The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution Review (PS5 / PSVR2) | Push Square

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The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners — Chapter 2: Retribution deserves recognition. Never before have we seen such a verbose title manage to communicate so little while saying so much. It fails to convey to newcomers that it’s a standalone game complete with its own campaign, and it coyly obfuscates the fact that this isn’t quite the fully-fledged sequel Saints & Sinners fans have hungered for.

With that mess of a name, we want to communicate as clearly as possible that Chapter 2 is still great. It’s more Saints & Sinners with new horde-clearing toys to play with, gratifyingly stressful night time expeditions, and more excuses to risk life and limb while scavenging the undead-inhabited streets of New Orleans. The plot is thin and the new additions are limited, but its strong Saints & Sinners core makes this a retribution still worth seeing through to fruition.

Foundational to the success of Saints & Sinners is its remarkably satisfying gameplay, with the visceral combat being at the forefront. A few minutes is all it takes for the physics-focused melee zombie slaying to click. There’s a deliberate nature to it all, be it with the dislodging of something sharp from a walker’s sturdy skull or hurling a two-handed edged weapon that'll hopefully hit its target. It demands brisk but belaboured movements that are punctuated with rewarding jolts from the PSVR2 Sense Controllers whenever you make contact.

The gunplay is similarly solid and proves most effective against the far more agile human foes that inhabit the dilapidated city streets and structures. Adaptive triggers and haptic feedback combine to make each pull of the trigger feel meaningful, regardless of whether it’s a pot shot around a corner or a carefully aimed