Asgards Wrath 2 Meta Quest 3 Review

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Fast Facts

A Groundbreaking VR Moment?

I never played Asgard’s Wrath but when an email turned up in my inbox with a chance to review the hotly anticipated sequel, I jumped at the chance. Luckily, Asgard’s Wrath 2 had a great re-cap at the start, so I hit the ground running. Asgards Wrath 2 is a massive action RPG, that quite simply put, is one of the most fleshed-out and immersive VR games I have ever played. It’s big, it’s bold and it, in my opinion, is a landmark title for the Quest 3 and the medium as a whole. Let’s dig in!

Asgards Wrath 2 follows on straight from the first game and has you taking revenge on Loki, the trickster for betraying you in the first game. You are freed from imprisonment and must take control of mortals, which in conjunction with them, take you long-awaited vengeance. This game loses the Norse mythology from the first game and has you thrust into the Egyptian pantheon, with all the sand, tombs and ankhs you can shake your sword at.

Effortless VR

The first thing that struck me while traversing Asgards Wrath 2’s open world was how effortless the traversal and mechanics were. Everything feels so well-made and so intuitive. We all know how messy and awkward some VR games can feel but Asgards Wrath 2 shows us how VR should be, effortless and natural. Everything I tried just worked. I never got bogged down by the usual VR nonsense and it was a pure joy to play.

Gameplay-wise, Asgards Wrath 2 feels to me like an Egyptian mixture of something like Skyrim, God of War and Zelda, even so, it has a lot of unique ideas of its own. There’s hand-to-hand combat, massive bosses, very clever puzzles and multiple characters to unlock, upgrade and master. Along with this, there are hours upon hours of content, shed-loads of weapons to wield and many, many secrets to find. Every mechanism went hand in hand to make exploration not only a joy but also rewarding.

Throughout this 100 or so hour game, yep, I said 100 hours, this game is as deep as they come. You will quest, sidequest, fish, play minigames and if I was to list all the extra stuff, I would honestly be here all day. There’s a hub to talk to NPC’s and animal companions to meet. I will be honest, even if this was a non-VR, flat video game, the pure content on offer is staggering. For VR, it’s virtually unheard of.

Tactile, Fast Paced Combat

Let’s start with the combat, which was visceral and extremely tactile. Not only that but it has a great progression to it as you and your tools get better together. Your combat skills improve as you upgrade yourself and find more weapons. As you learn all these things you get faster and more efficient at dispatching your foes and it is a joy to feel yourself get more powerful as the game progresses.

I must speak about the weapons for a little while as using them was so satisfying. I will not spoil too much though as I will only talk about some early weapons. Your axe, which reminded me heavily of Kratos’ axe from God of War, can be thrown at enemies or switches and then pulled back by pressing a button and pulling your hand back. It feels awesome to hit a switch and drag it back in quick succession before smashing a beastie in the face. Tasty!

Secondly, there’s a sword come whip weapon you get early on that I enjoyed swinging around. It’s solid but with a press of a button, it becomes loose and you can flail it around. You can also use it for swinging through the environment and pulling enemies out of the air, which never gets old. Doing this in VR feels great and only adds to the immersion and tactility of this game’s mechanics. VR combat, when done well is like nothing else and here it is done superbly. Blocks, weak points and more all get rolled into what is already a very tasty part of the game.

Secrets, Traversal and an Amazing World to Explore

I thoroughly revelled in the exploration and traversal in this game too. Finding little rooms and secret chests to open is great and sometimes involves a little puzzle or two. Even if it was just a few crafting materials it was still worth it. This game has a well of RPG and crafting mechanics that are a joy to tinker with. Each character has a massive skill tree and crafting options, there is always something to do and even though I have spent a massive amount of time in this amazing world. I feel there is still so much to find.

The puzzles in Asgards Wrath 2 were probably my favourite part. Especially the ones that have you swap between your human form and god form in the same puzzle. You use your massive god form to move environmental objects then use your smaller human form to traverse them, it’s so clever, so rewarding and I never tired of it. Each character you unlock also uses their abilities and weapons in great ways to do some of these puzzles too. It’s purely astonishing what this game achieves and it surprised me regularly, which I don’t say often enough about video games to be fair.

Graphically, while not being as stunning as some of the bigger VR headset titles, it is still a very pretty game. Everything is rendered brilliantly and looks crisp. I still find it mind-blowing that this is running on a stand-alone VR headset. It’s the same story with the soundwork too, the voice acting and music are both great and kept me immersed in this fantastical world.

The only downside to this truly staggering feat of VR entertainment is a few framerate hiccups and I did hit a bug once where I had to reset the game. This was never annoying though as it happened so rarely and never stopped me having fun. That’s what this game offers, fun around every corner and let’s be honest, that is what we are here for, aren’t we?

One of the finest VR Games on the Market

Purely put, if you have a Quest 3 headset, get off your bottom and go and get this game now. In fact, it was given away free with the purchase of the Meta Quest 3, so it’s worth checking that out too. As I said above, if this was a flat, 2d, non-VR title, it would be amazing. The fact it’s in VR, has so much content and works so amazingly is something to be applauded. What the developers of this game have achieved is nothing short of magical. Asgards Wrath 2 is unique, especially in the VR space and everyone, yes, everyone should at least give it a shot. Right, I’m off to chop off some lizard heads, laters VR players!

5 out of 5

5

If you would like to buy Asgards Wrath 2, you can on the Meta Store here.