The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners Review

I played on: Oculus Quest 2 VR

I paid: £29.99

Available on: PSVR, PCVR, Oculus Quest 1&2

Notes: n/a

The Walking Dead has always been a franchise that uses the zombie apocalypse to explore humanity and our species’ will to survive. This is what made the original comic great, it’s what allowed the TV series to last 11 seasons and spawn spin-offs and it’s what made the Telltale games so beloved. Going into Saints & Sinners I had my doubts about whether a VR only combat-focused game would be able to pull that same focus off. I’m pleased to say that Saints & Sinners manages to deliver the same great story and drama that the franchise is known for. Along with the TellTale games, this might be the best Walking Dead game ever made.

Saints & Sinners is broken up into two main modes. The bulk of the content is found in the story campaign. You play as the Tourist, an outsider to New Orleans, drawn to the flooded city in search of the Reserve. Before the dead started to rise from their graves the National Guard stock-piled an emergency bunker full of supplies in case of flooding. Weapons, ammo, medicine, food, clean water and plenty more, all hidden in this bunker. 

Two major factions have risen to power since the zombie uprising. The Tower is a group of survivalists doing whatever’s necessary to survive. This has turned them into a ruthless authoritarian gang ruled over by a woman calling herself Mama. Anyone who opposes or threatens the Tower is either exiled or executed. 

The exiled formed into the second faction, the Reclaimed. These people believe there is more to life than simply surviving. Life has to have a purpose even in this new world where the dead roam the Earth hungry for the living. Merely surviving isn’t enough of a reason to push on. The Reclaimed believe it’s up to them to build a new world worth living for instead of surviving off of the old one just for the sake of staying alive. Both sides are searching for the Reserve which puts you in the middle of two opposing factions getting ready for war.

Outside of the story, you have the Trial. This is a wave-based survival mode similar to Call of Duty’s Zombies. Killing walkers gains you points that can be spent on health, upgrades and weapons between rounds. Learning how to preserve ammo and use your equipment effectively is key to survival. While this is simple, it does provide a lot of replay value.

The minute-to-minute gameplay involves a lot of sneaking around both humans and zombies trying to locate and secure information that brings you closer to opening the Reserve. On top of this, you will also need to scavenge supplies for your base that allow you to build and upgrade useful items. This includes food to make up for lost stamina, bandages and medicine to heal injuries and sickness. Of course, you also have plenty of weapons of both melee and firearm variety. The combat is simple but thanks to the great use of VR feels amazing. Zombies can only be taken out by destroying their brains, so you’ll need to stab, bash or shoot them in the head. While dealing with a single Walker is easy any more than about 3 at a time is normally trouble. Guns are useful but also loud and will attract more ghouls. Humans are more susceptible to non-head attacks but also smarter often using guns, hiding behind cover and even flanking you given the chance. What I can’t emphasize enough is how good this all feels in VR. Unlike most VR games I’ve played objects will collide with the environment. This means you can take cover behind something and use that cover to steady your rifle as you line up a shot. When you run out of ammo you don’t just press a button and watch a reload animation. You have to eject the spent clip get out a new one and slide it into your gun before cocking it. What all these small touches do is create a world that feels real.

The weakest aspect of this game is the presentation. Now I’m willing to admit that I played this on the Oculus Quest 2, which isn’t as powerful as any PCVR headset running on a high-end gaming computer. I have looked at what Saints & Sinners looks like running on one of these machines and while certainly more impressive it still has some limitations. The art design is beautiful and captures the look and feel of both the comic and TV series. Technically however the textures are lacking in a lot of places, especially on the Quest 1, 2 and PSVR. When crawling under houses, for example, it becomes obvious that the leaves, twigs and other bits of debris are just all one flat floor texture. Walkers as well lack a lot of finer detail. This isn’t game-breaking and during the action, it’s difficult to even notice. But when compared to other non-VR games from 2020 the difference is obvious.

The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners isn’t just a fantastic VR game but a masterpiece in gaming overall. This is mostly because it understands how to use Virtual Reality to its full potential. There was this moment when I realized how immersive this game is. I was raiding the kitchen in a Tower outpost, thinking I was alone when a bullet hit the wall behind me. Without thinking I instinctively dropped to the floor in real life to hide behind a kitchen counter that only existed in the game. That’s what makes Saints & Sinners as fantastic as it is. Unlike any game I’ve played before this truly felt like I was stepping into another world as real as my own.

Recommendation Rating: 10 out of 10