While the TV show may be staggering like a Walker towards the finish line, The Walking Dead brand is being kept alive through a variety of external properties. Though it's been a while since Telltale's groundbreaking Walking Dead game released, and the majority of games sporting the license aren't all that great, there is one game that's keeping the brand in the public conscious: The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners.
The first Saints and Sinners game was undeniably one of the best VR experiences available when it launched, and some may argue it still hasn't been topped. Some visceral and bloody action paired with an innovative physics system leads to Saints and Sinners being a truly immersive, thrilling VR experience. Fully-fledged crafting mechanics and a choice-based narrative also make it stand out among other VR titles as a full game. So, with the release of a gameplay trailer for its sequel, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2: Retribution, dropping yesterday, fans shouldn't be worried that things look a little familiar.
More Guns, More Environments, Same Gameplay
In the trailer released as part of the Meta Quest Showcase, fans can see a brief glimpse of gameplay of the upcoming Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2. In the last 20 seconds of the trailer, the player-character is shown tentatively walking away from a room, checking their pistol ammo before unloading a few rounds and hacking away at Walkers on their left with a machete.
Upon running out of bullets and lodging their machete in a Walker's head, the player-character fires up a chainsaw as a horde of Walkers charge over a handrail above them. It's only a few seconds long, but these moments of gameplay seem to confirm that The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2 is going to be more of what fans loved about the first, with no significant changes to gameplay.
The addition of the chainsaw in the trailer seems to imply that there's going to be a range of new weapons in the Saints and Sinners sequel, alongside returning classics like the magnum pistol and machete. Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2 is also taking players to a slightly new location, the French Quarter of New Orleans. As such, fans of the first game should expect to see some familiar sights in new environments.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2 looks to be expanding on the first game via new weapons and environments, but seems to be sticking pretty closely with the general gameplay formula that made the original so successful. As the gameplay in the first game was so responsive and satisfying, retaining those mechanics for the sequel is certainly a smart choice, as the groundwork for an excellent game is already there.
From just the brief glimpse of gameplay fans saw, it also seems like Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2 is refining a few of the first's most impressive technical features. Though it's subtle, it does seem as though Chapter 2's stylized graphics are an improvement over the first's, which, while expected from a game releasing a few years after its predecessor, is still a nice refinement.
It also seems as though Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2 has made further tweaks to the first Saints and Sinners' stellar physics system, evidenced by the horde of Walkers falling from the balcony in the trailer. As the Walkers fall, each one acts independently, but is affected by the others in the mass, with their limbs being trapped by others' bodies. These tweaks to the physics system may only be very slight, but they'll likely come together to create an even more immersive experience.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners-Chapter 2: Retribution is set to release in 2022.