This year’s Meta Quest Gaming Showcase revealed dozens of upcoming releases along with the announcement of the Quest 3 headset, but Meta saved the best for last when it closed out the show with an extended reveal ofAsgard’s Wrath 2. The sequel to Sanzaru Games' 2019virtual realityRPG is extremely ambitious, and there’s a lot to unpack from the showcase’s presentation. It’s worth noting that gamers who pre-orderAsgard’s Wrath 2will also receive a copy of the original for PC, though it’s not necessary to play the first game to follow along.
At its core,Asgard’s Wrath 2is a free-roaming RPG that boasts a 60-hour campaign along with an endless rogue-lite dungeon crawler mode that players unlock early in the story. Many VR games struggle to retain players for more than a few hours besides replayable titles like rhythm games or sports games, soAsgard’s Wrath 2is paving the way for more content-heavy VR titles. This does come at the expense of hard drive space, however. The originalAsgard’sWrathhad a staggering 121 GB file size, and the sequel is shaping up to be even bigger. This could prove seriously troublesome for Quest 2 players who opted for the 128 GB version of the headset.
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Asgard’s Wrath 2 Is The Biggest Made-for-VR RPG Yet
Although virtual reality has come a long way in recent years, the platform is still lacking when it comes to larger, more open, content-rich games. Currently, some of the best options for players seeking larger immersive worlds are VR ports of earlier games, such asSkyrim VR,Fallout 4 VR, andElite Dangerous. Most VR games are much more focused experiences, particularly when it comes to VR games for Meta’s Quest headsets.Asgard’s Wrath 2, on the other hand, is positively massive in scope. The game promises a 60-hour campaign, which is several times the length ofbig titles likeHalf-Life:Alyx.
The game features tons of activities normally found in flat-screen AAA RPGs, and it’s not hard to believe that players can rack up several dozen hours going through the available content. Rather than taking place in a single world, players will travel to a variety of large free-roam environments such as ancient Egypt or Norse realms like the Land of Fire. Exploration is nonlinear, and players can opt to either follow the main story or embark on side quests and other activities. There are caves and ruins to explore, puzzles to solve, and lots of other activities such asa fishing mini-game, cooking, and crafting.
Asgard’s Wrath 2 Has A Hint of Dark Souls-Like Multiplayer
Beyond the campaign,Asgard’s Wrath 2also features an endlessly replayable rogue-lite dungeon-crawling mode called The Uncharted Rift. Players will progress through procedurally generated dungeons that involve a variety of enemies as well as some puzzle-solving, with the overall goal of surviving as long as possible to collect loot that can be brought back into the main campaign. A procedural rogue-liteVR dungeon crawleris practically an entire game in itself, so players should be able to kill plenty of time trying to beat their survival records.
However, one of the most interesting aspects of The Uncharted Rift is the asynchronous multiplayer aspect. When players finally die during their run, they’ll have the option to send their character off as either a Divine Soul or a Dread Soul into other players' Uncharted Rifts to either help or hinder them during their runs. This is reminiscent ofgames likeDark SoulsorElden Ringwhere players can either invade or assist other players, although in this case, they’ll be sending an NPC version of themselves instead. Still, it’s a welcome addition to the rogue-lite mode and it will be interesting to see how many players opt to help or harm their fellow players.
Asgard’s Wrath 2is set to release in Winter 2023 for Meta Quest.
