This week the team chats all things Tchia with Phil Crifo (Game Director at Awaceb), before sharing early Resident Evil 4 impressions and favorite video game movie and TV adaptations.
Kristen Zitani – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE
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Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE
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Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.
[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]
Last week, we asked you to use your green thumbs to share green-themed moments from your favorite games using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
scottoka1 shares Cloud in green lighting from Final Fantasy VII Remake.
kani3_sun shares a green-tube experiment in Observer: System Redux
RM7_GoWR_VP shares Atreus shooting green Runic arrows in God of War Ragnarök
HazzaniVP shares Aloy staring into out-of-focus green fireflies in Horizon Forbidden West
DexM_ds shares the cat in Stray napping in green grass
MrioMoreno5 shares Slimer being his green self in Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Tchia
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on March 29, 2023
Next week, set sail and explore the world of Tchia, available now as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. Share moments soul-jumping, playing music, and exploring the archipelago in Tchia using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
Hi, my name is Yang Yu. Today I am excited to share that Honkai: Star Rail, the forthcoming free-to-play space fantasy RPG, arrives on PlayStation soon. You play as the protagonist embarking on a trip aboard the Astral Express with distinctive passengers. As “The Trailblazer,” you are going to discover the realms of the universe and unearth secrets buried in legends.
A science-fiction universe with elements of fantasy
Exploration is the core of every adventure. Honkai: Star Rail features an in-game world awaiting discovery with elements of myth blended into a space sci-fi story. In this universe, there are “Aeons,” incarnations of universal principles that can freely travel between infinite worlds, driven by their Primum Mobile — Basically, they are gods with formidable powers! The Aeons roaming the worlds uphold their own beliefs, hence various kinds of civilization thrive around every corner of the universe.
However, there is one Aeon named Destruction who considers the universe as a fallacy and civilization as cancer, casting seeds of ruin called Stellarons across the galaxy that leads to massive changes to ecosystems. As the protagonist, you are implanted with a Stellaron at the very beginning of the story. To drill down to the essence of the Stellaron, you bravely set sail for the galaxy, composing an interstellar melody filled with surprises and rewarding experiences.
Various worlds to explore
Honkai: Star Rail provides a vast universe abundant with distinctive cultures, landscapes, and scenery. It is full of rewards and secrets waiting to be explored.
You can experience the origin of the story in the Herta Space Station and then set sail to explore Jarilo-Ⅵ and the Xianzhou Luofu, two major destinations of your interstellar journey. Jarilo-Ⅵ has innumerable mysteries and dangers frozen beneath its snow caps awaiting further examination. The Xianzhou Luofu, the silkpunk flagship where inhabitants seem to have achieved immortality, foreshadows the upcoming expedition infused with Eastern fantasy.
A friendly heads-up: There are still plenty of uncharted territories to be seen. We are considering ways to propel our space fantasy into another dimension by including new in-game content. More details will be revealed in the future.
Choose your companions to face challenges
The space expedition, of course, will not always encounter hospitable inhabitants with their arms wide open to welcome your arrival. Different kinds of adversaries and hurdles need to be overcome, or your survival will be on a knife’s edge!
Fortunately, you are not alone. During the whirlwind trip of a star-chasing ride, players will meet new companions with distinctive capabilities. They are more than happy to weigh in, unleashing their powers during map exploration, puzzle investigation, and so on.
Additionally, our turn-based combat system is easy to pick up but hard to master, a perfect place to test your team-building skills and battle preparation. If you can strategically leverage each character’s skill sets masterfully, then they will all have their place to shine and reach their full potential to assist your mission.
Roaming the worlds and uncovering mysteries, Honkai: Star Rail offers a grand space journey full of twists, coincidences, and happiness. Building your four-person combat team from a wide range of playable characters, getting along with your companions, and leveraging their unique skills correspondingly to overcome challenges from every corner of the universe!
Honkai: Star Rail will launch on PlayStation in the near future. We would like to express our sincere thanks to everyone who is supporting Honkai: Star Rail. Thank you, Trailblazer, and we hope to talk to you again soon!
Here at Piccolo Studio, we like to say that we “craft” games rather than “make” them. Our logo features a needle and a thread, symbolizing this very approach.
