Fair warning: if you’ve just eaten a big breakfast you probably shouldn’t scroll down.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners touches down on Oculus Rift, Valve Index and HTC Vive this week. I know, I know, it’s easy to assume this will be another throwaway spin-off from a tired franchise, but our initial impressions suggest quite the opposite. Developer Skydance Interactive has spent the last few years finely tuning a physics-driven combat system that provides satisfying weight, a suitable learning curve, fair challenge and, above all, really, really gory kills.
So before you get your hands on the game later this week, we thought we’d show you what we meant. Again, take caution: this video is VERY bloody.
See what we mean? Don’t worry, we won’t judge you if you need a minute.
Of course, satisfying combat is one thing. Stretching it out across a promised 15-hour campaign and keeping it fresh and entertaining throughout is another. The developer is promising multiple areas to explore across the city of New Orleans, sidequests and a range of other features to give Saints & Sinners a fully fleshed-out feel. Given the sheer polish seen here though, we’re hoping Skydance manages to pull it off. It’d be a bloody shame if not.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners hits PC VR on January 23rd, with PSVR and Oculus Quest versions to follow later this year. Check back later in the week for our full review as well as an interview with the developers straight from their offices.
I think it’s safe to say a lot of us have Walking Dead fatigue. What started as a groundbreaking comic book flourished into a promising TV show and a landmark episodic game. But, like a zombie that just won’t die, the series just sort of… keeps shuffling on.
Spin-off series, console tie-ins, AR games; nowhere is safe from the hunger of the undead. A series so refreshingly concerned with the humanity behind such a cataclysmic event soon succumbed to the phenomenon it generated, recycling the same tired tropes, time after time.
I mean, heck, there’s even two Walking Dead VR games on the horizon (this one I played from Skydance and Onslaught from Survios), which is perhaps as embarrassingly unnecessary a piece of brand overlap as you’ll ever see. But I’ll say this as someone that parted ways with the series a long time ago; The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is the most promising extension of the franchise I’ve seen in years.
Their releases may be too close together to claim any source of inspiration, but Saints and Sinners, developed by Archangel studio Skydance Interactive, definitely graduates from the Boneworks school of VR design. While not every item in the game can be picked up and wielded against your brain-dead enemies, axes need to be swung with heft to make an impact, gun muzzles can be used to bash heads out of the way, and your hands are your first line of defense against the incessant gnashing of a Walker’s teeth.
Combat in Saints and Sinners, then, can be an uncomfortably personal, thrillingly grotesque, and intentionally messy affair. Like Survios’ upcoming The Walking Dead: Onslaught, great pride is taken in the stabbing of heads, though I note a sickeningly authentic feel to this approach. Knives, tools, and even serving spoons must be thrust into your enemy’s brains with intent, and successful blows then dislodged with queasy fiddling. No gory detail is spared either; at one point I take an axe to a zombified-companion, only to accidentally split his chin in two, much to the disgust of the developers and PR representatives in the room.
High-powered assault rifles and handguns, meanwhile, tempt Rambo-style action but in practice need much a much more considered touch. If you don’t hold a rifle at the end of the barrel, it’ll flail around with a rubbery consistency, but even if you do grab it with two hands you’ll need to prop it up higher than you’re used to to help account for the weight you can’t physically feel. Skydance has clearly gone to great lengths to balance every weapon in the game, best seen in the measured reload animations which are often specific to the gun you’re holding. They’re unique in their handling and yet streamlined just enough to be manageable, provided you keep your cool under pressure.
It’s an encouraging set of rules and restrictions, suggesting Saints and Sinners genuinely belongs to that most wince-inducing buzzwordy of labels: a ‘next-gen VR game’. And it’s not just the combat that makes that promise.
Structurally, Skydance says there’s a beefy campaign with 15+ hours of single-player action, complete with your standard assortment of stamina meters and crafting elements. Saints and Sinners is set to a moody backdrop of a zombie-infested New Orleans, a series of flooded roads connecting several explorable areas to a main hub environment. You venture out in search of supplies and essentials, meeting other survivors that designate side-missions with the lure of big rewards.
One woman I meet straight off the boat asks me to put her zombie husband out of his misery in return for a safe code. I could comply or, living up to the title, I’m told I could just kill her and take the code right now. Why wouldn’t you just do that? Well, there may be other rewards to gain from accepting the mission and you may want to play the path of the Saint; there are multiple endings depending on the choices you make.
