading in the contraband he has earned. There’s all kinds
of weapons: machine guns, rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, shotguns,
explosives, etc — but it’s not just weapons. There are different
upgrades to be found as well! For example, you can increase the
different amounts of ammo Sean can carry or you can choose to equip the
Resistance with better weapons. This is obviously useful because, like
I mentioned in the previous post,
the Resistance shows up in the High Will to Fight areas in the streets
or at the fight-back zones. So helping them out with better equipment
will actually help you in return. The black market shops also offer
area maps, which will mark the locations of the occupation I mentioned
above. As I mentioned earlier, there are about 1300 of these in the
game, and having a map that shows you where to look will definitely
help you destroy them all. These maps also mark locations of things
like resistance supply crates (filled with contraband and sometimes
bonus weapons), “sweet jumps”, monument postcards, and scenic spots.
They’re quite helpful for those looking to earn some contraband or for
those completionist types like me.
And you can do this stuff whenever you want, in or out of missions.
It’s really up to you when you deal with it, but you might want to
think about taking it out sooner rather than later; because it’s always
there… watching and waiting.