“Wrath of Asgard”, which was released on the Oculus Rift platform in October 2019, once amazed VR users. With its excellent graphics performance, epic epic plot and rich gameplay, the game quickly became popular among VR users. It has become one of the representative works in the field of VR games and has been nominated and recognized by authoritative awards such as TGA and DICE. Developer Sanzaru Games was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) in February 2020 after many successful cooperations with Oculus Studio.
Sanzaru Games, which has received more sufficient financial and technical support, began to work hard to create new games targeting AAA VR games. It was not until the Meta Game Show in June 2023 that “Wrath of Asgard 2” was officially released. It was later announced that it would be bundled with the new generation consumer VR headset Quest 3, becoming a major tool for its initial promotion.
Can this sequel, which has been released for 4 years, be worthy of the title of “AAA VR masterpiece”? After a long period of experience, the author can already give a conclusion:The content volume and overall quality of “Asgard’s Wrath 2” have raised the ceiling of current all-in-one VR games and set a new benchmark for AAA VR games.The following is a detailed review (Note: This review is based on Quest 3, and enhancement patches have been installed.)
Picture source: VR gyroscope
The collision of mythological systems creates a magnificent epic feeling
“Wrath of Asgard” uses Norse mythology as the story background, and the scenes are magnificent and grand, which is easily reminiscent of the well-known IP “God of War” series in the gaming industry. The plot of “Asgard’s Wrath 2” continues the ending of the previous game. The protagonist was betrayed by the “God of Trickery” Loki and traveled to the Egyptian underworld. Therefore, the plot of the second generation also introduced ancient Egyptian mythology.
The new mythology system brings an exotic style to the characters and scenes that is different from the previous work. The style span is wider and it also achieves a good integration. In the “mythical realm” of the second generation, there is both “Muspelheim”, the land of fire in Norse mythology, where the fire giants who caused Ragnarok gather, and “The Duat”, the underworld of Egyptian mythology. The jackal-headed god Anubis judges the dead here with a scale that weighs the heart; the “middle world” where the three goddesses of destiny are located is an independent space that enters different modes…
The mythological scenes are grand and exquisite, and are worth stopping to watch carefully while fighting and solving puzzles. The animation performances in the plot are also majestic and majestic, and it is full of oppression when tall gods and monsters appear in front of you.
The pictures are full of fascinating ancient Egyptian-style architecture. (Image source: Sanzaru Games)
A substantial and huge open world, realized in VR
“Creating an open world in VR” has always been a question that developers have repeatedly considered, because on the one hand, they have to consider the hardware performance and game quality of the all-in-one VR machine, and on the other hand, an open world with insufficient content will have a negative impact on the experience—— The seemingly huge but actually empty virtual world presented by many products under the banner of “Metaverse” is a typical counterexample.
“Assassin’s Creed”, one of the representatives of open world 3A games, chose a relatively tricky approach when launching the VR version. Ubisoft presented the game world in the form of a reduced-scale “level system + open box garden”, and it did a pretty good job. –Related Reading:“Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR” first review: 200 million sales IP brings a leap of faith to AAA VR games
Sanzaru Games has positioned “Wrath of Asgard 2” directly against current console/PC games. Even if it has to be backward compatible with Quest 2, it has not shrunk in the scale of the open world at all. In fact, there is still a “region-changing disk reading” in this game, which is not completely seamless, but it basically does not have much impact on the experience.
The map of the “Great Sand Sea” is breathtaking in its vastness. (Image source: Sanzaru Games)
At the beginning of the game, players have to move up from the interior of the “Temple of Atum” with a rich Egyptian architectural style. The scene is filled with pharaoh statues, mummy coffins and deadly mechanisms. The process of interspersed teaching is also linear. When the plot advances to Chapter 2, the vast “Big Sand Sea” suddenly opens up the explorable area, giving VR players the shock of the “Billion Points” open world——
Looking up, you can see many statues and buildings in the endless desert under the starry sky. In the distance, there is a giant beast dragging a burning torch tower slowly moving. After the “huge” first impression, there will be an even greater impact, because players will later find that almost everywhere they look is a game area that can be reached and explored, ranging from temples to caves. , as small as a camping tent, and even the moving giant beast can climb on it!
The production team has set up many places to explore and hidden secrets on this huge map, enriching the content of the game world. The main storyline + side tasks are intertwined to form the core of “Wrath of Asgard 2”. process.
In addition to the common teleportation point mechanism in the open world, the riding system can also be used to move quickly on this huge map. (Image source: Sanzaru Games)
The open world is supplemented by RPG growth elements, which jointly expands the length of the game. The materials collected by players can be used to make props and transform equipment, and the points earned when upgrading characters can unlock richer abilities in the skill tree. Game time will be spent unconsciously in the activities of collecting materials such as hunting, fishing, mining, etc., as well as in the process of exploring scenes and fighting.
The Mythical Realm “Middle World” also designed a Rogue-lite dungeon mode “Unknown Rift”, which allows you to explore in a maze full of randomness, and the rewards you receive can be brought back to the main mode… Officially stated “” The statement that “Asgard’s Wrath 2 can be played for 60 hours” is not an exaggeration at all. The actual game time is only a lot longer. You must know that the clearance time of the recognized “VR masterpiece” “Half-Life: Alyx” is about 15 hours. Of course, the latter is a purely linear process.