Given the welcome, crunching impact of the combat and the generally impressive production values — New Orleans is convincingly dilapidated and character models and performances are a step above your usual VR NPCs — I’m inclined to believe Skydance when it makes these lofty commitments. Saints & Sinners appears surprisingly comprehensive, almost as if the issues of short VR games with repetitive content were a distant memory. Granted I haven’t played enough to the game to claim it will maintain this quality throughout, but it’s looking promising.
The Walking Dead may remain a dogged franchise with no end in sight, but Saints and Sinners looks to at least put its name to good use. VR has a lot of zombie-slaying ahead of it in 2020 but, from what I’ve seen, Saints and Sinners should be setting an early high bar.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners comes to PC VR headsets on January 23rd. PSVR and Quest versions are set to follow later in the year.
A new video from Skydance Interactive has detailed the story elements in their upcoming VR title The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
The game is set to release on PC VR on January 23rd, with a PSVR release and Quest release coming later in the year in Q1 and Q4 respectively. We previously got a look at the game’s setting, New Orleans, in a similar behind-the-scenes video. This new video focuses on the game’s story, which we previously didn’t have a lot of details about. While there’s still some mystery ahead of the game’s launch, you can get a bit of a better idea of what you’re in for story-wise by watching the video embedded above.
The developers at Skydance emphasize that the heart of The Walking Dead IP, the comic book and the show, is at the core of the game’s story, which comes down to three words – choice, decision, and consequence. “That’s really the soul of The Walking Dead,” says Saints and Sinners Creative Director Adam Grantham. “It’s about presenting someone with a very difficult choice, they have to make a decision and then they just have to live with it.”
You play as a character known as ‘The Tourist’ who is an “ambiguous individual” known for being an “especially effective survivor.” The game’s campaign involves you starting the hunt to find something called ‘The Reserve’, while also navigating the environment and politics of a post-outbreak New Orleans. You’ll run into several factions within the city, which are detailed and pictured in the video.
All in all, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is looking like it could strike a fantastic balance between zombie action and intense storytelling and moral decision, in true Walking Dead fashion. “You don’t have to choose between skull-splitting and story,” says Davidson Cole, Saints & Sinner writer. “You can have them both.”
We’ll be spending some exclusive time with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners soon so expect to see more behind-the-scenes looks at the game leading up to launch.
We’re officially in 2020 and there are plenty of upcoming Oculus Quest games to be excited about.
2019 was an amazing year Facebook’s incredibly popular standalone VR headset. Some fantastic original games were propped up with a slew of ports from other headsets. That trend looks to continue in 2020, with some of VR’s best games still to arrive on the platform and some brand new titles on the way too. This is what you’ll need on your shopping list heading into this year.
Some of these games you can already pre-order on the Oculus Store, and others will be coming a little later in the year.
Upcoming Oculus Quest Games In 2020
Boneworks Spin-Off – TBA
Stress Level Zero’s Boneworks saw off 2019 in style for PC VR headsets. The game’s fantastic physics system and sandbox combat made it a hit with Rift, Vive and Index owners. But we also know a new game set in the same universe is on the way to Quest. We’ll be incredibly interested to see just how much of Boneworks’ hardware-intensive rules can survive that transition, and how the team expands its fledgling universe. This is easily one of our most anticipated upcoming Oculus Quest games for 2020.
Eclipse: Edge Of Light – Early 2020
Now that Google’s Daydream platform is basically done and dusted, we can confidently crown Eclipse: Edge Of Light as the best game to ever grace its store. Thankfully, developer White Elk is finally bringing the experience to other platforms in 2020. Eclipse is a moody, atmospheric piece of sci-fi exploration, with smooth controls, fascinating sites and an earnest sense of discovery. We can’t wait to dive back into it on more advanced headsets.
Down The Rabbit Hole – Early 2020
Down The Rabbit Hole’s hotpot mix of different storytelling styles and gameplay elements promises one of the most experimental VR experiences of the year. Set in the world of Wonderland (though, notably, not starring Alice herself), you play as a young girl that makes her way through a series of scenes, solving puzzles and meeting crazy characters. The game mixes third and first-person sections with curious invention.
Ghost Giant – January
Originally set to release last December, one of our favorite PSVR games of 2019 is taking just a little longer to reach Quest. Ghost Giant offers an endearing world to immerse yourself in and one of VR’s very best friendships. You embody the imaginary friend of a young boy, quickly forming a strong bond that sees you both through a grand adventure. But, for all its pleasantries, Ghost Giant hides a story with emotional heft and deft handling, making it an essential piece.
