Survios’ upcoming virtual reality (VR) title The Walking Dead Onslaught is one of the main videogamesVRFocus is looking forward to launching later this year. In recent interviews, the developer has revealed that a planned co-op mode has been dropped leading to a lot of disappointed gamers. So much so that Survios has released a more in-depth statement regarding its decision.
Originally, The Walking Dead Onslaught had been slated for a late 2019 launch but this was pushed back so the team could build ‘an exceptional experience.’ Like most studios, those efforts haven’t been helped by the pandemic and so the decision was made to concentrate efforts on the single-player portion of the title.
“Our mission for The Walking Dead Onslaught has always been to deliver an authentic, immersive experience for fans,” Survios explains in the statement. “This includes those who have followed AMC’s groundbreaking show from the beginning, those of you who have played and loved Survios games since Raw Data, and those who just want to have a good time killing walkers in unspeakably gruesome ways. We’ve focused our attention on making key changes that make the game better from our perspective and bring us closer to realizing our goal.”
The studio goes on to outline some of the key changes that have been made to The Walking Dead Onslaught:
“Enhancing how players experience elements of AMC’s The Walking Dead by including more authentic and immersive elements from the world of the show.
“Refining our combat systems to deliver even more brutal, satisfying walker encounters.
“Expanding Alexandria to play a much larger role in the game where players can construct buildings, upgrade and customize their arsenal, interact with characters from the show, and more.”
“Let us be clear: this was not a decision made lightly. In the end, we all agreed that simply adding the mode without the proper resources to bring it to our level of polish and quality was not something we could bring ourselves to do,” Survios continues. “It was clear to us after several rounds of internal playtesting that co-op wasn’t reaching our own standards of fun, which we have since built up with significant improvements to the campaign, combat, and a meaningful progression system that connects you to the universe of AMC’s The Walking Dead.”
Even without the co-op mode The Walking Dead Onslaught is still an enticing prospect but it will inevitably be compared to The Walking Dead: Saint & Sinners.VRFocuswas impressed by the demo last year, hopefully, that’s been further improved upon. As further details are released, VRFocus will let you know.
Update: This was originally published for the original DLC release on PC VR, but has been republished today to coincide with the Quest release of the DLC late last week.
Original: Looking for The Walking Dead tips for The Trial? We’ve got all the tricks you’ll need to survive The Trial, direct from developer Skydance Interactive.
The Trial is essentially Saints & Sinners’ answer to a Horde Mode, pitting players against waves of zombies as they fight for survival and earn better gear. As we discovered in our launch livestream last week, though, it can also be brutally difficult. To help you out, Skydance itself offered us a few tips and tricks.
The Trial Kills Bonuses
To build up points in The Trial, you’ll need to earn different types of kills. Shooting your way through the hordes might be enough to survive a few waves, but if you really want to make a mark you’ll need to utilize all of Saints & Sinners’ combat mechanics from melee and firearms to archery. Skydance was kind enough to outline every type of kill you can earn in the mode, which we’ve listed below.
Standard Kills
Melee (get a melee kill), Thrown Weapon (get a throwing weapon kill), Bow & Arrow (get a kill with archery), Kill (standard gun or bludgeon kill), Explosion (kill with explosive damage)
Special Kills
Decapitation (cut a head off with something sharp), Long Range Bow & Arrow (archery kill at long range), Headshot (a headshot kill at mid-range), Long Range Headset (a headshot kill at long-range), Dismemberment (chop off an arm), Multi-Kill (multiple enemies killed with one explosive)
Don’t forget to kill consistently to build up streaks, too; they’re essential for getting better scores.
General The Walking Dead Meatgrinder Tips
Of course, if you want to survive The Trial, stylish kills will only be half the battle. You’ll also need to brush up on your survival skills and learn the ins and outs of the three maps. Below, Skydance offers some direct tips on staying alive for as long as possible.
