I love The Walking Dead so when I heard that a game called The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners was coming out and it was in VR I was all in. Right of the Lucile (see what I did there?) I have to say that this is one of the most intense and fun experiences I have had in VR.
How to Download The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
You can download the game from Steam. Click on the Download button below the review. And if you crave for more VR zombie experience, check out also our review of Arizona Sunshine (2016). For more The Walking Dead titles, read what we think about: OVERKILL’s TWD (2018), The Final Season (2018), Our World (2018), and New Frontier (2016).
The Game Review
I really want to focus on the actual gameplay of this as I feel that is actually the strongest aspect of it. The main aspect of the games sees you moving around this urban area where you need to survive and find things. You need items to craft equipment, but most of the time here are walkers or even worse, people are in your way.
One thing that The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners does very well is to make you very tense and scared of what is around each corner. Taking down one walker is no trouble at all, but 3 or 4 and you are in trouble. Dealing with humans with guns is even worse and a little frustrating if I am honest, but this is what I guess it would be like if you were actually in this situation.
The combat is very, very satisfying. I like how heavier weapons such as the famous barbwire baseball bat and even certain guns like a shotgun require you to use two hands. Speaking of hands, the game has real-world physics so you have to think about the way you move. You have to hack and slash in the right way or it will not be affecting.
I really like the crafting aspect of the weapons. I really like these weird blade things (like what Vega has in SFII) that you can put on your hands. Killing a walker by slicing off its head or using a broken beer bottle are just some of the other satisfying ways to put them down. I found the combat and the weapons in general to be a major highlight of the game.
I think that as far as the gameplay goes, they really did nail it. The story, on the other hand, is actually the weakest aspect. We have been spoiled with Telltale’s Walking Dead games as far as the story goes. However, the story here with you caught in the walker outbreak and the war between two factions is average at best.
The story is not bad, but I just wish it offered more. You are giving choices to make at certain points, some of which are hard to do. However, these choices do not have anywhere near the weight that the ones in the Telltale games did. I think if they could have mixed more of that in with this kind of gameplay it would have been truly amazing.
It is very impressive what they have done here. I love The Walking Dead and if you do too, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is an essential purchase if you are into VR. I really think that they need to make another game in this style, but try and mix in some of the storytelling that the Telltale games have and it will be one of the greatest VR games ever made.