With After Us, our next project releasing on May 23, we tell the story of Gaia, a small nymph brought to explore the outside world for the first time. The universe is a surrealistic version of Earth in the far future, after humans have expunged all life on it. It is a strange, oneiric, but ultimately captivating world where everyday objects float around, some small, others massive, and where a coat of hazardous oil taints the land.
This third person adventure mixes platforming, puzzles, and combat in a nonconventional way. The world is rich, divided into 10 different biomes. “Some parts of the game rely more on puzzles, some on exploration, others on combat, and often we switch up the traversal sections so it stays fresh”, says game co-director Jordi Ministral.
An organic approach to platforming
We invest a lot of time into creating singular experiences. How do we do it? We start with a vision, a holistic idea of how we want the player to feel. Then we take the rules of a specific genre, and we twist them. At its core, After Us is a 3D platformer. Yet, we intended to have many features often avoided when developing a platformer: a camera that is far from the main character, a lush world filled with assets artistically scattered around, and an absence of strict metrics. A designer’s nightmare, right? But we found solutions that worked wonderfully to create the organic experience we envisioned.
In complement, Gaia’s movements are simple to execute. They can be effortlessly chained in a pleasant flow. She dashes at very high speeds – about 70 km/h – so the scale of the world ended up being huge! “Players burn through content so fast that we ended up with more than 100kms of environment!”, explains Jordi. There is a lot of verticality as well. The main character can double jump very high, with an adequate balance between airborne agility and weight. Combined with gliding, controlling falls becomes easy. These motion mechanics have been designed precisely to traverse an organic world without strict metrics.
The innovative capabilities of the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller also add another layer to this aesthetic experience – through the sense of touch. Greeting and petting animals will be possible by sweeping the touchpad, and its triggers will offer resistance as well as vibration when performing Gaia’s Burst of Life! Light under the touchpad will also reflect your life bar, displaying a green color when you are at full health and turning red as you lose vitality.
Choices that yield aesthetic opportunities
Because of our design approach, environment artists had a significant role and freedom to craft the world: there is debris and garbage everywhere, floating objects and cables running all around… Things you would typically avoid in a 3D platformer. To make things even more challenging, the dynamic camera system often frames the world from far away to emphasize the contrast of a tiny character in an epic environment.
“Games rarely use those cameras because handling collisions is hell. But we decided to embrace this decision as it gives the game a distinct personality”, notes Jordi. The camera system is smart enough to get close to the main character when it matters. It allows us to emphasize the scope of the world or focus on specific areas. But we had to iterate many times over the right combination of camera collisions, dithered materials, and transitions to create a smooth, aesthetic experience.
Environmental storytelling
In a world that is so organic, without clear metric-oriented compositions that show you the path, you might think all you’re going to do is get lost. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: we use a wide range of elements to suggest the path ahead in a subtle, yet recognizable way (lighting, color, architecture, statues, props…).
Additionally, there are also full-fledged narrative and design elements. They tell stories while guiding the player. A landmark example is the thousands of statues scattered around, representing humanity. They create a path that is recognizable, without resorting to the usual solutions. But this involved dozens of iterations for every scene. We had to carefully place the assets and “compose” each section.
Finally, the game will constantly tease in the far horizon what you are going to play next and uses verticality to twist the path. At times it feels like a labyrinth and suddenly you are in a big open landscape. The game plays with contrasts all the time. And when it all comes together, the player is seized with a sense of freedom that is unusual for platformers.
Greetings, fellow Cosmonauts! Thank you for tuning into this exciting new announcement. In our first PS blog post, we announced our reimagining of Sega’s arcade and console icon for Single, Co-Op and Versus gameplay – only on PlayStation VR2. The response has been overwhelming.
Today, as promised, we’re launching a free playable demo.
You will be able to pre-order the game at a discount before the full game launches on June 23 2023.
Our game is being crafted by a veritable dream team of developers, artists and musicians scattered all over our little blue ball spinning around in a remote corner of the galaxy – and your support means the world to us. In the meantime, allow us to tell you a bit more about what’s in store – both in the demo and in the full release.
