Asgard's Wrath 2

Written by John Yan on 12/19/2023 for QW2  

Asgard’s Wrath was one of the flagship games for the Meta Quest 2 (with an Oculus Link, of course) and it was inevitable that a sequel would come out. While you needed a PC to run the first game, Asgard’s Wrath 2 runs solely off the Quest 2 and Quest 3. And it also takes advantage of the incredible pass through tech of the Quest 3 for those who will play on it.

But let’s step back a little bit. Asgard’s Wrath 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games for the Quest 3 in its early lifespan. If you haven’t played the first game, like me, you’ll be able to pick this one up without prior knowledge as there’s a nice little roundup at the beginning to get you up to speed.

You play as a Cosmic Guardian, and after being tricked by Loki in the first game, you’re called upon to take down Loki by recruiting followers and helping out the gods of Egypt. As such, a lot of the game takes place in an Egyptian setting where a vast area called The Great Sand Sea will serve as the backdrop for your adventure.

Throughout the course of your time in Asgard’s Wrath 2, you’ll control a few different humans as well as recruit companions that can double as mounts. Each human has different abilities and weapons, so you get a variety of play styles from being more melee based to having extended ranged capabilities - and just downright being weird. The variety of playable characters, while not extensive, does offer a unique experience for each one. For that, I’d rather have a few good quality characters that are different than a large roster of playable ones, and Asgard’s Wrath 2 does deliver here. You’ll have to change up how you play depending on the human you possess and it delivers a nice variety of gameplay to keep things fresh.

With a companion in tow, you’ll have some help fighting the enemies in Asgard’s Wrath 2. Just like yourself, you can use skill points to upgrade their abilities. That means you’ll have to manage your skill points more carefully as you’ll have to balance improving yourself or your companion. There are five unique companions that you can find and use and like the humans that are available, there’s enough variety here to keep the game fun.

Considering the vast size of the realms and the amount of time it could take to walk to different areas, it's a boon that your companions can transform into a mount, allowing you to traverse the lands a lot more quickly. You can fast travel between areas that you’ve discovered, but for those that want to see all that’s available and not skip areas, having your companion be a mount is a godsend and will reduce the down time that can happen when you are moving between areas. The type of mounts they transform will be pretty obvious since your companions, while humanoid in form, will resemble the animal they will transform into. Whether you’re traversing the land on the back of a panther or hanging onto a bird flying around, the different ways to get around The Great Sand Sea are pretty fun when mounted to a companion.

Controls are pretty intuitive and you’ll be getting a good workout swinging your weapons at the enemies that confront you. As Abraxas, swinging the sword and throwing the axe was a ton of fun. You feel especially powerful when you throw your axe, stop it in mid-air, and redirect it to some place else with a wave of your hand. Turning the sword into a whip while holding the trigger button really adds more options to your fighting. It also adds another element to traversing some of the areas as there are points where you can use the sword whip to swing yourself across an opening. I was getting tired just throwing my axe constantly and moving it around to hit the various enemies on the screen. So if you want to not only have fun but get some good exercise in, do some fighting in Asgard’s Wrath 2.

I do like that you aren’t constantly inundated with enemies. Unlike say Diablo 4 where they can just throw a large number of enemies at you, getting swarmed is a lot tougher to deal with in a VR game. So you’ll get about 3-6 enemies coming at you at once and with a companion, it’s very manageable. Areas that have you fight more enemies will spawn them in as you deal with a wave and that’s how Asgard’s Wrath 2 handles combat with a larger number of enemies. It’s more quality than quantity, as it’s not fun trying to run and spam your weapons as quickly as possible to end a fight. You’re rewarded with being tactical and exposing the weak points of your enemies in order to finish them fast and with a flair.

There’s a quick inventory system, or belt, where you can put six items for easy access by holding down the left control stick. If you have a health potion on your belt, a quick press will let you drink it, something that’s nice in the heat of battle. The one annoying thing is since you move a lot with the left thumbstick, there’s plenty of times where I would accidentally do a quick downward press only for my character to say he’s fine because he’s at full health and doesn’t need to drink. It gets a tad annoying hearing my character complain about how he needs to save the potion, but the quick tap drink feature does come through in a pinch. I just wish you could turn off the voice as there is a nice visual cue when you drink a potion so you know you’re healing.

