Summary
- Asgard's Wrath 2 is a massive and ambitious VR game, with a bigger world, deeper RPG system, more side quests, and more combat.
- The game features story quests that are long and abundant, with each Saga feeling like an entire game in itself.
- While the gameplay and immersion are impressive, the physical strain of extended playtime and VR immersion may raise concerns about the practicality of such lengthy VR experiences.
I have been playing a lot of Asgard’s Wrath 2 over the last week. I was given about two weeks to play it for today's review which, to be fair to me, is not a lot of time to get through a 60-hour RPG (that's a 60-hour campaign, developer Sanzaru estimates the optional content pushes it over 120). I also 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:reviewed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora though (good game), which cut my time in half. I'll do the math for you, I would have needed to play around nine hours a day to finish this game on time for a launch day review.
I was actually making pretty good progress on the grind. I played from the moment I finished work until I went to bed each night, and all day last Saturday too, only stopping to eat and when my Quest 3’s low battery indicator demanded it. I felt pretty good when I finished up my session Tuesday night, having defeated the Saga 2 boss and ready to move into the game’s second character, a Naiad with some interesting fish powers. When I woke up Wednesday morning to get my game on, I immediately knew there was something wrong. my right arm was killing me and it was no wonder why: that's my swinging arm.
I pushed through, making significant progress yesterday and ending just past the halfway point in the story, but the pain has only gotten worse. I'm not about to tear a rotator cuff playing a video game, so while I rest up and apply ice, here's my review in progress for Asgard's Wrath 2.
Asgard's Wrath 2 Hands-On: I'm Loki Hyped For This
Sanzaru Games returns with another 60-hour VR epic that's even more packed than t൩he original.
Asgard's Wrath is regarded as the first full-length triple-A VR game, and as studios are often wont to do, the sequel is bigger and more ambitious. Asgard's Wrath 2 is a game that expands out it every direction. It boasts a bigger world to explore, a deeper gear and RPG system, more side quests, more mini-games, more loot, more characters, more story, and more combat. The more of it all is dizzying. I find myself in awe of Asgard's Wrath 2, and often perplexed by it. It is often more for the sake of more, and even considering the pressure of my time crunch, I'm not convinced that more is necessarily better.
If you've played the original, you'll find the structure of the sequel has changed significantly. Rather than one long linear path through the game, story quests are broken up by journeys through an open-world map where you can veer off on side quests, explore, and get your butt kicked by monsters that way out level you. You can farm upgrade materials or go fishing to cook stat-improving meals. You can hunt for treasure in caves or challenge a world boss-like monster for the ultimate loot - and each Saga has its own open world to explore.
It's not all that deep. Most caves are copy-pasted rooms with a couple of dudes to kill and a chest to open. Camps invite you to kill some dudes and then enter each tent to open a chest, which is kinda the same thing with more steps. Exploring and solving environmental puzzles is great, but the rewards mostly aren’t. Scaling a wall and gliding over a gap to reach a hidden chest, only to find there's a single leather scrap inside, does not make me feel like stopping to climb the other dozen walls I'll pass between here and my next main mission.
The story quests are, naturally, the real meat of the game, and by meat I mean an all you can eat carnivore buffet. Story missions are long journeys through dungeons filled with traps, puzzles, combat encounters, and sometimes boss fights, and while they evolve and build on each other in some ways, there's just so many of them. Saga 1 is the tutorial chapter that takes place entirely in one dungeon, but Saga 2 has at least six, with some outdoor segments in between each one. By the time I finished the last one I was starting to feel less like I was at a buffet and more like I was being force-fed like a French goose. Each Saga is an entire game, and there are seven Sagas.
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed conquering these dungeons a lot. Arabraxas, the character you play as in the first two Saga’s, is Ancient Egypt’s Tomb Raider who wields some familiar, but unique tools for solving puzzles and fighting monsters. He is, to put it simply, an expert at throwing stuff. His ax can be thrown and recalled like the Leviathan ax, but it can also be redirected in mid-air with a gesture, or even redirected once it's already embedded in something - useful for hitting multiple enemies or redirecting moving objects to solve puzzles. He’s got a shield he can throw Captain America-style, which can be enhanced to bounce between enemies, and he’s got a sword he can throw, or transform it into a whip that can be used to grapple onto enemies or leap across gaps. The vast majority of my time with Abraxas was spent winding up and overhand throwing things - hence the repetitive motion injury.
The first two chapters are definitely doing their best God of War impression, but the interactions available to VR make Abraxas more than just Egyptian Kratos. To pro𝓰gress through each room of a dungeon you’ll need to combine tools and mobility in a lot of creative ways. One room might ask you to throw your ax at three switches to open a timed door, then wall run over a pit of spikes, switch to your sword, jump off the wall, and grapple the rest of the way over the gap before a saw blade cuts you in half. There are platforming sequences that are so demanding you’ll think there’s no way you can pull off that many precision moves, but it feels incredibly satisfying when you eventually conquer them, because it feels like you actually did those amazing stunts.
PowerWash Simulator VR Review - With Great Power Comes Great Re-Was💎hability
Now if only I could wash away the eye strain.
It all works well to create an engrossing sense of adventure, until it doesn’t, and I start to wonder if this is really the best way to experience virtual reality. On the one hand, yes of course it is. What's a better way to create a sense of immersion than a long campaign that requires extended play time so you can really feel like you’re in this character’s shoes, living in their world. Even a sore arm is part of the immersion! Sure you see how busted Kratos gets by the end of Ragnarok, but you don’t get to feel the damage done to him. My guy is going through i💛t physically and I’m right there with him.
But on the other hand, I’m exhausted. I take off my headset after an all day play session and I don’t even know how to act like a normal person. My eyes hurt, my arms hurt, I’🉐m a little shaky on my feet, and I’m looking around my condo for breakables and grapple points. The Quest 3 battery barely lasts 90 minutes on its own, it’s clearly not designed for 120 hour epics. While w𓆉e look ahead to how VR can evolve to fit into our lives, I’m not so sure Skyrim-sized games are it.
I’ve got at least 30 more hours to go and two more characters to get into, so I’ll withhold giving Asgard’s Wrath 2 a score until then. So far, I’m incredibly impressed with the ambition and scope of AW2. There’s nothing else like it in VR, and I’ve had more than a few incredible experiences throughout the 30 hours I’ve put into it so far. It’s worth mentioning that this monstrosity is free for all Quest 3 🥂owners, so no risk is trying it out yourself… unless, you know, you throw your arm out.
