Earlier this month, Wccftech was invited to visit Sanzaru Games and get an intimate first look at their upcoming title, Asgard’s Wrath II. Production on the numbered sequel began shortly after the first Asgard’s Wrath released four years ago for the Oculus Rift, a gap that could only be described as multiple generations going as far as VR tech has progressed. Now, Sanzaru Games is rushing towards the finish line on development and ready to launch Asgard’s Wrath II exclusively on the Meta Quest 2 and 3 platforms.
Asgard’s Wrath II picks up shortly after the epilogue to the first title. Players may already be invested in the epic Norse story of gods and mortals and familiar with the dealings of Loki himself, but the developers of Sanzaru Games mentioned that they will help onboard players to the story by allowing players to ride upon the back of Great Odin’s Raven and passively play through scenes of great importance from the first game leading up to the start of thein a numbered sequel. From there, the game opens up with players learning the ropes at a tavern frequented by many a Norse god and goddess. It’s here that a magical ankh is given to the player and, following a boss battle against an agitated gryphon/dragon beast, is lost in a portal of aether.
Here, players are introduced to the Weavers of Fate and link up with the first mortal they’ll assume control of. Sanzaru Games are tightlipped on the total count of playable heroes and followers this time around, but given that the first title featured five different playable champions, it’s a safe bet that Sanzaru Games will expand on that roster significantly for the sequel. During the cinematic fall into the realm of the Watchers, I was able to notice an array of six biome shards from Egyptian lore to Chinese and Japanese buildings in profile. The entirety of both sections of Asgard Wrath II’s press demo took place in an Egyptian underworld known as The Duat and the Great Sand Sea that surrounds it. I was not able to check out the Hideout firsthand that IGN’s Travis Northup made it to during his demo (I was too focused on loot and exploring secrets within the intro dungeon).
The entirety of our Asgard’s Wrath II demo was in the role of Abraxas, a mortal saved from a crushing death by the player god, and his arsenal of sword, axe, and shield. During the second section of the demo, his signature sword was given an upgrade to function like a grappling hook that could bring enemies face-to-face with Abraxas with a natural swing of the arm (reaching behind the player’s back, pulling a trigger, and swinging their sword arm out like a whip) or aid him in mounting his transformation animal companion. Abraxas’ introduction to the player plays out as a cinematic action film, watching the mortal hero deftly dodge through traps and harrowing danger before an Indiana Jones-esque pressure trap sends him to his doom when trying to secure a major artifact. This leads to the god’s introduction to this mortal champion, already trapped beneath tons of fallen stonework.
Asgard’s Wrath II’s action combat fits naturally within the controls of the Meta Quest 3’s array of buttons and motion controls. Sword swinging plays out 1:1 with the player’s motions; many a time I felt like a proper badass for being able to swing out in time against the enemy’s swing, parry their blow, then follow up with a heavy overhead swing of my own. Similarly, the throwing axe that Abraxas finds early on in his demo section works both for activating traps and pressure plates from afar but also as a ranged attack to safely dispatch enemies from afar. After throwing the axe out, it can be recalled back to the player by highlighting the outline of the weapon, holding down a button and yanking their hand back to jerk it free. Once I got the hang of the flow of throwing and recalling the axe, I was able to quickly and continuously hit enemies before they could come into melee range just with repeated quick axe hits.
Traversal is also a big portion of the VR epic that Sanzaru Games is producing. Dungeons that players will venture into as part of the main campaign are filled with puzzles and traps. On the overworld map, players can convert their companions to one of two animal forms this far, one as a rideable panther and the other as an avian companion that players can grapple onto by way of whip sword and safely fly across terrain for a few dozen meters. When inside the dungeons as a mortal, there are quite a lot of walls that can be run across to cross a gap or ladders to climb across different elevations of the palace’s given room. As an added comfort setting, players can include a yellow flag to grab and teleport to the top or bottom of that given climbable without having to go through the motions of pulling oneself up a rickety wooden ladder.
Skill points, accumulated across all characters and pooled together into a single token list, can be used to fill in some or all of a single character’s skill tree if they so desired. As the majority of my damage game from the sword and axe, I first opted to increase the damage of the throwing axe in a number of categories, most of which stemming from quickly attacking repeatedly with the weapon, then in the second half of the demo, imbuing Abraxas’ sword to inflict bleeding status on the enemy target. The Sanzaru Games developer who helped answer off-the-cuff questions over lunch mentioned that it would be possible to respec these skills, especially if you pool everything into a single character while someone with a different weapon and element might be infinitely more effective.
It wouldn’t be a proper RPG without loot to ferret away in your infinite inventory. Dead enemies, conspicuous chests that haven’t been emptied of their contents, and the remnants of a broken vase here or there all provide components. While some are collected as healing potions, the majority of items looted are raw materials that can be crafted in another mechanic that was hidden away from our playable session. Sanzaru Games touted their sixty-hour play count for Asgard’s Wrath II across a number of points during the demo session. In addition to that hour count, they mentioned including a roguelike, asynchronous gameplay mode to delve into randomized dungeons with the mortal hero of their choice. There are also elements of live service titles within their Uncharted Rift roguelike mode including timed community events with one-of-a-kind gear for the player to unlock.
Even after two to three hours spent with Asgard’s Wrath II, my progression barely scratched single-digit numbers. If that’s indicative of the main game, even if inclusive of the Uncharted Rift mode, Asgard’s Wrath II will be on the best bangs for the player’s buck with dozens of hours of action RPG gameplay to look forward to. As an even better value proposition, Meta and Sanzaru Games are including Asgard’s Wrath II with every Meta Quest 3 ahead of the game’s launch later this year. For those that still have the classic tethered HMD, preorders also include the first Asgard’s Wrath along with an exclusive weapon and armor set for Abraxas in Asgard’s Wrath II.
The wait for Asgard’s Wrath II won’t be much longer as Sanzaru Games’ epic action RPG sequel will be available exclusively for the Meta Quest 2 and 3 when it launches on December 15th, 2023.
[Note: Travel and accommodations were provided by TriplePoint PR to visit Sanzaru Games' campus for this preview.]
WccftechContinue reading/original-link]