Echo VR – TBA
Echo VR is one of those games we might have assumed probably couldn’t work on Oculus Quest’s tracking tech. But Ready at Dawn Studios is ready to prove us wrong, even if this anticipated port was delayed out of 2019. Echo VR is the online portion of the studio’s excellent Lone Echo series, taking place in zero-gravity arenas in which you compete in Tron-style esports. It’s addictive, active and will hopefully find a great home on the platform.
Onward – TBA
The shooter sim that emerged as one of VR’s first true success stories should find a fitting home on Quest this year. Onward was one of the first games for headsets to offer a compelling multiplayer shooter experience and has since only grown with constant updates from developer Downpour Interactive. Playing this one without the tether tugging at our heads should make for a much more immersive experience.
Population One – TBA
Population One has taken a little longer to get out the gate than we were expecting, but we’re still hopeful for a full release in 2020. This is perhaps the most promising attempt yet at mashing VR with the battle royale genre and, even though the craze surrounding the last man standing style of play has subsided a little, Population One could well reinvigorate it for headsets. The game promises liberating traversal and, of course, plenty of ‘splosions.
Phantom: Covert Ops – TBA
Phantom’s premise might seem initially ridiculous but the game actually offers a very considered, thoughtful take on VR stealth. You infiltrate enemy bases by water, wading through rivers in a kayak. The seat-based gameplay, paired with paddling traversal, make for incredibly immersive sneaking, though questions remain over the kind of mission variety and enemy AI to hold the experience up.
Spaceteam VR – TBA
There haven’t been many VR party games that have surpassed the strained collaborative brilliance of Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes, but Spaceteam VR could certainly measure up to the task. Based upon the mobile classic, the game has you teaming up with up to four friends to repair your ship as you venture through the galaxy. You’ll need to listen out for orders from your teammates and issue commands to them too, all while trying to put out fires. It’s safe to say there’s a lot of shouting involved.
The Room VR: A Dark Matter – Early 2020
Fireproof Games’ The Room series made a name for itself on mobile devices by creating puzzles that truly consider the nature of the platform. Innovative interactions make The Room one of the most popular series for phones and tablets. We’re hoping Fireproof brings that same level of invention to the series’ VR debut, which offers a full story with detailed environments and puzzles on a scale the series hasn’t yet seen.
Snow Drift – TBA
Very little is actually known about Snow Drift, save for some glimpses we saw at Oculus Connect 6. The game seems to be promising a chilly survival-based adventure in which you find yourself against nature in frozen wastes. Developer Perilous Orbit is best known for its work on Sports Bar VR, so we’ll be interested to see how the team adapts to an all-new genre.
Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time – January 23
Maze Theory’s fun-filled adventure is on its way to Oculus Quest a little later this month. The Edge Of Time is a little like an extended episode of a Doctor Who show, taking you on a tour of time and space as a companion to Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor. Iconic enemies can be found around every corner along with an assortment of puzzles and other problems. For fans of the show, this isn’t one to miss.
Audica – TBA
Harmonix’s likable rhythm action game has found solid footing on PC and PSVR, but in 2020 the game will finally make the jump to Quest. Audica is basically Beat Saber with blasters, and much closer in tone to BS than, say, Pistol Whip. With new tracks arriving and the developers offering fun tie-ins to other games, Audica should offer some polished fun on Quest.
Solaris: Offworld Combat – TBA
First Contact Entertainment made a name for itself with 2018’s seminal online shooter, Firewall: Zero Hour. That game offered a mix of arcade action with tactical realism, going on to become one of PSVR’s best titles. For its next title, First Contact is leaning into the arena shooter genre with a fast-paced action game. We’re still yet to see a lot of Solaris, but what we know about it really excites us, making it one of our most anticipated upcoming Oculus Quest games.
Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul – TBA
No one does cheap scares better than the Paranormal Activity series and that’s especially true of The Lost Soul, a VR experience so unconcerned with player’s heart health it might well be a murderer. Think jump scares, loud bangs and big screams with a supernatural twist and you’re on the money. It’ll be an ideal addition to the library of any horror VR fan.
Five Nights At Freddy’s VR – TBA
Speaking of scares, Five Nights At Freddy’s is also on the way to Quest at some point this year. The VR adaptation of the infamous collection of games — which features content both old and new — originally hit PSVR and PC VR last year. No word yet on if the Halloween DLC for the game will also come to the Quest version, but fingers crossed.
