Platforms: Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 (reviewed), Meta Quest Pro
Price: $59
Release Date: December 15, 2023
Genre: RPG
Launched as the first major exclusive for the Meta Quest 3, Asgard’s Wrath 2 has a heavy burden to shoulder. While it’s also playable on the previous generation of Quest headsets, it’s being positioned as a showcase for Meta's latest VR tech.
Remarkably, Asgard’s Wrath 2 doesn’t just serve as a taste of what the Meta Quest 3 can do, it’s a thoroughly rewarding experience in its own right. And one of the most content-rich VR games ever created. VR titles are often smaller in scale, but Asgard’s Wrath 2 is the opposite. If anything, this mythological RPG might be a little too big.
Fortunately, Asgard’s Wrath 2 doesn’t just ask you to complete the same repetitive tasks for dozens of hours. Things are kept fresh thanks to new gameplay elements and new modes appearing across its more than 100 hours of total playtime. Plus, the engaging RPG systems strongly incentivize you to explore everything Asgard’s Wrath 2 has to offer with meaningful upgrades and loot to discover across its vast levels.
Asgard’s Wrath 2 is being offered as a pack-in game to anybody who buys a Meta Quest 3 before January 27 which is a divine gift for early adopters. Read on to find out why Asgard’s Wrath 2 is the game that all Meta Quest 3 owners need to play right now.
A divine adventure
Picking up where its predecessor left off, you play a nameless celestial figure who has been betrayed by the trickster god Loki and imprisoned in an ethereal tavern with nothing to do but plot your revenge and drink copious amounts of mead. You’re soon freed and sent to ancient Egypt — making the Asgard part of the title fairly superfluous. This is where the adventure truly begins.
As an all-powerful being with the ability to possess morals, your journey sees you play as four unique characters each with individual skills and weapons. The main drive of the campaign is assisting these heroes with their personal quests and inching ever closer to a showdown with Loki.
It’s a solid setup for a fantasy RPG, and the switch to Egyptian mythological works well, but Asgard’s Wrath 2’s introduction is a little ponderous. The opening hours are primarily dedicated to a series of fairly tedious tutorials but push through and the game quickly opens up making the restrictive introduction easy to forgive.
Unfortunately, tedious is also an apt description for a lot of the storytelling in Asgard’s Wrath 2. All too often you’re subjected to lengthy dialogue sequences as quest-givers deliver dry monologues. After these are finished, you’re typically allowed to ask follow-up questions to learn even more ... but I usually declined.
Sword and sandals
Mercifully, there’s much more to Asgard’s Wrath 2 than standing around listening to dull speeches. Once you’re let loose on the game’s open levels, the real fun begins as the bland narrative takes a backseat and the engaging gameplay shines.
If you’ve ever wanted to feel like the hero of a fantasy adventure, then Asgard’s Wrath 2 will allow you to live out that particular dream. You’ll fight all manner of foes from sword-wielding humanoid lizards to scorpions that shoot poison projectiles from their stingers. And once you’ve carved through the game’s assortment of basic enemies, you’ll come face-to-face with colossal bosses that will have you craning your neck just to look at them in the eye.
In the early stages, combat is primarily melee-focused with a range of swords, axes and hammers at your disposal. Excessively swinging in random directions is an option on lower difficulties, but choose to play on hard mode and you’ll need to strategically slash at enemies while also blocking and parrying at the correct moments. Naturally, combat is more rewarding on hard, but players seeking a gleeful powertrip are also catered to with the ability to make encounters a breeze.
Much like Kratos’ axe in God of War Ragnarök, you can also throw and recall your armaments at will. While this move isn’t particularly effective for dealing significant damage, it’s so satisfying to perform that I still use it in every combat encounter almost without fail. Plus, you get access to more powerful ranged weapons as you progress.
A helping hand
You won’t just spend your time in Asgard’s Wrath 2 engaged in dramatic skirmishes with all manner of mythical creatures. Puzzle-solving is also a core pillar of the experience. And these brain teasers function as a much-needed breather in between combat gauntlets.
The solutions to the various progress blockers you’ll encounter range from relatively simple tasks like throwing your axe at a switch, to more involved puzzles that might have you scratching your head for multiple minutes. But frustration is avoided thanks to environmental clues that ensure you never get stuck for too long.
The most interesting and satisfying puzzles require you to return to your god form and view your surroundings from a top-down perspective. These puzzles can be fairly intricate as you manipulate the world as a deity, before returning to your mortal body to flip repositioned switches or run along freshly placed walls.
An epic adventure
It cannot be overstated how much there is to do in Asgard’s Wrath 2. While VR games can sometimes feel a little smaller in scale compared to traditional games, Asgard’s Wrath 2 is an RPG that competes with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla when it comes to the amount of content available to players.
Alongside the four campaigns, each with a different protagonist, there are dozens of side quests to complete. Some of these are your typical RPG fare — like collecting a set number of herbs for a merchant — but there are also more narrative-driven distractions that allow you to learn more about your followers.
If the lengthy main campaign, and the abundance of side quests and open-world secrets, weren't enough, there's also mini-games and an entirely separate rouge-like mode that could be its own game. These Uncharted Rifts unlock crafting items and loot for the main story, and give you a reason to return with new daily objectives.
There’s also a rewarding upgrade system that serves as a backbone to pretty much everything you do in Asgard’s Wrath 2. As you progress, you’re always getting stronger thanks to a deep skill tree and plenty of worthwhile loot. This makes all the distractions feel essential and ensures you don't skip side content along the way.
Not-so-heavenly visuals
Asgard’s Wrath 2's visuals don't stack up against some of the most impressive games on rival VR platforms. It’s not a graphical showcase for the hardware in the way that PSVR 2 launch exclusive Horizon: Call of the Mountain was for Sony's headset. However, this is understandable as the Meta Quest 3 is a standalone VR device that doesn’t require tethering to a powerful PC or gaming console.
In general, textures are fairly basic, and many of the environments are very repetitive with a lot of recycled assets. But that’s not to say that Asgard’s Wrath 2 is an ugly game. The scale of many boss battles is impressive, and the moments where you switch to your god form and view the world from a great height delighted me.
I’ve only played Asgard’s Wrath 2 on the Meta Quest 3 but I’m pleased to report that in my time with the game so far, I’ve encountered no significant bugs or glitches. I have spotted a few odd animations and your hands constantly clip through each other, but these are expected trade-offs found in most first-person VR games.
Asgard's Wrath 2 review: Verdict
Asgard’s Wrath 2 is a sprawling RPG with a scope many genre favorites can't compete with. When measured against rival VR games, there are few titles on any platform that can boast the same breadth of content. Even after several weeks of play, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of Asgard’s Wrath 2.
However, bigger doesn't always mean better, so it's fortunate that Asgard’s Wrath 2 isn’t just big, it’s also downright brilliant with exhilarating combat, satisfying puzzles and a deep upgrade system. The Meta Quest 3 is still finding its feet in the VR space, but Asgard’s Wrath 2 makes a compelling case to invest in the headset right now.