What’s in the demo?
Tutorial
When you first load up the game, you are transported straight into the world of C-Smash VRS. The game is designed to be easy to pick up and play, so you can feel at one with your virtual body and at ease in a stylish space at the edge of time.
C-Smash VRS feels natural. In a few quick steps, the Tutorial gives you some guidance and general tips to play. Don’t forget to learn the Trick Smash, designed to attract the hard-to-reach high balls and hit the ball with larger-than-life power and precision.
A feature to note – if you want to switch hands, you can do so in the menu – left-handed, right-handed or ambidextrous, we’ve got you sorted!
Training
While most training modes are there to teach, this single player mode is a fun, engaging and absorbing challenge.
Smash blocks of different strengths, improve your score and enjoy the dynamic music.
The arena is built of a grid of dots that pulse and ripple with gameplay. This is reflected in the hand and head vibrations, making you feel the impact of a well-timed return as well as the ripple of a missed shot as it returns, ready to serve.
A crisp and beautiful cosmos awaits, the PSVR 2’s OLED display bringing the minimal but vivid color palette to life. Design has never felt more physical and present.
The Training mode gives you a small taste of the full release’s Journey mode, which you will also be able to play Co-Op with a friend. Which brings us to our Demo’s multiplayer mode:
Versus
Play with a friend or face off against players from across the planet.*
Using PlayStation Activity Cards, players not already playing the game, can jump straight in to join friends in multiplayer sessions. Hook up with a friend in the ‘Cosmic Shuttle’ and head out to play Clash, the fast-paced multiplayer VS mode included in the demo.
The aim is to smash the other player’s blocks and protect your own.
The power and speed of PlayStation 5 allows for instant transition into matches with your next rematch only seconds away!
You can play C-Smash VRS seated or standing – the game adjusts players’ heights automatically. We don’t want anyone to feel disadvantaged or left behind.
Unlike many other sports and online games, C-Smash VRS is designed to make you feel good, even when you “lose”.
The great Ken Ishii (Rez Infinite) and Danalogue (front man of The Comet is Coming and Soccer 96) have each written a great soundtrack with dynamic, totally transportive tracks for the game. Never have sport and music felt so good together.
In an ideal world, you’ll never realize you’ve just had the best workout – alone or with a friend – because it feels so much like a night out. In space.
What’s coming?
The demo is a small glimpse at our game, which will have an epic Journey mode, a sweat and joy inducing Infinity mode, and a variety of Co-Op and Versus modes.
We also have more features mapped for the full title, including a 3D audio soundscape and fully using adaptive triggers.
We can’t wait for you to see you in the demo – and look forward to taking you to new dimensions when the full game releases on June 23 2023.
Resident Evil 4, launching this Friday, March 24, is a remake of the acclaimed original. It preserves the essence of the 2005 survival horror while introducing modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics.
We asked the game’s director Yasuhiro Ampo, sound director Hiroshi Tamura and art director Hirofumi Nakaoka how they leveraged PlayStation 5’s unique capabilities, including 3D audio, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and stunning graphic fidelity to create the game on PS5.
PlayStation Blog: What were your first impressions when first learning about the power and capabilities of the PS5 from a developer perspective?
Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): The enhanced data reading speed allows the game to handle higher volumes of assets, while also generating richer graphics and reducing loading times. Immersive horror is one of the key elements for the Resident Evil series, so it’s extremely beneficial that players can remain uninterrupted during their gameplay even during scene transitions.
3D Audio creates realistic soundscapes in games and it’s an essential component that brings something new to evoke fear and horror. How did you leverage 3D audio in RE4 to conceive an even more terrifying audio experience?
Hiroshi Tamura (Sound Director): 3D audio was essential for shaping the audio for RE4. In moments of quiet tension, we dynamically 3D-layered sounds, such as the irregular cracking of wooden houses settling or other subtle noises over the bass produced by Ambisonics audio (a type of 3D audio format). In intense combat sequences, we made sure most sounds are outputted as object-based 3D audio, so that enemy or object noises can be heard behind the wall or the floor above. Our goal was to create an immersive experience by amplifying the suspense and building a three-dimensional soundscape. In addition, all the music in this game was produced and mixed in 7.1.4 channels.