You have a few different options when moving about the world when not riding a companion. There’s a dodge action that can get you out of the way quickly, but does cost you some stamina that takes time to replenish. Some of the obstacles can be mounted over so as you run with a click of the A button.

There are ropes and walls that you can climb as well. The climbing mechanic is really smooth. I mean buttery smooth. There’s no jitter when wall climbing or rope climbing and it’s one of the better developed systems I’ve experienced. On the ropes are areas where you can just grab to ascend or descend if you don’t feel like manually climbing. This helps get by areas quickly as well as help those who tend to be a little clumsy when trying to grab the rope when climbing because you can take fall damage if you try to quickly get down by letting go. I did perfect the technique of letting go at the top, falling, and then grabbing the rope right before I hit the ground and it’s pretty fun getting down this way.

Speaking of fall damage, the only way so far I’ve seen is to fall while trying to climb. Asgard’s Wrath 2 prevents you from walking off a ledge so you can feel comfortable running around haphazardly and not be scared of falling to your doom. It does sometimes feel like you are a little artificially boxed into your environment, but for the most part it’s fine and it does prevent those instances where you might be trying to run quickly around in a fight and not have your bearings straight and fall off a ledge like in some other VR games.

With Asgard’s Wrath 2 running solely on the Quest 2 and 3 headsets, the graphics are still pretty good. I’m primarily a PC VR gamer and it’s hard to match that performance when it comes to graphics fidelity versus running on a more mobile CPU/GPU setup. That said, Asgard’s Wrath 2 looks really good on a Quest 3. Some things really stand out like the animal form of your companion. The textures are solid and animations are also well done. I did have to step back and try not to compare it to the likes of games I’m used to playing on the PC and after getting my mind set into how it looks when compared to other games on the Meta platform, I was really impressed by what Sanzuru Games accomplished.

The campaign is long. It’s no joke when they say this is a full fledged massive game. There are plenty of things to do, and you’re definitely going to get your money’s worth if you decide to pick up this game. For those who got this game free from purchasing a Meta Quest 3, well, you just got the steal of the century. It’s a far cry from a lot of VR games that are fun, but short experiences. Asgard’s Wrath 2 doesn’t play around with the amount of content available in both the campaign and content afterwards. Sanzuru Games is going to continue to provide content past the release of the game to encourage you to come back into this world and I’m really happy to see a company continue to support their games with more to do after it’s released.

Asgard’s Wrath 2 does a wonderful job at providing a large scale world that feels incredibly open. Yes, there are small tight corridors in dungeons and some buildings, but the vast open area feels really huge and when you encounter large gods or enemies that you have to deal with, you can sometimes feel small in comparison. That’s one thing VR does so well in that it makes playing in large encompassing worlds really breathtaking and Asgard’s Wrath 2 has plenty of areas that will take your breath away in terms of size and scope.

One such area is when you turn into your god form to solve puzzles. Asgard’s Wrath 2 isn’t just a combat game. There’s plenty of puzzles throughout the world that will get you thinking a bit and slow things down a little so you can catch your breath. Sanzuru Games does a good job at building up puzzles in terms of difficulty and variety. A lot of times they’ll build upon a previous puzzle or two and add something new in there. Sometimes you’ll just need to be god form to solve a puzzle to the next area. Sometimes you’ll need to switch back and forth between your god form and the human form to get past it. These puzzles aren’t too hard, but they are a nice break in between battles to give you something else to do.

Randomly, a Loki anomaly will pop up as you’re walking around. They are portals that you’ll go through and complete a small challenge. They are a small, quick side quests that you can do to break up your travel through the Great Sand Sea. If you have a Quest 3, one of these can take advantage of the color pass-through of the HMD and have you fighting enemies coming through portals in the room in which you’re playing. These are completely optional, but does add some randomness to the world and to your campaign.

