After a lukewarm reception to Assassin's Creed Mirage, it's up to Assassin's Creed Nexus VR to restore fans' faith in the franchise. A huge departure from the standard entries, AC Nexus VR is nothing short of spectacular when it comes to VR games. Up until now, players had some form of compromise with VR games whether it came to length or depth in gameplay mechanics.
Assassin's Creed Nexus VR redefines freedom and brings to life the vision of what an Assassin's journey would look like. From parkour to air assassinations, this game delivers what every player imagined an Assassin's Creed VR title would be. Here's a spoiler-free look at what players can expect when stepping into the shoes of Ezio, Kassandra, and Connor, across different eras of the franchise.
Also read: Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review: A Return To Its Roots Or Another Misstep In A Tumbling Franchise?
Assassin's Creed Nexus VR: Proving That VR Isn't Just a Gimmick
Gameplay, in-game mechanics, and AC Nexus' design philosophy
As expected, AC Nexus takes a completely different approach to gameplay and progression as opposed to mainline entries. Gone are the vast sprawling landscapes, replaced by small sandboxes with infinite potential in terms of gameplay opportunities. With early gameplay reveals, players were excited to see that almost any surface was scalable, and Ubisoft delivered. Grabbing onto rocks that jut out from walls, vaulting over objects, and swinging from poles, all feel smooth and intuitive when done right.
Progression isn't limited by tasks or collectibles with the developers opting to reward players with new abilities and moves with main story progression. Players will be swapping between the three protagonists of Ezio, Kassandra, and Connor, following unique stories in each timeline. Here, players will familiarize themselves with new mechanics like throwing knives, a bow and arrow, a tomahawk, and more.
Using all of these mechanics together in gameplay is extremely satisfying. Swordplay is crisp, allowing you to parry or block and dash in with the hidden blade for an instant kill. The tracking and accuracy of the bow and arrow is impeccable giving those with even mediocre aim the confidence to take shots from afar.
Stealth is satisfying, albeit a little lackluster when it comes to creating a challenge. When undetected, the enemy AI is fairly slow to detect the players' presence and can even look away as the detection meter goes up. However, for most players, this won't be an issue as it's extremely fun to sneak behind and stab a guard with the hidden blade before yanking their body out of sight.
Puzzles in AC Nexus are fairly simple and there are a few sprinkled in between bouts of action. Most of the time the answer is fairly simple, but the act of physically moving to a lever, feeling its tactile response, and getting the solution is rewarding nonetheless. Interactions with objects feel good, even allowing players to pick up dice for a mini-game later on.
Synch points, parkour challenges, and collectibles are spread throughout most missions, incentivizing players to explore the world. Most collectibles provide bits of lore and information on the time period that players are in, drawing them further into the space. To sell the realism even further, players can even pick up food to eat, bringing it up to their face to chow down.
VR Comfort and usability
AC Nexus VR provides a bunch of comfort options for players with varying degrees of comfort in VR. Personally, I am not prone to VR sickness and managed to play two to three hours of the game at a stretch on the immersive setting with no issues. However, Ubisoft has gone above and beyond making this game accessible to all, even including a fear of heights option that renders an outline of the real floor in a player's room to reduce the feeling of vertigo.
The visuals in the game are quite good for the scale the game provides, displaying a powerful level of detail system that draws in more detailed textures the closer players get to objects. Accessing weapons is easy and intuitive, allowing you to reach outside your field of view, but reliably choose the weapon you want. Overall, the weapons and combat system work well in VR, proving quite easy to pick up even with all comfort settings set to off.
However, it wouldn't be a Ubisoft game without its fair share of bugs. This time, my progress was completely halted by an inexplicable bug that refused to let me climb any surface. As seen in the clip above, I was constantly clipping through and falling to the ground no matter what I tried. While a restart did fix this, it was fairly frustrating, and broke the immersion a fair bit, giving me the feeling of 'jank' usually associated with Ubisoft titles. However, after this point, it was smooth sailing, barring a few visual artifacts that seemed to be level-specific.
Note: The game was played on a Meta Quest 2 in a bright, well-lit room where controller tracking wasn't an issue. Additionally, both controller batteries were confirmed to be above 90%.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Assassin's Creed Nexus VR is one of Ubisoft's biggest wins in recent history. Built across many years, the passion behind this project burns bright and shines through in almost every aspect of the game. It truly is the definitive way to bring one's imagination of the Assassin life within reach, allowing players to run, jump, scale buildings, and take down foes as they please.
One could easily lose oneself in each distinct era, admiring the sense of depth VR offers and truly appreciating the environment. Combat is fluid, fun, and engaging, giving you an extremely rewarding feeling no matter how you choose to play. The story is held together by a few cutscenes that play out in front of you, truly putting you in the shoes of the greatest Assassins of all time.
All in all, Assassin's Creed Nexus VR is a slam dunk that nobody with a VR headset should skip. It's well worth the $40 price tag and those looking to live their dreams of being a Master Assassin will not be disappointed.
Review key for Assassin's Creed Nexus VR provided by Ubisoft and reviewed on a Meta Quest 2.
