Aside from the episodic adventures courtesy of Telltale, The Walking Dead doesn’t have a great history with video games.
One game that has bucked the trend, though, is Saints & Sinners, a VR exclusive title that challenges players to fight for their lives in the flooded ruins of New Orleans. Survival is the aim of the game, but along the way, there are important choices to be made that will not only affect you, but the lives of the characters around you. And now you can continue your story in Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution.
Previously only available via Meta Quest devices, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution has now also landed on PSVR 2 and PC. And after taking the PSVR 2 version for a spin, we have to say that we’re very impressed indeed. The visuals here are some of, if not the best we’ve seen on PSVR 2. Sure, the character models aren’t as lifelike as those found in Horizon Call of the Mountain, but the sharpness and clarity of everything around you is astounding.
We’ve tried a lot of games on PSVR 2, and many of them have a softness that ruins their immersion a little. That’s not the case with Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution. A hell of a lot of detail has been poured into its environments and those who inhabit it, and it’s not sullied by poor image quality. The result is a game that showcases what the display inside the PSVR 2 is really capable of.
But The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution is more than just impressive visuals. Its gameplay is almost just as good, too. There’s a main story to follow here, but you’re largely free to engage in it at your own pace. Operating out of The Resting Place, which is a graveyard no less, you can go to your boat at any time and choose a location to visit. It might be simply to sightsee, or you might have received a good tip over your radio regarding some valuable supplies.
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Go out during the day and there’ll be less walkers on the streets, making your operations a little safer. But those who want the best rewards go out at night. Low visibility makes the action more tense and dangerous, as does the increased number of dead, but Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution does a better job of tooling you up so you can take those who wish you dead on. Melee weapons and guns are always at hand, and using them is not only easy, but very enjoyable.
Knives can be used to stab walkers in the head, with a satisfying thwack letting you know you’ve penetrated the skull. Large weapons, like axes, meanwhile, require both of your hands to be effective. Take a good swing, and you can lop a zombie’s head clean off. And then there are your firearms. A pistol is a trusty companion, quick to retrieve, fire and reload. But you might prefer the up close damage of a shotgun, or the silent but deadly nature of a crossbow.
Freedom is perhaps what most will come to ultimately love about Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution. This is your journey, and you can determine how you carve your way through it. Do you want to be stealthy, or do you want to approach tasks all-guns-blazing? Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, but you rarely, if ever, feel penalised for choosing one over the other. There are difficulty levels, too, so no matter what your skill level, you don’t need to come up against roadblocks.
There is one thing that might affect your enjoyment of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, though: it very much assumes you’ve played the original game. Rather than create a sequel that stands on its own two feet, this is a direct continuation. As such, you’ll have conversations from the outset about characters you’ve never even met and events you haven’t experienced,. It can leave you a little confused and cold. There are some gameplay elements that might take you some time to feel fully comfortable with as well.
The good news is that the original Saints & Sinners is also getting a PSVR 2 upgrade. We haven’t been able to go hands-on with it yet, unfortunately, so can’t speak as to whether it’s up to the same technical quality as its sequel. But if you want the full Saints & Sinners experience and haven’t played it yet, we suggest it’s probably best to start there. In any case, Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, beyond being a good game, has proven to us that PSVR 2 can have impressively sharp and detailed visuals alongside smooth performance. As ports go, this is the best we’ve seen on PSVR 2 so far.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners 2 – Chapter 2: Retribution is available on Oculus Quest, PS5 with PSVR2, and PC.