Game controls in RE4 have also been refined and modernized. How did you leverage unique PS5 features such as adaptive triggers and haptic feedback in the game?
Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): We wanted players to share the sensation that the game’s main protagonist, Leon, was experiencing inside the game. For example, the DualSense controller will intricately vibrate and play sounds when Leon reloads a gun. The resistance of the adaptive trigger also changes depending on the weight of the gun.
Thanks to updated graphics, RE4 enhances the original game’s feeling of isolation and its haunting environments. How did PS5 help you achieve this?
Hirofumi Nakaoka (Art Director): While preserving the distinctiveness of each defining area – which is at the heart of the original Resident Evil 4 – we modernized each location to accommodate the PS5’s capabilities, so that players will feel the chilling isolation when exploring the secluded European village surrounded by a forest. We didn’t just want to make the environment darker to evoke fear, but we put an emphasis on shadows and silhouettes, rather than light, to capture the essence of horror. This requires a console that can output high-quality lighting. In addition to shadows, we also put a lot of work into capturing the dynamic nature of the environment, such as grass and trees moving with the wind or fog to depict stagnant air. These sorts of precise environmental details can only be unlocked with the power of the PS5.
What are some things you wanted to change, or did not want to change in this remake?
Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): I played the original Resident Evil 4 ahead of the remake’s development, and I felt that there was some room to freshen up the game’s controls, the story, and the characters, so they’re in-line with the level of current-gen games. So those are some aspects for which we made modern refinements. On the other hand, we only made small changes to the core gameplay elements of the original Resident Evil 4, such as aiming and shooting, resource management and weapon upgrades. These are still equally enjoyable today, so we just made slight refinements to expand on the gameplay while keeping the essence of the original game’s direction.
As a gamer, which PS5 feature makes you the most excited? Or what do you think makes the game experience more immersive?
Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): Personally, the DualSense controller. You can hear the radio coming through the controller’s speakers, you can feel the gun in your hands with the haptic feedback, and you can see how much health you have left because the controller lights up when you’re playing in the dark. They’re fun little features that add up to create a great gaming experience.
Aloy’s journey continues in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores — an expansion which sees the fierce Nora hunter pursue a sinister threat in the untamed wilds of a far-future, volcanic Los Angeles which has been wracked by violent tectonic activity. Pre-orders for Burning Shores, which launches on the PlayStation 5 console on April 19, 2023, are available as of today.
Pre-ordering will give players access to the following digital bonuses:
Blacktide Dye Outfit (available at the first dye merchant)
Blacktide Sharpshot Bow (available from the first merchant in the Burning Shores)
The story picks up Aloy’s story right where Horizon Forbidden West left off – so, to enter the Burning Shores, you must complete the main quest (up to and including the final quest Singularity) in Horizon Forbidden West. Following the events of Singularity, she will receive a call over her Focus, beginning the DLC.
Aloy will then be able to travel to a dangerous new region south of the Tenakth Clan Lands, where players will experience a compelling new storyline featuring new characters, machines, and adventures – we look forward to sharing more details with you very soon!
The wait for a new entry into the Crash Bandicoot franchise is finally over! Crash Team Rumble is an all-new spin on the Crash formula, pitting players into epic 4v4 competitions, where each team aims to collect and bank more Wumpa fruit than the other. Between the many unique and varied heroes, equipable powers to change your loadout, and map specific relic stations that can cause havoc on the enemy team, there’s a lot to unpack and experiment with in Crash Team Rumble. With all the zany chaos you’d expect from the Crash heroes and villains, the first step to understanding how to Rumble is learning your character’s role: Scorer, Blocker, or Booster.
Scorer characters
The name of the game is scoring Wumpa! Scorers like Crash are speedy heroes who can easily traverse the map, collecting Wumpa fruit and relics to assist their team. Scorers provide the bulk of your team’s scoring potential, so protecting your Scorers will be crucial to victory!
Blocker characters
The best offense is a good defense! Blockers excel at taking out opponents or defending your team’s Wumpa Bank. They’re extremely powerful combat characters who can easily take on multiple foes at once, and still hold their own.
