I Hate Sand
HIGH Dismembering foes like a sword-swinging badass.
LOW Every single time Abraxas opens his mouth.
WTF No brightness slider in a modern triple-A game? Are you kidding?
In the grand scheme of things, Asgard’s Wrath 2 is being positioned as more than just a regular release. Developer Sanzaru Games are hoping that they can achieve a full-on, triple-A tier, expansive VR experience on a wireless, portable headset. Of course, the question is whether it lives up to those lofty ambitions?
Sometimes it does, when not fumbling basics that I thought we (as an industry) had solved over a decade ago. There’s definitely something compelling to this mythological first-person brawler, but it’s hard to say whether it’s worth the patience required to see it through to the end.
Asgard’s Wrath 2 is a direct continuation of the prior game, picking up right where the original left off. Players begin trapped in a magical pub-slash-prison.
For those who want to know the backstory of how they ended up trapped, they can play through the original – it’s bundled for free with every copy of the sequel. That said, players will need a VR-capable PC, storage for the overwhelming 142.77 gigabyte (!!!) install, and a link cable long enough for their Quest. I’ve no idea why it’s so large an install, but it’s something to bear in mind for those who wish to experience the entire story firsthand.
Otherwise, players can dive straight in or experience a ‘TL;DR’ retelling. Here’s the even shorter version – Loki tricked the player’s customized god, left them for dead, and is now mucking about in Egypt. The player must get revenge while also aligning with Horus and his insurgency as they oppose a tyrannical usurper of their own.
Slicing and dicing in first-person is as simple as swinging an arm around, and weapons naturally collide with each other, as well as objects in the environment. Players can possess one of four human champions, starting with the tomb raider Abraxas – easily the most irritating man in all of Egypt. Seriously, mute the voice acting whenever he starts talking. He has nothing useful to say, and he goes to great lengths to demonstrate that. On the upside, he has a cool whip-sword and magical throwing scythe, each of which can aid in traversal and puzzles. He’s also completely silent in a roguelite bonus mode!
Combat starts off fairly basic, but does gain some depth later on. For example, dual-wielding and unleashing special attacks require specific gestures to trigger. There’s also the ability to summon weapons back with a flick of the wrist (used later for some cool puzzles) and sections where players leave their champion’s body to solve puzzles that are room-sized, manipulating things with their ‘divine’ hands. It may be a gimmick, but it’s a good one!
There’s also graceful wall-running, mantling, climbing, and intuitive puzzles to solve. Pairing these with champion-specific movement abilities leads to some great navigational setpieces. I particularly enjoyed this after trimming back all the motion-sickness safeguards, which allowed me to naturally dodge traps fluidly. Honestly, I think Sanzaru might be better off leaning into traversal than brawling. It’s not that their combat is bad, but the graceful movement is more satisfying.
For instance, Asgard’s Wrath 2 emphasizes enemy numbers instead of maintaining quality for each duel. I soon stopped worrying about finesse, and instead started hacking away at enemies as quickly as I could. As it turns out, there’s little, if any, consequence for being sloppy, and there were times when I was rewarded for it by blocking enemy attacks I shouldn’t have been deflecting.
While the combat needs a bit of a tweak, what’s more troubling is how Asgard’s Wrath 2 betrays itself with other, more questionable design decisions.
I sometimes found myself standing still for close to ten minutes during cutscenes, and boy howdy does Asgard’s Wrath 2 love to wax on… and on… and on… which is an issue since the story isn’t the selling point here, and none of the characters inspire a modicum of interest. They’re not all as bad as Abraxas, and I appreciate the inclusive cast – the primary shop owner is even nonbinary! However, what they lack is quality writing that makes you care. The capable voice actors have so little to work with, and I’m unclear as to what the overall tone was supposed to be, even more than a dozen hours in.
Even with that said, I could forgive so much of this if Sanzaru hadn’t fumbled so many quality-of-life touches that were solved as far back as the PlayStation 2. I’m talking about very simple additions like: offering the player options for auto-looting, auto-equipping, a brightness slider, an intuitive pause menu, or a sell-all function for useless loot.
There’s also often a secret, simpler, one-button way to do something like consuming a healing item, but instead the tutorials teach a more convoluted and contrived method. It’s not more immersive to summon an item from a menu and reach into it to grab a health potion than it is to just hit A and get back in the fight. Sometimes the simplest option really is the best one. Here’s the thing though – a lot of these issues are fixable, so hopefully a future patch addresses them. Regardless, I can’t pretend it isn’t extremely weird that in the year 2024 I had to write “desperately needs a brightness slider” in my notes.
Between missions, players can hang out with their Egyptian deity buddies in an elaborate stone tower with stores, sidequests, and little bits of exposition to flesh out the world. Navigating the tower is a breeze, and has teleport points for players with weaker VR stomachs. The only aspect that’s truly bizarre is requiring players climb up and down a chain to reach their bedroom. Sure, it’s neat that climbing works smoothly, but since there’s a loading screen between both rooms anyway, why the extra input?
Asgard’s Wrath 2 would be an enjoyable thrill-ride if it could only get out of its own way, yet every highlight was drowned out by missteps. Players new to VR gaming are likely to be quite impressed, but as someone who’s been into VR for a while, it’s tough to see past the problems and enjoy the parts that pop.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Sanzaru Games and published by Oculus Studios. It is currently available on Quest 2/3/Pro. This copy of Asgard’s Wrath 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the Quest 3. Approximately 12 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign, and it was not completed.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Violence, Blood, Partial Nudity, and Use of Alcohol. The nudity is in no way sexual and is fairly minimal. The alcohol is purely aesthetic — the player can ‘drink’ it but there’s barely any sign of intoxication to indicate the nature of the drink. The only truly M-worthy aspect is gore, as players can decapitate and lop limbs off of enemies. However, it’s all done in a tame, more cartoonish fashion with PS2-era throwback aesthetics. Blood is also typically depicted as glowing orange. If your kid is old enough to watch The Lord of the Rings, then they should be fine with this. There’s hardly even any swearing.
Colorblind modes: colorblind modes are available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, as well as an arrow indicating off-screen enemies, and visual indicators for incoming enemy ranged attacks. Multiple other settings can be adjusted. I believe this game would be fully accessible.
Remappable controls: This game offers partially remappable controls, including selecting the dominant hand.
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