I left The Saboteur E3 2009 demonstration impressed by Pandemic Studios’ commitment to making its open-world action title different. There aren’t any mutants or a twisted protagonist. The city isn’t a wasteland or a knockoff of a metropolitan city. And there isn’t a lot of brown -- the game’s monochrome visual flair eliminates it.

But how long will I be playing The Saboteur? Speaking with me via e-mail, Pandemic’s Thomas French told me that main story will take anywhere between twelve to eighteen hours to complete -- and that’s if I’m hoofing it the whole time.

“It’s honestly tough to say exactly how long it would be for someone to do everything,” French told me via e-mail. “We’re shooting for the player that just plays straight through the main story to be between 12-18 hours depending on how much the player is sprinting.”  

“There are a bunch of side missions as well that are easy to get distracted from the main thread going down their path,” he continued. “So add all those things together and you have, well, a lot of game. I’m sure we’ll get some speed runs that will min-max the entire game and find a faster way through.”  

If I skip the frills I could still get up to eighteen hours out of the game. Sounds like The Saboteur will give people plenty of bang for their buck. You agree, right? Or are eighteen hours too much?