Stamina And Durability
Conserve weapon durability and stamina by throwing your weapon
Conserve both by getting weapons that can decapitate easily
Crowd Control
Grab Walker heads to push back into other walkers to give yourself space. Use explosives when they are grouped together
Manage your stamina well with crowd control and weapon variety
Weapons Tips
Weapons like Katanas and bows can take you a long way
Beretta has the fastest reload and higher ammo clip size
Rifles can penetrate helmets with their shots
Hanging Walkers
Kill Hanging Walkers to have them drop powerful boosters. They are hidden around the level when each wave begins
Melee Boost provides infinite stamina and durability for the duration of the consumable (60 seconds)
Firearm boost gives you infinite ammo and durability for 60 seconds
Score Multipliers:
Sometimes Walkers will spawn with a glowing ring around their feet. Kill these walkers to drop a zone around the location. When standing inside of it, you receive double points for all kills.
General Tips
You can find craftable recipes in the world so exploring is good
You can also find helpful items like ammo, food/drinks and boosts from Hanging Walkers
There are handy propane tanks around the level you can use to get explosive kills and multi-kills
Exploring the level is beneficial for items and findable recipes, but time it well so that you can make it back to the crafting tables in time to prep for the next wave
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners’ Trial Mode is available now on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest. These tips were originally published in July 2020, but we republished it in 2021 for all the new Quest players going through The Trial.
We’ll be checking out the new Meatgrinder Update for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners which adds a much-requested repeatable Horde Mode full of waves of enemies. The base game is very story-driven with a heavy focus on survival mechanics, so this will be a slight departure adding a score system and more frantic combat.
Our The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Meatgrinder Update stream is planned to start at about 11:00 AM PT and will last for around an hour and a half or so, give or take. We’ll be hitting just our YouTubeand I’ll be streaming from my PC via Oculus Rift S playing on the Oculus Home Store while Jamie and Zeena join in a webcam call to hang out and help out with chat.
You can watch the stream embedded via YouTube right here. Set a reminder if you’re reading this early!
You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist or even all livestreams here on UploadVR and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, live talk shows, interviews, and more original content!
And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners‘ Meatgrinder update arrives today. First revealed in our Summer Showcase, it adds several new features and is available as a free update for PC VR and PSVR players.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners was one of the first big VR releases this year, and it remains 2020’s best, even with some seriously tough competition. The Meatgrinder update is the first free content update for the game. Its main feature is a whole new mode called ‘The Trial’, which is essentially a horde mode with a few Saints & Sinners twists.
The development team released a dev walkthrough video of the new mode, detailing how everything works, which you can see below. In essence, it’s not an endless mode, but it will get increasingly harder and is aimed at advanced players who want to show off their combat skills. Making your way through each successive wave, until you reach the very end, sounds like it will be a considerable challenge.
You’ll start the mode with just a single screwdriver and enough bitecoins (the update’s new currency) to purchase one weapon of your choice. You’ll earn more bitecoins by killing walkers in each wave, however in true Saints & Sinners style, you’ll get higher rewards for more stylish kills — think headshots, long range shots, using explosives or throwing weapons. As always in this game, the gorier the better.
The update also adds in a new difficulty setting, Story Mode, for those starting a new game. As the title implies, this is an easier setting with reduced health and stamina impact from certain actions, allowing you to focus more on the narrative, if that’s your style. There’s a new weapon skin for the katana as well, called Absolution, which you can see the dev team use in this video.
The Meatgrinder update for Saints & Sinners is available today for players on PC VR and PSVR. We’re expecting an Oculus Quest version of the game later this year, but we’ve got no further details on that just yet.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners isn’t the only zombie-slaying VR adventure based on the iconic IP for 2020. The Walking Dead Onslaught (official website) from Survios is still in development and it’s changed a lot since the last time we saw it.
Last week I had the chance to chat with the Lead Designer on The Walking Dead Onslaught, Andrew Abedian. We talked about the game’s new direction, revised structure, and the decision to remove cooperative multiplayer.