There’s no multiplayer component to Asgard’s Wrath 2, but there is a social component. What you can do is leave a projection of yourself in the world for others to see. When you walk up to a glowing white thread like object in the game, it’ll expand into the player’s projection and some sort of animation that the player has designated. Some players use this to leave a hint for others of something that may be hidden in that area of the level. It adds a nice little component to the game and makes it seem the world is a little more occupied since most of the time you’ll just be encountering enemies out in the open world.

In uncharted rifts, which I’ll touch on later, you can leave a projection that can either help a player fight or fight against them. So depending on your mood, you can feel like being generous and help a player along or provide another obstacle in their path to garner a high score in an uncharted rift. Again, it’s another nice little touch to add a little bit of social aspect into a game where there isn’t a multiplayer component.

Throughout the world, there are various components that you can gather. From fighting with enemies to opening chests and to gathering plants, there’s plenty of things to grab that will be used to craft items. There’s no physical component to crafting though as all you do is select an item and hold down your trigger on craft, but that’s OK. I don’t know if I would enjoy spending time hammering a new shield or armor like one of the puzzles that are in the game, but crafting items can be a more inexpensive option to getting things like healing potions as well as creating better weapons and armor for you and your companion.

You’ll also be able to pick up some relics to enhance your weapons and armor. Think of these as items that can add abilities or damage to your arsenal when slotted in. There’s an elemental system in Asgard’s Wrath 2 that lets you attach a certain type of damage to say your sword whether it be fire, water, air, or earth. Depending on the monsters you face, putting in a relic that adds an elemental damage to your weapon, which can increase the amount of damage you do to the enemies. For example, let’s say the enemy is a water type. Putting in an earth relic into your weapon will make quicker work of your enemies. It’s sort of a rock, paper, scissors deal and it’s another element that adds a little depth to the inventory and combat system.

There’s been a lot of talk about the spatial audio on the Quest 3 being a huge upgrade over the Quest headset and let me tell you, Asgard’s Wrath 2 uses it well. There are times where you’ll hear voices around and above you telling you much needed information or hints. It’s caused me to just look around to find the source of the voices only to see nothing there. You’ll also experience this with some of the animal life around where you’ll hear sounds coming from a direction and you’ll turn to see a goat or a camel for example standing there. Asgard’s Wrath 2 makes really good use of spatial audio to increase the level of immersion in the game and it’s one of the best examples I’ve heard so far in a VR game on Meta.

So what else are you supposed to do besides the main campaign? There’s a rogue-lite feature called Uncharted Rifts. They are endless dungeons that challenge a player complete with its own leaderboards and loot to enhance your character. Consider it like nightmare dungeons in Diablo 4 where you try and get through it as fast as you can but here you’re building up high scores and there’s no end. It’s fun to compete with your friends on the leaderboards and I’ve had a few of us get into some trash talking when upping each other’s scores.

That’s not all, as there’s also Cosmic Events, which have about a month long time frame and have 10 objectives with one bonus objective. You’ll get points that you’ll be able to use for rewards as you complete them. It’s all about gaining new rewards with these events and they’ll be added in every month or so to keep things fresh.

Finally, there’s these group events called Conquests. You start out by picking one of two sides to play as. After that, you’ll be given some objectives to complete and each team gets a reward. Yes, even if your team loses, you’ll still get something out of it for participating. It’s nice that everyone can get something to deck out their Cosmic Guardian with and should be a fun little side event every month for players to participate in.

Even on the Quest 3 and its more powerful SOC, there are some hiccups I encountered when playing the game. A few times, I would get stuttering as I was just walking around. Once in a while, I’d get a quick pause and black portion of the screen as I turned, but it would quickly catch up. Because of the mobile hardware on the Quest 3, you’ll often see animals spawn in rather than organically come into your playfield. Even with these minor performance issues, the game ran well for the most part and I was impressed by what it could do.

Asgard’s Wrath 2 is a pretty complete package. Like Half-Life Alyx on the PC, this is a AAA level VR title for the Quest 2 and 3. It’s such a fun game and you’ll be playing this one for a long time. For those wanting something with a lot of meat, this is it. You’re not going to get through this game quickly and you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of it. I was pleasantly surprised at how big it felt and how much content there was for a VR game. If you enjoy action games and have a Quest 2 or 3, definitely pick up this title. It’s a showcase game for the platform and one that you won’t get tired of playing.