Continuing the special mechanism and always keeping it fresh
“Wrath of Asgard 2” inherits the two major features of the previous game – using the power of gods to control mortal heroes of flesh and blood, using their exclusive weapons and skills to fight; transforming brave animals into loyal followers, Help yourself solve puzzles and fight off enemies.
Players can use different types of weapons when they possess the hero and fight. For example, an ax can be thrown as a long-range weapon to hit the enemy, and then use divine power to make it fly back into the hand – very similar to Kratos in the new “God of War”; the sword can be thrown out and transformed into a long whip, which can be used to draw enemies closer or Make yourself fly far away; waving your claws will give you a sense of sight like Wolverine in “X-Men”… There are many ways to use weapons, and they can be combined to achieve combos.
The weapons and performance of the operable heroes have their own characteristics. For example, the first hero Abraxas is a very orthodox warrior type, and his playing style is close to the traditional VR sword fighting ACT; while the available weapons of the female hero Cyrene are all living magical creatures, so her The playing style and operating feel will also be completely different.
Make reasonable use of weapon characteristics to expose the enemy’s weaknesses. (Image source: Sanzaru Games)
The core of effective combat is to expose the enemy’s weaknesses and then strike hard at them. The rhythm of combat and the richness of play styles have been significantly improved compared to the first generation. Since enemies have a level concept, weapon upgrades and elemental enchantments are also extremely important. They do not rely solely on tactics, but also need to focus on numerical improvement and performance building.
In addition to actively attacking enemies and assisting players during battle, animal followers can also be transformed into mounts to move quickly around the map. Players can also high-five, interact with, or give food to their followers. The 4 mortal heroes and 5 animal followers all have their own independent skill trees. As the level increases, the tactics will become more diverse, so the growth is also exciting.
The enemy AI is also a highlight of the combat part. Not only will they cooperate with each other in combat, but if the player repeatedly uses the same move, such as throwing an axe, the opponent will find a way to break it after a few times. The combat feel is probably one of the few flaws in this game. Although there is a “broken limb” special effect in the game, when the weapon hits the enemy, it still feels refreshing but the impact is slightly lacking. It is also difficult to distinguish when the enemy and the enemy attack at the same time. But overall, the flaws outweigh the flaws.
Animal followers controlled by AI are the player’s most powerful assistants. (Image source: Sanzaru Games)
The large-scale puzzles in “Wrath of Asgard 2” are designed very boldly, with one person and one god complementing each other and cooperating with each other. Players can break away from their mortal bodies, view the scene from a “god’s” perspective, and manipulate some large-scale mechanisms; when they need to perform micro-manipulation, they can return to their mortal heroes and enter a narrow area to complete the operation alone. Such large puzzles often take a certain amount of time, but once completed, they will bring a strong sense of accomplishment.
In some small puzzles, the characteristics of human heroes and animal followers will be fully utilized. Scene mechanisms, weapons such as axes, and the special abilities of followers will become part of the puzzle-solving mechanism. Many mechanisms will also test the operation to a certain extent. . In addition to scene expansion, constantly injecting new elements into the game through new characters, new followers, and new skills is an important reason for keeping players fresh throughout the long process.
This game has also specially set up a projection prop, allowing players to put down their avatars anywhere in the scene and choose different postures as prompts or greetings… These avatars will be synchronized globally during online games, similar to “Darkness” The player message system in the “Soul” series is a light social link, which makes the exploration process even better.
A large-scale puzzle operated from a god’s perspective. (Image source: Sanzaru Games)
In 2023, 3A VR games will grow steadily
For a long time, when people talk about AAA-level masterpieces in the field of VR games, they will always use “Half-Life: Alyx” released in 2020 as the benchmark. It is true that “Alyx” has raised the ceiling of VR game experience with almost no cost investment, but with VR’s current limited market and the growing cost of AAA games, it is difficult for third-party developers to be willing to spend huge sums of money. Investment is one of the reasons why the development of VR games is slow.
However, in 2023, the industry will show a healthy development trend:
- With the release of PS VR2, Sony’s studios have presented exclusive masterpieces such as “Call of the Horizon” and “Gran Turismo 7” VR mode. The vibration of the head display and the excellent feel of the Sense controller have further enhanced the immersion. ;
- The advent of Meta Quest 3 not only brought landmark works such as “Wrath of Asgard 2”, the performance improvement of VR all-in-one machines and the expansion of MR scenes will create more possibilities for future games;
- Among third-party manufacturers, Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR” successfully brought this classic IP into the VR field. Capcom’s “Resident Evil 8 Village” and “Resident Evil 4 Remake” are not native VR games, but they are both extremely popular. High-quality VR mode attracts more new VR users…
A week after “Wrath of Asgard 2” was launched, the production team launched a picture optimization patch for Quest 3 that enhanced rendering and a 90Hz refresh rate. The only pity is that it does not have official Chinese subtitles, and the huge amount of text is not suitable for the plot. Domestic players have created a certain experience threshold – if Tencent’s business as an agent for Quest can be implemented in the future, I believe there is hope for improvements in Chinese culture.
The content volume and comprehensive quality of this game are undoubtedly at the top level among stand-alone VR games, and are enough to compete with 3A masterpieces on traditional platforms. Sanzaru Games has not only delivered an excellent answer to VR users, but also a more exciting VR game in 2023. The gaming world has come to a successful end.
Image source: Sanzaru Games