Original gameplay reveal trailer from E3 2019:
The Game That Never Was
When I played a demo build of Onslaught back at E3 2019 I was struck by the gory combat and attention to detail with regard to things like dismemberment and zombie corpse mutilation. Technically, it was a marvel and really seemed to set itself apart with the inclusion of replayable co-op and a fun, arcade-style mission structure. But that’s mostly been changed now (more on that in a second).
All that being said, Onslaught still has a lot of the same ideas it once did a year ago. At its core, this is aiming to be the definitive Walking Dead experience for fans of the show, not the comic as with Saints & Sinners. You’ll still be able to play as Daryl, Rick, Carol, and Michonne as you fight your way across the apocalypse to gather resources and rebuild society. Survios is also leveraging their experience developing reactive melee combat systems (best seen in Creed: Rise to Glory) to give The Walking Dead Onslaught some of the best and most immediately satisfying zombie killing you can find in VR. That’s all still here, but the structure has changed.
“For this game to really make sense and for us to do this brand justice, we wanted to do a little bit more with it and make it feel like you are literally dropped into an episode of The Walking Dead,” says Abedian. “Almost every decision we have made over the past year has been made trying to move toward that goal.”
The Game That It Became
According to Abedian, the focus is now placed squarely on narrative. The campaign is an original story from the point-of-view of, primarily, Daryl who is fully voiced by Norman Reedus himself. It centers on tension between him and Rick Grimes just before the events of Season 9 in the TV show.
You’ll come back to Alexandria as a safe zone to build up the settlement and spend resources you’ve gathered. There will even be moments where you get to gather around a campfire and chat with Daryl, as Rick, to gain additional context into the story and what’s going on.
Another new element is the inclusion of ‘Scavenger Runs’ which will let you go out on heart-pounding supply runs to get resources, collect weapons, and more to bring back to Alexandria. These are randomized encounters that are replayable — adding some nuance and longevity to the gameplay.
Notably though, all of this is without co-op now. Previously the co-op was a cornerstone feature, but it was continually pushed to the side in favor of other things until it eventually just wasn’t in the game’s scope anymore.
Challenger Approaches
Then The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners came out earlier this year and totally blew us away.
Not only did it pack incredibly realistic physics into a large, sprawling world set in a unique location, but it wrapped all that up into a nice, bloody package with visceral combat. It was, for all intents and purposes, a complete experience and honestly one of the best Walking Dead games, and indeed VR games, made to date.
As a result, the bar was raised.
“Saints & Sinners released and we all talked about the impact,” says Abedian. “We were making the co-op decision around that time, but we had been working with AMC for this entire process and it was very important to us that we make something that is quality, that utilizes the brand and that the people who hold that brand feel like they got quality out of us.”
Onslaught has a few major things it can hang its hat on though. Namely, the all-star cast. Four of the most iconic characters from AMC’s hit show are here and in the flesh. Survios worked directly with producers and writers to make this game as authentic as possible. That’s a big deal.
“After a certain point it became obvious that the expanded feature set to accomplish that feel of being inside The Walking Dead was ultimately the largest thing we could provide as a differentiator,” says Abedian. “If players are coming into our game and they are literally feeling like it’s the show and they have these awesome memories of watching the show, there is no other game to be able to provide that at this current juncture.”
Considering the success Survios has had with licensed VR games, such as Creed and Westworld Awakening, they’re certainly capable of making Onslaught work.
Undying Potential
Just like there is room for more than one Walking Dead TV show, for the most part, there is certainly room for more than one Walking Dead VR game, even if they’re releasing a little too close for comfort. There’s a proven market and fan base now with one success story to look at as either encouragement or perhaps a high bar.
I have faith that The Walking Dead Onslaught has the potential to be an awesome zombie-killing experience and I look forward to wielding Michonne’s sword and Daryl’s crossbow, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m wistful for what could have been. In a world where Saints & Sinners has already seemingly nailed the gritty reality of zombie survival and the choices that requires, I think the door was open for Onslaught to deliver a definitive co-op experience with replayable mission and a heavy focus on visceral, intense combat. Pivoting to focus more on the story could serve them well well, but I’ll always wonder what the original incarnation for the game would have been like had it been carried through to the end.
