It’s never occurred to me before, but VR games don’t typically have cutscenes. I’ve played close to 100 VR games over the last five years and I can’t think of a single one - outsi🐈de of ports like Skyrim and Resident Evil Village - that has act🌃ual, conventional cutscenes.
It’s easy to see why. Cutscenes are expensive to produce and VR budgets, even for the big games, are still very modest. They also risk breaking immersion. Removing you from your character's perspective or otherwise locking you out of interactions in order to show a cutscene is inherently counter to a lot of virtual reality’s goals. Games like Half-Life: Alyx side-step the issue by incorporating cinematic moments into the gameplay - something the Half-Life series has always been known for - but true cutscenes are extraordinarily uncommon in VR.
Asgard’s Wrath 2, Sanzaru’s new massive action RPG, is full of them. You’ll run into your first cuts🏅cene before even starting the game if you watch the recap of the original game, which takes you on a guided tour through the events of Asgard’s Wrath in a dream-like montage, riding on the back of a griffin as you watch key moments. It’s an inventive way to present a cinematic, and there are many more examples of creative cutscenes throughout the ga✤me.
Asgard's Wrath 2 Review Is Delayed Because I Can't Play VR Without Hurting Myself
Asgard's Wrath 2 is a behemoth VR game that𒊎 pulls you in a wears you o🌸ut.
Each of the four playable characters are introduced with a cutscene that are all framed the same way. From your omniscient god point o♌f view, you’re watching a mortal perform a heroic feat. The first character, Abraxasಞ, is sprinting through a trap-filled dungeon in order to retrieve a treasure hidden within. As he runs on walls, dodges swinging axes, and narrowly avoids getting crushed by stones, the camera follows behind him in a locked tracking shot.
It’s sort of like watching someone else🌞 play a third-person game, but it maintains a sense of presence that only VR can. It’s incredible how much the scene accomplishes while also just being a blast to watch. It tells you who Abraxas is, shows off 🐷the kind of competent adventurer he is (and that you’ll get to be) and also introduces his assortment of weapons and tools. Crucially, it also includes you in the scene, not just as a viewer but as a participant.
Much of Asgard’s Wrath 2 plays with dual perspectives. Many of its best puzzles require you to swap back and forth between your godly form and the mortal you possess in order to solve problems using each other's unique point of view. The hero intro cutscenes also play into this duality. As Abraxas parkours and scrambles around obstacles, escaping death with each precision move he makes, you casually glide behind him, uninhibited by earthly threats. When two walls smash together just as Abraxas slides between them, you feel a sense of relief for his safety. It’s of no consequence that the walls smashed together right on your ethereal head. These cutscenes are as unique to Asgard’s Wrath 2 as they are to VR itself.
There are also spectacular cinematic moments in Asgard's Wrath 2 that are not cutscenes but still stand out. In particular, the siege on Set in the final chapter is akin to a playable action-fantasy movie sequence.
There’s one other major cutscene that blew me away, but for very different reasons. Saga IV is the mid-way point in the story and unfolds almost entirely as a cutscene interlude. The Egyptian g𓆉od Set ambushes Horus in the stronghold and the two engage in a prolonged, 360-degree fight sequence. While you are locked in the center of the room, Horus fends off Set as he teleports all around you, executing sneak attack after sneak attack. It’s a ballet of strikes and blows that’s perfectly choreographed to be experienced in full panorama.
What’s most remarkable about it is the way it maintains the freedom and immersion of VR while directing the viewer towards the action,ꦗ making it both a cutscene and an active experience for the viewer. It eventually escalates to a point where there is more happening ‘on screen’ than you could possibly see at once, creating an organic, submerging quality that’s only really possible in VR. There’s a lot of mind-blowing things about Asgard’s Wrath 2, but its approach to cutscenes is something the entire industry can learn a lot from.