Booster characters
Support your team by boosting your score! Boosters are specialists who aim to capture the various gem pads scattered around each map to boost their team’s score. Taking control of a cluster of gem pads increases the amount of points scored for each Wumpa fruit delivered to your Wumpa Bank, allowing them to turn the tides in a flash.
To give a better sense of how the developers themselves feel about each hero role, we checked in with the Toys For Bob’s associate creative director Lou Studdert on how each role impacts the game:
What role do you tend to play as?
Lou Studdert: While each role brings something new to the table, Scorer characters tend to be our first pick. They’re well-rounded, and give you the tools to play the way you want, whether that’s collecting Wumpa, or pestering the other team.
Is there a most difficult role to compete against?
Blockers might give new players a bit of trouble. If you’re playing a Booster or a Scorer and find yourself struggling to fight a Blocker head-on, remember that you aren’t alone! Rely on your teammates to help take them down, and don’t be scared to retreat to fight another day. Heroes with more mobility will have an easier time collecting relics on each map, which can be spent at relic stations to give you the upper hand.
Do you play as the same role every time, or do you change your strategy?
Typically we gravitate towards Boosters, but it depends on our mood! Sometimes you just want to wreak some havoc with Dingodile, or drop some pianos with Cortex. Thankfully, there’s always the option to change characters between matches, so if you feel the call to shake things up, it’s easy to try out a different playstyle at any time.
Do you have any advice for playing in the closed beta on April 20-24?
Be sure to experiment with the powers and characters available in beta! Any power can be equipped to any hero, so there’s a lot of room for experimentation to see what play style suits you the best. There’s even more planned for the final launch of the game, so while this is only a small taste of what’s in store, it’s a great chance to see what strategy feels the most fun. We can’t wait to rumble with you when our beta launches on April 20!
With the closed beta fast approaching, what characters are you most looking forward to trying out? Crash Team Rumble is available for pre-order today for PS4 and PS5.
Hi everyone, I’m Phil Crifo, Tchia’s game director and co-founder of Awaceb. We are so excited that tomorrow Tchia launches to the world, and it’s the culmination of an incredible 5-year adventure for a tiny team making a big game.
As we’re nearing the release, we wanted to give you a final look at how we expanded on the sandbox open-world formula. If you’re new to Tchia, no doubt the below overview will bring you up to speed before you dive in the game on PS4 and PS5.
To prepare you for the adventure that lies ahead, we also wanted to give you a few early-game tips. And so here are some of the top five items & features that you will be using in the game’s opening hours
Slingshot
Tchia’s trusty slingshot was gifted to her by her father, Joxu. It’s the very first tool you’ll receive in the game, and it will come in handy to aim at trees and knock down coconuts or bananas to consume and restore your energy. It’s also a useful weapon to wield against the Maano – the fabric-made creatures that have abducted Tchia’s father – to buy some time as you’re trying to find flammable items to get rid of them once and for all.
You can also test your aiming skills in shooting range challenges, where reaching the top score will get you a golden trophy. Those will prove very useful for other activities.
The slingshot also leverages some of the unique PS5 features, such as the adaptive triggers, where you’ll feel the weight of the sling at the tips of your fingers. And if you feel like becoming an expert sharpshooter, you can activate the motion sensor for a more accurate aim. Give it a go, it’s accessible to toggle on or off in the menu.
Ukulele
One of Tchia’s most unique features is the Ukulele. You can harness the powers of this magical instrument with just a few strums. It’s fully playable, customizable, and also a game-changer.
Gifted to Tchia by Joxu’s best friend Tre, the ukulele can be used for a whole host of things. Through unlockable magical tunes called Soul Melodies, Tchia can affect the world around her, make new items or animals appear to give her the edge in exploration and combat. The ukulele also comes into play at some heart-warming story moments in the game, where you can play along to scripted songs.
When resting at a camp, you can also style up your Ukulele to suit you, with many options to customize it to your own personal taste.
For those who want to jam a little more freely, Tchia’s ukulele is fully playable, and you can experiment with an entire musical scale. Whether you want to play chords or a single string, bend notes, pluck or tweak your way to musical greatness – the choice is yours to play whatever you want! We are very excited to see what you do with this feature.
