Asgard's Wrath 2

How long can you live on past achievements? When it comes to VR, the answer is quite long. Every time it is claimed that Virtual Reality as a concept is dead, we counter with "But what about Half-Life: Alyx? Astrobot?" Two games that have more or less carried the fate of the entire medium for too many years now. Sure, there are plenty of good VR titles, like Moss, Beat Sabre, Tetris Effect, Super Hot and so on, but apart from VR versions of existing big games like Skyrim, Resident Evil and No Mans Sky, the real full-length games are missing. The AAA titles with double-digit playing hours that impress with scale, graphics and sound. This is especially true of Meta.

Where PC VR and Sony PSVR have their two flagships to fall back on, there has been no equivalent for standalone headsets, like Meta Quest. They've mostly had to settle for glorified tech demos, which admittedly impressed from time to time during their short playtime, but with Asgard's Wrath 2 that changes completely. We're not only talking about one of the best and biggest VR games ever released, but also one of the sharpest role-playing adventures I've had the pleasure of playing, regardless of format. It's the new generation's long-awaited killer app, and in the long run it may also be the game that gets more developers to invest in the medium.

However, I was somewhat puzzled when I started the game for the first time. It was bundled with my Meta Quest 3 and certainly it can feel a little strange that you choose to add a sequel to a game that has only been available for PC VR (Oculus Rift) before and thus probably now reaches a completely new audience, but I had no problem with it. There is even a small summary at the beginning that you can click on if you want. Mostly for lore I would say. This is not a complicated story. Find Loki and defeat him before he destroys the universe. That's it. I myself am taking on the role of a so-called Cosmic Guardian with the possibility of adopting four different forms of protagonist, all with their own strengths, weaknesses and not least peculiarities and to succeed in my noble mission I need to recruit competent warriors and help the Egyptian gods who are scattered all over the land.

Setting an open game world in ancient Egypt has been a success factor for many game developers over the years and Asgard's Wrath 2 continues that trend by throwing gods and mythological creatures at me in a never-ending stream of satisfying battles. There's a bit of a learning curve, as in most games, but soon I've mastered both sword and bow and everything in between and I may not be dancing along the dunes with the most graceful of footsteps but I feel powerful, strong and ready for anything and that's the important thing here. Until I come face to face with the first boss just a few hours in, that is. I've seen big bosses before but nothing like this and I'm certainly not cocky as I stand there staring at an enemy so huge I don't know where to start attacking. To be honest, I barely know where the creature begins and ends. A winged beast that is so close to my face that I can almost feel the wind in my hair, but I just have to go for it and hope for the best.

The combat is fast and dynamic. Sure, I can miss the feeling of real weight when I'm swinging a sword or throwing an axe but that's not a problem of Asgard's Wrath 2 but the technology itself, it's not quite there yet and hopefully there will be a solution to that in the future. But every duel has a life of its own. Partly because the different characters come with their own unique weapons and play styles but also because I am faced with an impressively large number of enemies, although there is unfortunately some repetition in all the wrong places, without spoiling anything.

However, throwing my Leviathan-like axe into the head of a hideous beast and then summoning it back for double damage never gets boring. It's just as satisfying every time, but it's not just meat and potatoes either. Sure, offence is often the best defence, but sometimes going full throttle is tantamount to signing your own death warrant. It's not quite FromSoftware levels in terms of difficulty but it's undeniably challenging. By carefully studying my opponents, the chances of survival increase significantly. Parrying with the sword and blocking with the shield has helped me many times when the sand has turned red at my sandal-clad feet. What is also gratifying is that I usually only encounter one or two enemies at a time and thus do not have to swing wildly around hoping to hit something. Even though the pace is fast, I still have time to think and plan my attacks or defence.

Now it may sound like it's just one long fighting simulator but nothing could be further from the truth. There's plenty to do and discover in Asgard's Wrath 2. It's not a completely open game world, but it's close, and it's filled with puzzles I have to solve in God mode, which is exactly what it sounds like. Me, in an impressively godlike form. There are, of course, lots of exciting places to explore. All with their own challenges. From scorpion-filled caves to Zelda-style underwater temples. I always have my recruits to help me and they are not just any recruits, they can also take other forms but in their case they are animals. Which makes me happy as a gamer because I can actually ride them and it is not only an experience in itself but also a great way to travel through the vast desert landscape. The role-playing elements are also surprisingly deep. I can go fishing, cooking, hunting for treasure and materials to upgrade my weapons and armour and when I get my hard-earned experience points I spend them on different abilities to get better. I can also choose to upgrade my companions to make them even more useful. There are also community events to participate in if you're in the mood.

Asgard's Wrath 2 is an extraordinary experience, but it has to be experienced. You have to stand there with virtual sword in hand and see it with your own eyes. There is no way to explain exactly how magnificent it is no matter how many superlatives I use. It's the biggest VR game to date with 60 glorious hours of main story and at least double that if you want to do everything and you will. In fact, as soon as I was forced back into the real world, I just wanted to go back. Immediately. I don't want to be here with an alarm clock, laundry time, lunch box, mortgage payments and snow shovelling. No, give me the sword, the bow and the axe and I can stay forever. It's not a perfect game. There are repetitive sequences and some graphical elements don't hold up but as a VR game it's unprecedented and could have even been better when developed for Meta Quest 2 and I can't imagine how good this would have been if it had actually been released optimised for Quest 3.