The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

not good

[h2]Played on Valve Index[/h2] [h1][b]A brief description:[/b][/h1] It’s a Walking Dead game and it’s exactly what you’d expect – you fight zombies, deal with warring human factions, and you spend [i]a lot[/i] of time scavenging for junk to craft into weapons and supplies. And that’s basically the whole game! A couple NPCs provide exposition for the story and quests (mostly fetch quests) that send the player across the game’s 11 playable zones. Fight through lots of zombies and warring human factions to get to the bunker and escape New Orleans. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531256837 [h1][b]Why I [u]do[/u] recommend it:[/b][/h1] Saints & Sinners in a genuinely fun VR game. It’s not just an “experience” or simulation, which seem to be the bulk of VR “games” right now. This is a real gaming experience with at least a dozen hours of content, and far more if you aren’t just sprinting through the campaign. It has one of the better combat systems I’ve encountered in VR and the controls (usually) did not feel janky whether I was climbing up a ladder, using weapons, throwing grenades, or grabbing a zombie’s head to better stab their noggin. If you’re looking for a solid game, and a solid VR game, this is one you should be playing. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531257071 [h1][b]The Good:[/b][/h1] [list] [*] The story of the game was simple, but interesting enough that I actually tried to keep track of what was happening, which NPC was in which faction, how their actions impacted one another, and how the choices I made were affecting the story overall. I didn’t expect that the campaign would be at all interesting (I admit I do not have high hopes for zombie games), and I certainly didn’t expect it to let me make choices about which characters lived and died. [*] The playable zones are genuinely unique and distinct from one another. It was fun to explore all the buildings. I can tell they put a lot of thought into the design of each map. [*] I usually dislike collectibles in games, but I had fun collecting and discovering all the [spoiler]angel statues, crafting recipes, easter egg items, and collecting fun items to bring back and decorate my van.[/spoiler] [*] The variety of craftable weapons was more than I expected and I liked that you could find “disposable” weapons here and there in the levels. Being able to immediately use the things I scavenged made the world feel more authentic. [*] Encountering other humans – patrols, guards, survivors, and bandits – made the world feel less empty and gives an added challenge to navigating each zone. [*] End game spoiler, but something I enjoyed: [spoiler]I got such a kick out of the fact that I was able to pull the bell rope in the church to attract more zombies to kill all the people outside. I wasn’t expecting I’d be able to do that, and I also didn’t expect that Casey had dialogue lines specifically about me choosing to pull the rope again. It’s a little thing, but I like that they foresaw the player possibly wanting to do that and adding in the option – and extra dialogue – in case it happened.[/spoiler] [*] Achievements are very do-able in this game and gave me something to work toward so I could keep playing after the campaign had ended. [/list] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531258428 [h1][b]The Bad:[/b][/h1] [list] [*] Casey, the main quest-giver, blathers on waaaaaaaaay too much sometimes. [*] The backpack needs an “auto recycle junk” button, holy hell. I was so tired of having to manually clean out my backpack every. single. time. I returned to the safe zone (the player’s base where you do your crafting and get quests). This was maybe my biggest annoyance with the game. [*] Zombies respawn way too fast. Looking at other reviews, I see this is a common complaint about the game and I agree with all of them – zombies respawn way, way too fast. [*] Zombies are so easy to deal with I was bored of them within a few hours of playing the game. They’re just a hassle and not a challenge. Fighting the humans was far more interesting, and even that wasn’t particularly difficult. Combat felt too easy all-around. This is one of my more serious critiques of the game since I expect a game that is almost entirely built around combat to, you know, be [i]really good and/or challenging[/i] with its combat systems or expectations for the player. [*] Dovetailing the last point, combat was very same-same. It makes no sense to use anything but melee weapons for zombies, which translates to the same slicing motion over and over. For humans you might use a bow, gun, or melee, which adds more variety and interest. I would have preferred that the game challenge me to use guns with zombies, but I never needed to – and with the noise they make, which attracts more zombies, they aren’t a desirable weapon to use in any circumstance. [*] Extremely frequent crashing when trying to load the game. I learned that I had to go through 2-5 crashes before it would finally load. I only experienced one crash while actually playing the game. [*] Technically a horror game since it includes zombies, but the game wasn’t at all scary for me. There were a couple jump scares when a [spoiler]door would implode when I tried to open it, and there was a zombie on the other side[/spoiler], but that was it. I would maybe call it atmospheric, but it mostly leans on “make things REALLY DARK and that makes it scary!!” [*] Certain zones had areas that were SO dark even the flashlight could not penetrate the darkness more than a few feet. It’s ridiculously dark. [*] This is a pretty minor one, but I would have liked to see either a longer campaign or more to do after the campaign is completed. It’s great that they offer a free DLC with some end-game content, but it wasn’t enough to keep me playing since it was just more fetch quests for supply caches. Very minor complaint that speaks more to the fact that I wanted a reason to keep playing than it does to a problem with the game! [/list] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531257973 [h1][b]My VR Game Recommendations[/b][/h1] I figure on my VR game reviews it might be nice to include a list of recommendations for other VR games. Below is a list of games I've liked, roughly grouped by genre but in no particular order. [list] [*] Walkabout Mini Golf (best with friends) [*] Beat Saber [*] Ragna Rock [*] Raw Data (best with friends) [*] Zero Caliber (best with friends) [*] Half-life: Alyx [*] Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners [*] Phasmophobia (best with friends) [*] A Chair in a Room: Greenwater [*] The 7th Guest [*] Paper Beast [*] The Room VR [*] I Expect You To Die [*] Keeping Talking and Nobody Explodes (asymmetrical, requires 2 people) [/list]