The Walking Dead: Saints And Sinners – Q3 2020
Zombie shooters are a dime a dozen on VR platforms, but The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is hoping to stand out with a sharp level of polish and focus on storytelling. Set in the ruins of New Orleans, you take the fight to hordes of gory walkers, managing inventory supplies and securing stealth kills as you go. Archangel developer Skydance Interactive has been working on this for a while, so we have high expectations.
What are your most anticipated upcoming Oculus Quest games? Let us know in the comments below.
Skydance Interactive and Skybound released a new gameplay video for their upcoming VR game, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, which is slated to arrive late next month.
Promising crafting, exploration, freedom of choice to side with warring factions, and plenty of visceral melee combat, Saints & Sinners aims to deliver 15+ hours of survival-horror goodness.
Unlike the upcoming VR game from Survios, The Walking Dead Onslaught, which lets you play as the show’s characters, Saints & Sinners is based in the show’s universe, however features entirely new characters and stories set in the ruined city of New Orleans.
And although we’ve seen some pretty gruesome stuff in the first gameplay video, which was revealed back in October, this one shows off probably one of the creepiest missions to do in a world overrun by zombies: investigating a NOLA-style above ground cemetery at night. If you’re looking to see some of the character interactions, definitely check out the first video linked above.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is slated to arrive on January 23rd, 2020, and will support Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Vive Cosmos, Valve Index, and Windows VR headsets, launching via Steam and the Oculus Store.
On the initial release date it’s only coming to PC VR headsets first, specifically Rift and HTC Vive devices according to the press release. However, the trailer above also lists Windows VR and Index so it should support all major PC VR headsets.
The PSVR version is slated for Spring 2020 with a standalone Quest version coming later in the year. However, it will work on Quest via Link plugged into a PC from launch.
Along with this news is a new trailer and three different tiers for the game: Standard, Deluxe, and Collector’s Editions. The main differences are that Deluxe includes lots of digital goodies for $10 more and then the Collector’s is a whopping $100 more but includes several physical items.
Standard Edition: $39.99
PlayStation VR
Pre-order not available but there is a free Playstation theme available for Playstation players in the coming weeks.
Digital game code + Pre-order bonus cosmetic In-game item: craft recipe for “The Sheriff” (Revolver)
Digital Deluxe / Tourist Edition: $49.99
Digital game code + Bonus In-game items:
In-game craft recipe for “The Judge” (Baseball Bat)
In-game craft recipe for “The Sheriff” (Revolver)
In-game craft recipe for “The National” (Combat Knife)
“Bustomization” New Orleans voodoo dolls
Collector’s / Tower Edition: $149.99
Digital game code + Bonus In-game items:
In-game craft recipe for “The Judge” (Baseball Bat)
In-game craft recipe for “The Sheriff” (Revolver)
In-game craft recipe for “The National” (Combat Knife)
“Bustomization” New Orleans voodoo dolls
Collector’s SWAG Physical Items
Special Edition Reversible Unicorn Backpack / HMD Travel Case
Magnetic Camping Lantern
Concept Art Stash
Collector Saints or Sinners Challenge Coin
Set of 4 Collector’s Pins
Eerie Postcard
16GB “Thumb” Drive
Funnily enough, The Walking Dead: Onslaught, another VR game set in the same zombie-filled universe, was originally slated for Fall 2019 but has been delayed into 2020. That entry is unrelated to Saints & Sinners and is instead developed by Survios.
Do you plan on picking up The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners? If so, which edition?
Virtual reality (VR) specialist Survios has produced some top-notch videogames over the past few years so when the studio announced it was working with AMC on a The Walking Dead title earlier this year, expectations are naturally high. At the time a ‘Fall 2019’ release window had been slated but now that’s now slipped to next year.
Regarding the delay Survios issued the following statement:
“To our dedicated survivors:
“We have always strived to deliver high-quality, fun games that push the boundaries of VR. To that end, The Walking Dead Onslaught will now release in 2020 as we continue to build nothing short of an exceptional experience for our players.
“Thank you all for your support and patience—we’ll have more news to come soon.”
So if you were looking forward to killing a few zombies in VR this festive season you’ll now have to wait. How long is another matter?
As an officially licensed product, The Walking Dead Onslaughtwill allow you to play as some of the most popular characters from the show, whilst having its own unique storyline. Offering a single-player campaign, you’ll have the use of both melee and ranged weaponry, with a particular emphasis put on hand-to-hand combat. Survios has built what it calls a ‘Progressive Dismemberment System’ enabling the removal of walkers limbs at their joints. You’ll also be able to grab them to inflict damage with greater accuracy, such as stabbing them in the head.