Soul-jumping
From the early days of developing Tchia, we always intended to make a game that felt like a toy-box. We designed Soul-jumping with that in mind. Soul-jumping is one of Tchia’s inherent powers and you’ll use this to take control of almost any item or animal you can find in the archipelago.
As we’ve already covered the Soul-jumping mechanics in detail in our latest video:
Here are some new animals you may not have seen yet that you can use to your advantage.
Seagulls
Birds overall offer one of the strongest traversal advantages in the game. This is also why they will eat your soul-meter quickly! Use their super accessible controls to fly over cliffs and get to your destination in a flash. And if you’re cheeky, you can use “R2” to dump a nasty surprise on unsuspecting inhabitants. Cows also allow you to do the same, but be careful, as their dung is a bit unstable due to the use of Soul-jumping and they tend to … explode!
Dolphins
Of all sea creatures you can possess in Tchia, dolphins are probably your fastest option… They can rush through the ocean if you sprint, and you can even do cool flips and other stunts when jumping out of the water. Fish are the best way to travel underwater and won’t be using the stamina you consume to hold your breath, giving you time to quickly scout your surroundings for valuable chests & pearls.
Dogs (or Boars!)
Most land animals have digging abilities, which can prove very valuable when looking for trinkets or other hidden surprises. They are also much faster than Tchia on foot should you need to cover a large area more quickly. Though cats can’t dig, they do have another special ability that we’ll let you discover for yourselves! We’re very proud of the sound effect we’ve prepared when you trigger their ability 😉
Crabs
Crabs are slow and don’t cover as much ground as the other animals, but they surely pack a pinch! Use their powerful pincers to snap locks off chests and get easier access to them!
Trinkets & Pearls
Trinkets and pearls are collectibles that you can find throughout the archipelago and play a critical role in the coutume – a Caledonian ceremony performed as a gesture of appreciation and respect for someone. Whenever you need to do offerings, or buy additional cosmetics, trinkets and pearls are almost always involved.
You will find a lot of them throughout your journey, and you can identify their locations by activating shouting spots, that will reveal more activities and collectibles around you.
Once you’ve collected enough of them, make your way to the nearest town or dock and see what kind of outfits or boat customization items you can unlock by spending them.
Camera
As you travel across the archipelago, you will meet many inhabitants who will help you on your journey. This is the case of Louise, a young girl from the village of Weliwele, that will give you a camera and ask you to take loads of pictures.
Tchia is all about finding joy in the little things, and the camera system makes no exception. It was created to emulate the super rewarding process of shooting on film. Select your lens, your film roll, and even set up a tripod with a self-timer to take a cool pose. As you’re shooting on film, you’ll have to find a place where you can develop your pictures and enjoy the surprise of finding out how accomplished a photographer you are.
A final word on accessibility
This was a last look at Tchia before it releases tomorrow, and we’re so grateful to everyone that has been with us throughout the development of our game. At the heart of Tchia is accessibility, and this is a philosophy that runs through the game in many ways.
All activities and challenges have been set up so that performance is always optional, and you don’t need skills to progress in the story. Should you get stuck, you will always have the possibility to skip a gameplay segment so that you can discover what lies next with ease. Plus, if you really want to, you can start your journey at any point in the story via the chapter selection menu, available right at the beginning of your adventure.
Tchia is a vibrant and colourful game inspired by New Caledonian culture. It’s a poetic coming of age story, but it also includes scenes that are not suitable for children. Therefore, if you want to play with your little ones, we recommend that you activate the “family mode”, that will automatically make some of the more violent or graphic scenes in the game suitable for the whole family.
We can’t wait for you to dive into Tchia! And remember, if you’d like to customize Tchia & her boat to the colours of the other Kepler Interactive games, you can purchase the Oléti Edition (or the Kepler Customization Pack) that includes outfits, ukulele & boat customization items from the games Sifu, Scorn, Flintlock & Cat Quest.
Hello, Tourist. Your next adventure awaits in the war-torn, walker-infested streets of New Orleans, with new threats, action-packed combat, and even more walkers. And then there’s the dreaded Axeman hell-bent on retribution.
