Saboteur - interview

GamesRadar: Okay, then can we talk about the action?

TF: The world that the character exists in is an occupied world and we are making it feel like an occupied world. If the player is running around the street with a gun strapped to their back or they're throwing grenades or punching people, they're going to draw attention to themselves. As you'd expect in an open-world game, there are firearms and guns, but then the player also has a great melee system to use as well, which we treat as a stealth tool. It doesn't create as much noise as firearms or explosions and is a great way for him to jump in, do a small encounter, take out a few dudes quickly and then get away before anything big is going to come raining down on him.

When everything does hit the wall and you're getting flooded with Nazis, the player can escape. We didn't want him to just go hide in shadows; we really wanted it to feel like he can move through the world. All of the buildings in the world are climbable, so the player can scale drain pipes or grab windowsills and make their way slowly up the building to try to avoid the Nazi presence. That also works as a tool when going into an encounter. If there are a lot of Nazis down the street that are likely to give you problems, you can go up and around and then drop down in on them and give them a surprise.

GamesRadar: Is the game more action or more stealth?

TF: It's definitely a blend. We want to keep the high action. And when we say "stealth," we're trying to avoid slow stealth gameplay. We don't want the character dragging bodies around and having to hide them; we want to keep everything well-paced. Even the way he moves around in stealth isn't really slow and creepy like it is in a lot of games. It's about fast movement - making your moves and getting out of there.

GamesRadar: So less Metal Gear or Hitman and more... I don't know if you remember The Mark of Kri, but if you snuck up quietly, you could perform special killing moves...

TF: That's actually a great analogy for what our game is. The Mark of Kri is a great example. You can engage into full combat with them if you want, but if you get that little sneak up on them and if you get to the right spot, you can take them out and never have to deal with them like that.

GamesRadar: Does it actually trigger special moves when you sneak up on them?

TF: Yes.