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A lot of the open-world games I've played over the years have had trouble opening up. Maybe a bridge is under construction, or a terrorist threat has placed a part of the city under lockdown. Whatever the excuse, the fact is I can't fully explore the game world until I've played through a hefty chunk of developer-approved missions.
Sure, I can tool around my little section of town, blowing off the story and soaking up the sights. But I want more. I want total freedom. If you're going to market your game as "open world," then I want to be able to cruise around any neighborhood, scale any building, and blow up anything I desire right from the get-go.
So when Pandemic dropped by to show off the latest build of their open-world game The Saboteur (due out December 8), I was pleased to learn that the game gives players access to the entirety of Nazi-occupied Paris as soon as they complete the tutorial.
That means if your idea of fun is repeatedly climbing the Eiffel Tower and jumping off, you can do that right from the start. If you're hankering to take potshots at Nazis marching down the Champs-Élysées, you can do that right away, too. It's up to you; the game won't handcuff you to the story in order to open up the city and let you make your own fun.
Pandemic still steers you to the main storyline, but they do so in a novel way. Instead of artificially restricting your movement, they've divided up the city between occupied and liberated zones. Occupied zones are presented in stylized black and white, punctuated with splotches of yellow and blood red (think Sin City). Perpetual night covers the sky, and rain slicks the pavement.
These areas are swarming with Nazis, however, so don't think you'll be able to sashay around the fifth arrondissement while munching on a baguette. But with enough skill, you can wander from one side of the city to the other with your life intact.
Liberated zones, on the other hand, pop with bright colors drenched in sunlight. Civilians populate the streets, and the Nazi presence is slight. If you happen to get into a fight with them, fellow resistance fighters will join your cause.
The catch is, you can only liberate areas through the story. So if you want to create more safe havens throughout the city, you're going to have to play through the narrative.
But the choice is yours. And that's exactly the way it should be.
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