The Walking Dead Onslaught is slated for a 2020 release date on SteamVR, Oculus Home for Rift, and PSVR. We’ll keep you posted with more details as they’re available.
We’re past the halfway mark in 2020 and we’ve already seen some great VR games release this year. But what else is coming between now and the end of the year? Let’s take a look at upcoming VR games for the rest of 2020.
Some recent announcements have elevated what was looking like a rather quiet H2 2020 to an exciting few months. We’ll be taking off in X-Wings and making Dreams come true.
At long last, Media Molecule’s fantastic creation tool is ready to add VR support. Dreams is essentially a development engine unto itself, letting players make their own games and share them online. The brief tease we’ve seen of VR support so far is hugely exciting. This will arrive as a free update to owners of the base game.
The much-anticipated Oculus Quest port of Onward is very nearly here. The ever-popular military simulation shooter makes its way to the standalone headset with all the same features including, multiplayer, single-player and cooperative modes as well as, crucially, cross-play with PC VR players. If this port is up to snuff, expect Onward on Quest to be one of the biggest upcoming VR games for 2020.
Solaris: Offworld Combat (Rift, Quest) – August (PSVR in 2020)
The makers of Firewall: Zero Hour return with a new multiplayer VR shooter that trades Rainbow Six for Unreal Tournament. Solaris offers 4 v 4 battles in which players sprint and slide across maps, picking up new weapons and finding the high ground. Given the developer’s past experience, we’re hoping for a top-quality VR shooter here.
Star Wars: Squadrons (PSVR, PC VR) – October 2nd
We’ve been lucky enough to have lived out several Star Wars dreams in VR already, but Star Wars: Squadrons seems to have struck a particular chord with the fanbase. The chance to jump into the cockpit of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter in VR makes us a little weak at the knees. Fortunately, we’ll be seated for its online multiplayer battles and single-player campaign, though. This is probably the most anticipated of the upcoming VR games in 2020.
Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond (Rift) – 2020
Respawn Entertainment is one of the game’s industry’s best developers, which gives you more than enough reason to be excited for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Add in that this Oculus exclusive sees the developer return to a series it helped established as Infinity Ward, plus the promise of an expansive campaign and multiplayer support, and you have one of the most promising games of 2020.
Lone Echo 2 (Rift) – 2020
Lone Echo’s sequel has been a long time coming, but we’re hoping it finally enters orbit in the second half of this year. It’s high time we checked in on Liv and Jack after the first space odyssey’s dramatic cliffhanger and, now that Ready at Dawn is owned by Facebook itself, we wouldn’t expect this Oculus exclusive to hold back.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught (PSVR, PC VR) – 2020
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners may have stolen hearts and minds on PC VR and PSVR platforms already, but we’re just as excited for VR veteran Survios’ take on the zombie franchise. Aimed at the TV show instead of the comics, Onslaught delivers a full campaign with iconic characters including none other than Darryl Dixon, voiced by Norman Reedus himself. Definitely keep this on your radar for upcoming VR games 2020.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinner’s ace PSVR port is just over a month old, but you can already save a tidy sum in this sale.
Both the Tourist and Standard Editions of the game are on sale on both the US and EU PlayStation Stores. The Standard version has shaved off 20%, taking it to $31.99 in the US and £26.39 in the UK. The Tourist Edition, meanwhile, has 25% off, taking it to $37.49 in the US and £29.99 in the UK. The latter version of the title includes unique weapon recipes and collectible voodoo dolls.
It’s definitely a surprise to see the game on sale so early, especially considering Saints & Sinners made its way into the top-selling PSVR titles of last month. The game dethroned a lot of mainstays for the first time in months. If you were feeling left out after seeing the huge discounts in the Steam Summer Sale (which includes the very same deal on Saints & Sinners), you should definitely check this out.
Not only that, but Saints & Sinners is getting a huge update in July. As we revealed at last week’s Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition, the free Meatgrinder update will add a new Horde-style survival mode with new weapons and a new map. You’ll be able to put your zombie-killing skills to the test to prove your supremacy.
