Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR Meta Quest 2 Review
Summary: Not just a full AAA game in VR... but an impressively implemented one at that!
4.5
Immersive Immersion
VR has now been around for some time. We’ve started to see less tech demo style games and more imaginative offerings taking us further into what VR can offer as a gaming experience. With Assassin’s Creed Nexus Ubisoft put a whole bunch of the puzzle pieces together to provide a very satisfying immersive experience in the world of the popular series.
So where do I start? Well I guess a good place is the accessibility. Ubisoft have done a great job of learning the pitfalls people have with using VR, the obvious one being VR motion sickness. The game gives you a number of options to try and make sure the experience will be as enjoyable for the player as possible. But this doesn’t just relate to options to avoid VR nausea… there are options for travel and travel mechanics that (mercifully) take in to consideration players desire/ability to perform certain feats… but I’ll get to that again a bit later.
I will say that though the game does provide an option to play seated or standing… I’d really recommend not just opting for standing but doing so with a nice bit of space around you. It’s totally possible to play seated (and I did)… but there are some things that are just going to be easier (and more natural feeling) when you are standing… things such as picking up objects that are lower down and then doing things such as climbing.
Another aspect I really, really appreciate is putting up a little diagram of the controller when explaining which button/trigger to use. I know many people probably memorise which button is which… but I can’t remember them, so having a diagram showing you which hand and which of the buttons, means you can quickly find the right one without having to peak down your nose at your hand. It’s a small thing… but for me it’s certainly appreciated.
Ok… but what about the game? Well to start with, you don’t just leap into it… and I don’t mean you don’t just go straight to the animus… you actually start with a bit of AR. Utilising the pass through camera, you get an overlay that displays incoming calls… you can manipulate your voice selection (male or female) and then you need to perform a quick basic puzzle to mask your signal (given you are working as a double agent), it’s not tricky but it’s a nice little touch and having it in AR just seems to add to the immersion (which I was not expecting).
Before long you are into the actual world that you have been tasked to explore and this is where things get a lot more fun. You are first tasked with recovering your sword… in other words “we’ll walk you through the controls before throwing you into the wild”. It’s a nice little way to get your senses sorted and familiar with how to move about. The end goal of this however did show one little fiddly issue which is that putting your sword away can be a bit tricky. It’s a nice idea to be able to simply put it away with the right hand movement… but if you don’t get it in just the right spot you end up dropping your sword. There’s possibly an indicator to show when you have it aligned properly… but if you are seated (as I was)… it can be a bit hard to look down effectively. It’s not a huge issue and you get the hang of it after a while.
Speaking of movements… what would Assassin’s Creed be without Parkour? In this case you have a few options for how it’s handled. You can set to a simple mode (which I did… ask my children and they will tell you I hate parkour in games… I find it fiddly and annoying… yes I know that’s more about me and my inability but there you go)… or you can make it more realistic. In simple mode you essentially look where you want to go and tap a button at the right point and off you go. You can certainly still muck it up (ask me how I know)… but it does indeed make it much easier and therefore much more fun to be able to run across the rooftops of the locations you find yourself in.
I will only mention one other movement here and that’s the wrist blades… it is quite fun to be able to flick your wrist to release your blade and then sneak up to someone and thrust it into them. Other than that… I guess the leap of faith are the main movements to check off the list and indeed the dive from high up is quite fun (ok so I mentioned two movements).
I could go on here… but the bottom line is… Ubisoft have done a really impressive job here. Not only have they managed to bring a big iconic game into VR, they have done so in a surprisingly immersive way, without skimping on game length (running roughly 15 hours to complete here) and all in a relatively compact install size.
If you enjoy the Assassin’s Creed games and like VR, then this is really an easy choice… grab a copy ASAP… even if you just want to experience a fully fledged game in VR that you can take with you… grab a copy!
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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