Having previewed The Walking Dead Onslaughtback in June, VRFocus commented: “In its present form, The Walking Dead Onslaught looks like it’ll provide a fairly brutal zombie gameplay experience for fans of titles like Arizona Sunshine.”
Now that The Walking Dead Onslaught is moving into 2020 it’ll be competing with another videogame from the same franchise, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Being developed by Skydance Interactive, the similarities between the two are obvious, offering lots of gory gameplay dicing up zombies. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners already has a confirmed launch date, 23rd January 2020, so as long as that doesn’t slip it’ll likely be the first to arrive. As further details are released regarding The Walking Dead Onslaught, VRFocus will let you know.
Skydance Interactive released a new behind the scenes video last week showing some stunning new footage of The Walking Dead’s Saints & Sinners‘ environments, set in New Orleans.
The VR game was announced back in July, with a release date initially set for this year. That date has since been revised to January 23, 2020, which is still not too far off.
We went on hands-on with the game last month and we were quite impressed, with Aron highlighting the survival-based combat and the difficult ethical decisions he had to make during the demo. He also noted that the stylized version of New Orleans had him “eager to explore more” upon the game’s release.
A new video from Skydance Interactive, embedded above, delves further into that stylized New Orleans setting, showing some beautiful new footage and explaining why the team chose the city when starting development.
“I think the resilience of the city, we all know it,” said Davidson Cole, one of the game’s writers. “That’s something we’re trying to explore in terms of the human side of things. The Walking Dead is all about resilience as it is, and then you magnify that with a city that has proven extreme resilience over the years.”
They also gave a look at the player’s home base in the game, which is set in a cemetery bordered by high walls (which then affords the convenience of having no walkers in sight). Within the cemetery, there’s a customized church bus stocked with weapons and maps to help you out.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is an upcoming VR survival horror game that places you squarely in the show’s apocalyptic universe of zombies. While developing studios Skydance Interactive and Skybound Entertainment lifted the veil on the game’s trailer today (see it here), the studios also published a nine-minute video on the game’s site that shows off some pretty intriguing pre-alpha gameplay footage—and it’s definitely giving off Fallout vibes.
First unveiled at Comic-Con 2018, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners takes place in a zombie-ravaged New Orleans in a brand new story to the franchise.
And things look to be shaping up quite well, as the fresh gameplay footage shows off a few things we didn’t know about its supposed 15-hour single-player campaign.
In the first few minutes, we get a glimpse of the game’s base of operations, where you can break down scavenged items, craft new ones, and load up for the missions ahead. There also appears to be a ton of unlockable crafting patterns, letting you create things like nail bombs, protective gear, ammo, and a larger backpack to haul more stuff.
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Image courtesy Sundance Interactive
Image courtesy Sundance Interactive
Image courtesy Sundance Interactive
Image courtesy Sundance Interactive
Image courtesy Sundance Interactive
Something we did know before seeing the video was that the game contains a number of warring factions which you can choose to either help or fight. Here we get a look at one such mission where you pursue a faction leader’s dimwitted brother, requiring you to pull out your flashlight and dive into a gloomy house filled with the haunting grows of a walker.
Much like the Fallout series, the video reveals that you have an infamy rating with clans, as you decide to turn on the leader at the behest of another (the promise of loot probably helps too). In the video, the protagonist is shown turning on the Tower clan and gaining a ‘hated’ status.
The game also shows off hordes of zombies along the way, demonstrating plenty of ranged and melee weapon types at your disposal for some pretty awesome zombie skull-splitting madness.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is targeting a January 23rd, 2020 release on PC VR headsets via Steam and the Oculus Store.
Today Skydance Interactive and Skybound Entertainment have announced The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is coming out on January 23, 2020 (instead of 2019 like originally planned) and we’ve already gone hands-on with the zombie-slaughtering adventure.
The Walking Dead, with both the comics and the AMC show, is perhaps the most recognizable post-apocalyptic zombie franchise in the world. Telltale’s episodic series already introduced the universe to video games with its point-and-click-style adventure series packed with meaningful choices and Skydance Interactive is following their lead with the survival-focused, first person VR title The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
Set in a dilapidated and flooded New Orleans, Saints & Sinners puts you in the middle of a chaotic world split between several factions. There is the Tower, a group located in a highrise downtown that controls the flow of zombies through their use of bells, and outsider groups that are hellbent on making the Tower answer for crimes they’ve committed. The development team worked with Skybound Entertainment, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s company, to loosely fit it into to the greater Walking Dead universe.
