I used to have a manager that would talk endlessly about his legacy - the things he’d be most remembered for, the things people would talk about for years to come. Unfortunately he was later ‘let-go’ by the company for poor performance and that is what I and the rest of the staff most remembered about him.

I was thinking about this when writing my review because The Saboteur is the last game Pandemic Studios made before their division was closed by EA. Regardless of the work the team did before, this is probably the game they will be remembered for. So what’s it like?

I would sum it up as follows:

It’s like the love-child of Grand Theft Auto and cheesy ‘80s comedy ‘Allo ‘Allo.

If this sounds like the worst thing you’ve ever heard, then please move along. For anyone else still reading and somewhat intrigued, then I’m here to tell you that The Saboteur is one of the most charming, fun yet flawed titles I’ve reviewed for some time.

You start the game operating out of the sort of Parisian nightclub frequented by the dirty raincoat brigade. Paris at this stage is rendered in dark and oppressive black and grey as a non-too subtle metaphor of Nazi occupation. As you complete missions and the resistance starts to win back parts of the city, these areas are relit in wonderfully rich hues giving a great sense of the 1940s.

The missions start out simple enough, requiring you to destroy fuel depots or put the boot into pesky informers. So far so GTA. However the way you tackle these missions has much more in common with Assassin’s Creed.

Many of the missions require you to locate an enemy or item and then plot the most effective route to them. On most occasions the best route is across the rooftops where the enemy can’t monitor your movements and call for reinforcements. Locals however will become suspicious of drunk Irishmen climbing drainpipes and raise the alarm, so you do need to act with a little discretion.

Once up high you can really get a great view of the task at hand and start to plot your strategy. One early mission has you nabbing a vintage bottle of wine from a Nazi officer to trade for weapons. The officer is planning to enjoy his tipple in a secluded square with the company of his colleagues. From up high you liven up the party with a few well-placed grenades and then climb down to hopefully swipe the prize during the confusion. That’s the theory. The reality however is that you’ll usually plan a strategy but then find yourself engaged in a fire-fight or punch-up. Oddly I never got overly frustrated with this because the chaos that ensues is a great deal of fun and very satisfying.

It’s not all gung-ho action though. Occasionally guile and stealth is in order to complete tasks. Devlin has the ability to render guards unconscious and steal their uniforms in order to access heavily guarded areas. These sections prove quite tense as you will arouse suspicion if you wander close enough to the enemy for them to identify you. Stealth is always a ‘Marmite’ game mechanic, so I was pleased that this element of the game wasn’t over-used.

To mix things up further, the main narrative is spliced with missions that take you back to before the war broke out. These levels are all in full colour and have you completing tasks as Sean Devlin - the mechanic. The missions start innocently enough - delivering cars to a race tracks or a thrilling race on the circuit itself, but start to take an ominous turn once you realise the German characters and competitors have hidden agendas. I enjoyed the change of pace and once the two strands of the narrative started to come together I really felt as though I was in the middle of a great adventure.

Combat is functional without being exceptional. Devlin gains access to a wide range of weapons from pistols and rifles to machine guns and grenades. Aiming never feels 100% accurate and this can lead to frustration, especially when you’re surrounded by Nazis or the success of the mission relies on sharp shooting. In early stages you can almost forgive it, because it seems to fit in well with the idea of the reluctant hero with little weapons-handling experience. Once the difficulty cranks up though your patience will wear thin and you’ll long for the same pin-point accuracy found in dedicated shooters.

The cars are brilliant, if a little odd to handle at first. Those of us brought up on a steady diet of GTAs will find ourselves making huge adjustments to our steering. You see these are cars built in the 1930s and ‘40s and largely handle like boats. Taking corners at speed (if you can get any speed going at all) is a risky strategy that often ends with the car on fire and Nazis peppering you with bullets.

Eventually you learn that pace and patience is the best way to drive around Paris, and personally I was glad of the more considered pace. You find yourself planning the best route to a safe-house that requires careful driving rather than all-out speed and aggression. This approach also allows you to take in more of the sites.

The parallels with GTA (and Pandemic’s own Mercs 2) continue with the in-screen map. Here you can keep track of safe-houses, available missions and black-market traders who provide the latest firearms in return for luxury goods. The mini-map also warns you if you’re attracting suspicion and will glow red when you’ve been detected. I’ve talked a lot about GTA in this review and with very good reason. It’s clearly the framework for all the gameplay mechanics, so where are the “Allo “Allo references?

Similarly the language in the cut-scenes would make a sailor blush. Devlin curses and swears his way through the entire game which made me feel a little uneasy, mainly because it seemed so out of place for the time and setting. Again I think this has been heavily influenced by GTA, but perhaps the bolder move would have been to rely on the strength of the gameplay and the atmosphere of the era rather than ‘shock’ tactics.

If you’ve made it this far through the review, you’re no doubt still wondering if it’s a game worth buying. It’s by no means original with a structure you’ve seen and played many times before in GTA, Just Cause, Mercenaries 1 & 2, Red Faction Guerrilla and a host of other games. It has flaws in the character control department and a questionable level of foul language and smut.

Yet I had an amazing amount of fun with it, and that’s not something you can say about many games today. The setting is interesting, the missions are varied and chaotic and ultimately hours fly by. A fitting end for all involved at Pandemic.