To help you on your journey, our team at Skydance Interactive has prepared a survival guide for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution. The game releases on PlayStation VR2 tomorrow, March 21.
Pack for the trip
In The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, you’ve got to prepare for anything and everything. Unending herds of walkers, diabolical individuals plotting your every downfall, and an unrelenting, seemingly unstoppable Axeman, to name a few. You’ll face intense challenges every time you set foot outside of base camp, so you’ll need the right resources.
First, upgrade your inventory size as soon as you can. To do this, you’ll need to upgrade the Gear Station at base camp to Level 6, and from there you can obtain the “Deep Pockets” upgrade. This adds nine inventory slots to your backpack and an extra large slot to carry two-handed weapons (such as the coveted chainsaw). Increasing your inventory size will help you in the long run with crafting healing items, weapons and other necessary upgrades.
In addition, upgrading your armor will help protect you against the walkers and enemies you encounter on your missions. Explore the new catacombs near base camp and you’ll find a new Heaving Plating Armor recipe to craft.
Weapons are a given (more on that below), but the right food will replenish your health and stamina when you need it most. We recommend crafting your own food using the recipes available in-game; while eating a can of beans you found could help you in a pinch, there is the likelihood it’ll make you sick, and you’ll need to craft medicine to undo the effects of eating low quality food. Some of the best recipes you’ll want to try are beignets, gumbo, and jambalaya.
Lastly, pack enough bandages and medicine each time you venture out into the city to heal yourself when you’re caught in a bad spot. The new crafting tables at base camp feature upgrades which can make healing, low stamina and curing sickness a worry of the past.
Know your weaponry
You’ll encounter a variety of weapons to help in your battle against walkers, members of the Tower and other dangers lurking around every corner. As powerful as each weapon can be, it’ll be of no use if you don’t know how to use it to your advantage. The most important thing is to take your time with a new weapon, and understand your best way to reload it. Be sure to try it out on a few sparse walkers before you rely on it for a herd.
Some of the most powerful weapons have nasty weaknesses for balance reasons, so you’ll need to understand each weapon’s unique features. They may be great for cutting through a herd but horrible against humans, or very good at range but nightmarish in close quarters.
Noise and light are also a factor when you are trying to sneak around, so keep that in mind as you arm yourself for a sortie. Lastly, not all weapons are paragons of durability in the harsh climate of post-apocalyptic New Orleans, so my advice is to always pack a spare or two.
A few more words should be said about the extra layers of depth in interactions that you will experience moving from PS VR to PS VR2. The new Sense controllers make reloading, healing yourself and revving up a chainsaw extremely precise and tactile, so make sure you are ready for that feedback and finger tracking action.
Explore the world
It’s crucial to make use of anything you can scavenge in the world, so it pays to explore your surroundings whenever possible.
A key way to earn more loot is by completing missions for the Exile trade network. Sonny’s Pawn Shop is a great starting point to take on new missions, which open new options for gathering and crafting essential survival gear.
For Tourists who are undaunted by a challenge, clearing walker-infested areas will help you obtain the best gear. Naturally, we know you’d want to avoid walkers as much as possible, but Chapter 2: Retribution is all about high risk, high rewards. One area in this state is Old Town – clearing this area (and others like it) will unlock Exile trade missions and night mode exploration for that area, featuring even better loot.
Befriend the night
Exploring at night introduces a different way to play in the world of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and can be beneficial to your survival, as certain resources are more prominent at night. With night mode come new rules for scavenging and exploration, not to mention even more encounters with even larger amounts of walkers. Difficulty is high, but we promise, the reward is well worth it.
Your tactical flashlight will be useful here, and switching it to UV will reveal hidden information that will guide you through the darkness, as well as finding items that can only be found at night (such as key ingredients for one of the new crafting benches at base camp). You can also use flares to distract walkers and make your escape.
If you master night mode, you’ll find backpacks full of loot and essential scavenging materials for your crafting station.
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In The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, there are plenty of things in the world out to end you, but an even greater number of methods to survive your way. We hope these tips will help you as you continue your tour through New Orleans on PS VR 2 starting March 21. Good luck, Tourist.