Elsewhere, we’re hoping to see news on the Quest version of Saints & Sinners, which is scheduled to release later this year, in the near future. Plenty still to come for one of 2020’s breakout VR success stories, then. Oh, and there’s still The Walking Dead: Onslaught from Survios on the way. Norman Reedus had an update for us during the Showcase too.
The Steam Summer Sale for 2020 is now live until July 9th at 10PM PT with discounts across the entire storefront on thousands of games including some of the very best VR titles like Half-Life: Alyx and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
Every year Valve has an enormous Steam Summer Sale with deep discounts on popular games and often even new releases. You can browse the sales and categories on the main landing page. If you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a pricey VR game until it gets a bit of a discount, or want to try and grab a bunch of games you may have missed for lower prices, now is the time to act. The Steam Summer Sale will last until 10PM PT on July 9th.
Valve also has some mini-game or meta-level feature alongside each Steam Summer Sale usually as well. This time, it’s Steam Points. Various things on Steam can earn you points, such as buying games or contributing to communities. The conversion rate is 100 points for every $1.00 you spend. You can then spend points on animated avatars, frames, profile backgrounds, badges, and chat emotes, or even for items from games you already, that you get to keep forever.
What’s unique about this feature though is that it’s not just tied to the Steam Summer sale — the Points Shop is now a permanent feature on Steam. However, unlike trading cards and some in-game items, you cannot sell or trade anything purchased in the Points Shop.
Here are some of the stand out best quality and value deals we’ve identified in the Steam Summer Sale, but it’s worth browsing the entire VR category listing for more. You can see every discounted VR game on Steam right here (that’s over 1,000 results in total!) and the official VR landing page is right here.
With over 1,000 games in the Steam Summer Sale it’s impossible to pick all of the best deals in one single article. Let us know what you think people should buy down in the comments below!
After surviving a year in the shadows, The Walking Dead: Onslaught is gearing up for its big return this summer, with a little help from Norman Reedus.
New gameplay from Survios’ take on the popular zombie franchise in VR is coming this summer. Reedus has been recording new voice work for the game in his basement, as he’s only too proud to show in the video above. The end of the clip confirms that the game is still on track for PC VR and PSVR, though there’s no release date to talk about just yet.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught is not to be confused with the other VR game set in the franchise, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. The latter title, developed by Skydance Interactive, released earlier this year and is set in the world of the comic book. Onslaught, meanwhile, is instead based on the TV show. You’ll play as characters from the show, some of which are voiced by their real actors like, obviously, Reedus’ Daryl Dixon.
Onslaught will come with a full campaign with an all-new story. We first revealed gameplay for Onslaught at our first showcase last year, but the game was then delayed out of its 2019 release window and we’re expecting to see a lot of changes. Last we saw it, Survios has walker-stabbing down pretty good, so we’re excited to see how far it’s come since then.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (2020) launched earlier this year to critical acclaim, and now the single-player zombie game just got an update that promises to bring more carnage to the dank, zombie-infested world with a wave-based horde mode.
Update (July 14th, 2020): Skydance Interactive has launched ‘The Meatgrinder Update’ for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. It’s now available across all supported platforms, including PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, and SteamVR headsets.
The studio also released a dev walkthrough video, which is linked below:
Original Article (June 16th, 2020): As revealed during Upload VR’ssummer showcase today, the so-called ‘Meatgrinder Update’ will bring a new arena-based horde mode to the game.
All weapons are said to be unlockable during the new mode, and it will include new difficulty settings as well.
The Meatgrinder Update is said to arrive sometime in July on all supported platforms, which includes Oculus, SteamVR, and PSVR.
It’s good to see the game’s creators Skydance Interactive and Skybound tossing in more replayablity to what we considered a [9/10] game in our review on PC. Being able to step back into the game well after finishing the campaign mode will definitely be a welcome return to some of the best zombie slashing and shooting we’ve seen in VR.