I played an incredibly enjoyable segment which took place a few chapters into Saints & Sinners at a press event in Los Angeles last week. The general objective of my demo was to find several machine parts somewhere in a small residential area packed with overturned cars, decrepit homes, and, of course, zombies. Skydance had me armed to the teeth for the demo in order to experience the combat in full even though you begin the game with far less.
Saints & Sinners makes full use of all space on your body. I had regular-sized weapons on each hip, an assault rifle over my right shoulder, a backpack full of gear over my left, my notebook with quests and other menus on the right side of my chest, and a flashlight that needed a good bit of shaking in order to work on my left. I felt like an absolute commando with everything on my body to the point where it was difficult to interact with other objects in the world because my gear attached to my body would get in the way. Hopefully that confusion was due to me just learning how to play.
As I trekked through the flooded streets of suburbia I took a few of my melee weapons for a spin on some nearby zombies. As soon as I engaged with them one thing was clear: Saints & Sinners wants you to feel like you’re in a zombie apocalypse, with all the desperation included. Zombies came at me hard and it was not easy to land a kill on most of them. Using big two handed weapons, like an axe, pushed me to be as accurate and methodical with my swings as possible. They needed to land squarely on the head to be effective and smaller weapons, like knives, required a similar approach. Both weapon types got stuck in zombie heads often, making each moment in combat a frantic mess. It was incredibly fun.
I did kill one with a spoon, so I had that going for me.
The struggle is intentional, as Skydance told me. They didn’t want me to feel like a zombie killing machine, they wanted it to be about survival. I had a watch on my arm that ticked down to the moment the bells would ring, meaning zombies would be moved by the Tower. While I would’ve loved to stick around to kill some zombies, I knew I couldn’t take them on and come out alive. I had to complete the mission.
I noticed that a nearby non-playable character was shooting at the zombies I was fighting. I made my way into the house they were in and was directed to a man in the side yard. This demo took place midway through the game so I wasn’t caught up on the story thus far, but these people were with the Tower and I had to appease this guy to get the machine parts I needed. He asked me to head a few doors down and try to free his brother from the clutches of some outsiders.
I found the other house quickly and scaled a pipe on the outside by climbing, which is a cool addition to something you wouldn’t think would have any kind of vertical elements. I walked inside the second floor and found outsiders, who were about to execute the brother. As soon as I got close enough all attention was on me.
The leader of the outsiders said the man had killed his daughter and the Tower refused to answer for it. They said that the Tower always preaches community, but pushes away anyone they view as a burden. For some odd reason he asked me to decide his fate. At any point I could have killed the man I was speaking to, one of the three other armed people in the room, or the hostage. The choice was always there and it came with consequences, if I killed a quest giver in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners I could lose access to missions later on.
It was a difficult decision, but it was only a demo and I didn’t have much time to mull it over. I could relate to the man that lost his daughter so I shot the hostage. Then everyone in the room agreed to go back to the previous house where I had received my orders and kill everyone there. I was caught up in the moment so I went with it.
We stormed the house guns drawn and started lighting things up. I quickly went from using two hands to gun down enemies with my rifle to pulling out my handgun. It was fast and exciting, although I didn’t see many consequences here. The enemy AI seemed downright stupid. They strafed and shot back, but it felt like I barely took any damage. I was hardly even hurt after fumbling with all the equipment on my body right in front of an enemy. Humans are supposed to be more threatening than the actual zombies in the world of The Walking Dead, but that didn’t feel like the case in my demo.
We cleared the house and I found the machine parts I needed on a bed upstairs. It was time to head back to my base camp, a location where you can gear up and craft items, to figure out what to do next. Bells started ringing, which meant the area would be flooded with zombies shortly. I ran back out into the street, weaving between groups of the undead only stopping to kill a few in order to open a path. I nearly died on multiple occasions but finally made it to the the boat that would get me home.
My overall experience with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners was fantastic. The combat was survival-focused and frantic, the single choice I made in the demo made me pause, and the entire stylized New Orleans Skydance created had me eager to explore more. I’m tempted to say that this could give Telltale’s best game a run for its money.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners releases on January 23, 2020 but Skydance Interactive couldn’t confirm which platforms they’d be launching Saints & Sinners on. My demo was on an Oculus Rift. They also said the entire story mode would take around 15 hours to complete.
