The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Factions - The Tower
The waterlogged and zombie infested world of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is filled with living people. People fighting and struggling to survive even after a year of trying to live in a world where everything is upside down, even the cycle of life and death. In the city of New Orleans most of these people are part of one of two societies. That of the Tower, or that of the Reclaimed. Those lost souls that are left to fend for themselves and are considered doomed to become another member of the hordes of the dead which roam the city streets are called “Exiles”.
Let’s start with the group that most would likely consider to be the most heinous of them all. The Tower.
A Tower Made of Sand
The Tower began as a large group of survivors with the standard zombie apocalypse dream. Find a defensible place with enough room to house a lot of people and supplies, and make it safe. So they chose a large skyscraper in the business district and got to work. Many of them died while cleaning their new home of the undead. Now those who perished during the founding of The Tower are martyrs in a mythically poignant founding story. They are the dead half of the Romulus and Remus which founded their society. A society that the Romulus of the story, a Haitian woman called Mama, so quickly turned into an authoritarian society.
Even with a secure home things were not easy. People desperate for any kind of security flocked to the new safe haven. The Tower inevitably had a strain on resources, and so sent patrols all over New Orleans to gather what was needed. The strain became greater and greater as the population grew. Though Mama was powerful she had a great burden to a great many people, and so quotas on supplies had to begin. Those quotas, if not met, would likely result in harsh punishments from a leader who felt a great obligation to feed her people. So, inevitably, corners were cut to meet those quotas. A group of hunters put human meat on the menu to make ends meet and numbers add up to the correct amount.
They were caught when the human meat caused an outbreak of disease that killed many, and so the hand of control had to tighten. It tightened into a society of secret policepersons. After the cannibals were sentenced to death, paranoia began to reign. People caught going against Mama’s will were either exiled, a fate many considered akin to death, or simply killed by forcing them to walk off of the heights of the skyscraper itself. That is how The Tourist meets The Tower. As a desperate regime that becomes more brutal by the day, and mostly to its own members, but also as the most powerful and omnipresent force in New Orleans. Other than the dead themselves, of course.
The Tower is the ultimate representation of the order that is created in trying times of interregnum. Brutal because it has to be, and when times get tough even more brutal. All in a vain attempt to hold on to order in a world thrown into chaos. Mama might have been a good leader, but she stepped down when things became too difficult, and her right hand woman Georgia took over. It was likely Georgia who encouraged such harsh measures in order to keep control. While not stated explicitly, Georgia’s will seems to have overtaken Mama’s own, and the strain was too much for the old woman, so she secluded herself. While it seemed that Mama was the one imposing harsh laws, in reality it was likely Georgia’s bloodlust and desire for absolute control that caused those orders to be given.
It is by Georgia’s hand that The Tower becomes the Stalinist society of snitches that it does. Closed off to outsiders and quick to use force against any threat internal or external. Georgia encourages even harsher measures as the game’s story goes on. Those thought to be weak are thrown out, not worth resources which are becoming more scarce. No more exiles, just execute those who dissent. Do not simply ignore Exiles. Kill all of them in an area before they become a threat, or join The Reclaimed.
The Tourist vs. The Tower
The Tower’s patrols are well armed, organized, and numerous. So they are naturally a suitable enemy for The Tourist. Throughout the game The Tourist is forced into conflict with The Tower in order to gain access to The Reserve, via the auspices of May, who will be discussed more later. Even if the player, as The Tourist, feels no disgust or hatred to The Tower by learning of their atrocities, or is convinced of the necessity of their harsh stance by reading their propaganda posters, they are forced to infiltrate Tower strongholds. Unless they sympathize with the tower so much that they kill May, who sends them against The Tower in exchange for good opportunities to steal supplies and weapons. In the Aftershocks DLC it is even harder to avoid fighting The Tower, as they are the main opponent guarding multiple Reserve caches. It seems that conflict with The Tower is inevitable for The Tourist.
It may not be impossible to never fight The Tower without killing May, but if it is it would be damn hard, and require sneaking around their guards in order to steal the objective. It is much simpler to fight them, and at the end of the day feel some comfort in knowing that the people who were killed likely would have stabbed their own family members just to stay safe. Those are the people that remain in The Tower. Those ruthless enough to do anything for survival, or those physically strong enough to be accepted, but weak enough to not want to strike out alone no matter what they are told to do.
Conclusion
Georgia’s brutality is easy to hate when taken at face value. It is easy to judge such actions on moral grounds when playing a game in comfort, for relaxation. It is easy to not think of the pervasive fear that must accompany a world gone to hell, and the desire of regular people who simply want security so badly that they will trust someone who is clearly a ruthless despot in order to get it. It is unfortunate that Georgia’s ideology is simply not suited to longevity. Such a system inevitably collapses sooner rather than later, because fear of being executed overcomes fear of the undead chaos that lurks outside those walls. One day those walls may seem more of a cage to be escaped from than a bulwark of safety. It was that fear that lead to the creation of The Reclaimed.
See our article on The Reclaimed for more on the factions of New Orleans in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. They are The Tower’s worst enemy, and also a product of its own beliefs.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is available on Steam for 39.99$. It is also available on the Oculus Store for 39.99$. This is one of the best Virtual Reality experiences out there right now, with extremely polished survival gameplay and a compelling story. Not to mention an unmatched melee combat system, focusing on piercing the skull of course, because zombies. If you like zombie games then this is one you should not miss. Even if you aren’t a huge zombie culture fan, this is a game that is well worth its price tag for even a single playthrough. There’s even an Arena Survival Mode, and more free updates.