So far we are loving Sanzaru Games’ Asgard’s Wrath 2 on the Quest 3. Not as good looking as the PC original but wonderful what they have achieved on the Quest hardware. Take a look at almost an hour of Asgard’s Wrath 2 Quest 3 gameplay. Jury’s out as to whether this is the “best” game on Quest 3, but it’s certainly one of the most polished.

Some quick first impressions:

So…coming from a mainly PCVR background, this game is very good in not only how it handles the display on inferior hardware, but the general way in which the gameplay is highly polished. Over an hour into the game and it’s clear there’s some very high production values alongside much thought in how everything ties together especially the integration of navigational based puzzles. So far doesn’t seem too dissimilar to the original which is great. I love the character switching to solve these.

I am really enjoying the sense of scale here with the variance in room sizes and characters, and some of the sweeping vistas you see once you reach the open. Yes, the visuals are a downgrade on the PC original, but you soon forget about that due to how engaging the game is from this opening, then it really never lets-up. So, because the gameplay is so well designed, it just keeps pulling you in. Probably the longest single session I have had on Quest 3 standalone game thus far. I like it a lot.

Audio is also extremely very well designed making great use of the 3D audio of the headset. I’ve played a few of the recent releases but this one feels like it’s on another level in terms of presentation and player involvement even though on a personal level I prefer games (the modern day settings especially) like Espire 2 and Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice.

I would certainly have paid for this game given the polish and the amount of content available. However, it does make me wonder what a proper PCVR version would be like with even just the resolution bump. There’s some really nice effects used here, and it runs really nice and smooth in 120hz mode (not sure if the game plays it like that or reduces down to 90hz).

So far really positive vibes from this and as a free game for Q3, that’s a really big boon for the headset, so I have to tip my hat to Meta for investing in this. It’s the kind of VR experience the industry needs, and I really hope there’s much more positive vibes (from players) coming from it moving forwards.

Last thing to mention is how well they have mastered the combat and how visceral it is. I didn’t expect to be cutting off limbs/heads etc. Not really a bloody game in this regard, but excellent to slice a lizard in half and see its innards.