Review for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. PC game, the video game came out on 23/01/2020
In the last few years we have witnessed a real rush to virtual reality, between the opinions of skeptics who waved their arms praising the passing fashion and the excited rumors of enthusiasts who claimed it was a real gaming revolution.
As always, the truth lies somewhere in between and although the titles that have truly stood out for their laudable qualities can be counted on the fingers of the hands and sforgettable VR experiences are far more numerous, little more than demos, the proposed Virtual Reality vision has pulled straight on its way.
New and updated viewers are entering the market promising improved resolutions and controls, while the stock is growing visibly. After a series of triple-A VR conversions of various kinds, first of all Bethesda with its Doom VFR, Fallout 4 VR and Skyrim VR, deserving exclusives are appearing here and there, increasingly complex and well structured that bode well.
This can be said to be the case with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners trying hard to leave its arcade zombie-killing cousins behind, to propose a story driven title capable of offering a satisfying experience both for the gameplay side and for the exploratory and adventurous feeling typical of the reference series.
The convincing multiple-choice dialogue writing of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, accompanied by compelling voice acting and multi-resolution quests rbuild the Telltale feeling we've come to appreciate over the past decade, adding to the recipe an exquisite survival experience resulting from a careful study of the dynamics of VR titles. After a quick tutorial we will take our first steps inside a destroyed and almost entirely submerged New Orleans, theater of the ten locations that we will visit during our raids, between bloodthirsty undead and not always friendly survivors.
The first gameplay element of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners that caught our attention it is embodied by the reproduction of the weight of the weapons, which in a fluid and convincing way is able to convey a feeling of credible simulation without weighing down our moves, avoiding the “Lightsaber” phenomenon, where shaking the weapon at random without testing its weight undermines the credibility of the experience. An ax will be wielded with both hands, on pain of failing to strike a convincing blow against the victim's head.
The first enemies we will inevitably face are the undead, the kind of undead that must be eliminated with a decisive blow to the brain. To do this, after hitting the creature in the head, perhaps with a screwdriver, a blade or a broken bottle, the weapon will get stuck in the skull; it will be up to us to continue the stroke of the weapon deeper into the skull of the monster, and then extract it with a sharp backward movement. Really satisfying, seeing is believing.
In the recipe for a credible Survival / Stealth VR, the deterioration of weapons cannot be missing, placing us on an interesting plan of economy of our resources, in order not to remain without tools or ammunition during the siege of a hungry horde. It wouldn't be The Walking Dead without some thundering gunfire and skull explosions, the arsenal is rich and the gunplay is functional, the number of ammo scattered around the map is well balanced, rewarding exploration and punishing abuse. There's nothing like the roar of a shotgun to draw the unwanted attention of all creatures on the map to us.
The exploration in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners plays a central role in the gaming experience, tying itself in a double way to a simple but functional crafting system. Within our gaming hub, to which we will promptly return between explorations of the various areas and missions of New Orleans, we will be able to access counters where we can forge the weapons and tools most congenial to our style of play. To get the materials we will therefore have to explore the length and breadth of the maps, making sure to carefully choose what to bring with us.
Although "junk" items can be dismantled in the Hub to accumulate crafting resources, the spaces in our inventory are far from unlimited: with just 3 pages available, the possibilities of storage during the trip must be carefully weighed. A separate discussion for the objects of the various quests, which find a special location and will not weigh on the economy of the trip.
Going back and forth from the dangerous areas in order to collect as many objects as possible is not an option to consider, however, as it will be impossible to travel at night and for each day that passes, the horde will become more numerous and threatening. The only drawback of the production is the stealth mechanics, currently under revision by Skydance Interactive, which entrusts the entire mechanics to the press of a button, preventing us from actually squatting. As for the movement system, we will rely entirely on “locomotion” style movements via pad, with all due respect to the teleport fans.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a more than valid title and consecrates the single player VR experience, taking a new step towards a scene made up of full-bodied, intelligent and immersive experiences. Seeing a title of this caliber running smoothly and without blemishes bodes well for the future of virtual entertainment, competing with the complexities of major conversions, jostling to compete with the giants of the genre. We are of course still very far from the single player proposals dedicated to Console or PC, but the path is the right one. If you are looking for something more in addition to the more classically "physical" and Arcade fun of the classic VR experiences, you are in the right place.
► The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is an RPG-Simulation-Strategy-Adventure-indie game developed by Skydance Interactive and published by skybound games for PC, the video game was released on 23/01/2020
