Asgard's Wrath 2

Finished the second character’s chapter; super cool experience. There is this cutscene of a battle between two characters that felt like I was in the middle of a one on one Marvel superhero combat scene. I love the grand scale of the environments that this game puts you in. It’s the same feeling I have when I go to Disneyland and experience their huge immersive rides like Indiana Jones or Rise of the Resistance. Really plays to the strengths of VR.

Apparently now the game is going to the Norse god’s land? I didn’t expect that, I thought it was all Egypt. We’ll see how it goes, might be a fake out.

Hit a wonderful twist on a classic puzzle last night that really took advantage of VR. It was a simple sliding platform puzzle, but the trick was you had to maneuver a platform to where a chain was, then physically grab the chain, then move the platform away while you are hanging over the open pit from the chain with one hand, before sliding another platform under that will get you to the next part.

It really wasn’t anything “new” except for how there’s no “climb button” in the game. Making the mechanics just natural interactions makes it feel like you’re being engaged in a different part of your brain from other video games.

Here’s a video of the puzzle on my instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1D19FnLUEj/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I had to turn down the difficulty on a mini boss encounter on the main quest because I did it maybe 12 times dying each time. Mercifully the game gives you xp when you do this so I leveled up a few times. The downside is because it’s not a “reset”, you also don’t regain any items you may have used, so I wound up with an empty inventory by the end 😂. Once I turned down the difficulty I got through it immediately.

I’m glad it lets you through on easy because the physical nature of the combat means that it really is a different challenge from just pressing buttons. And as you fail and have to retry you get more physically fatigued, too.

Anyway after that encounter they gave me two new vendors and a slingshot game at the base, a fishing rod and fishing side quests, and a new battling companion, and a new travel ability that is kinda similar to the glider in the Switch Zeldas. So it was extremely worth bumping the challenge slider down and pushing through that hard fight that got me all sweaty!

This game is a treasure. Every hour something happens that makes me go, “Wow, that was incredible 😳”. I just got the whip upgrade to the sword and it is so cool! You pull the trigger to switch to whip mode, so you can whip someone far away then parry someone close with the sword. It’s so sick.

I can’t believe how blessed we were with games this year. If there’s any game that Asgard’s Wrath 2 reminds me of, it’s actually Jedi Survivor. This has a very similar feel, going through a semi-open world, doing combat and puzzles and exploration as you do so. The pacing is really great, and they understood that you need to pace it not only for gameplay feel but also for the physicality of VR. Just when you feel like maybe you need a breather from moving around a lot, they give you a slower paced puzzle without much physical movement.

The story and characters are also surprisingly compelling; there’s really something special that you have to experience for yourself when your (fully voiced) NPC companion holds out their fist for a bump or hand up for a high five after you finish a fight. The characters have pathos, too; I feel for the plight of some of these guys.

Holy shamolee the introduction blew my mind. The cutscene portions were better than any 3D movie I've ever seen; there was an Indiana Jones-esque trap sequence that was so visceral and exciting. This game is REALLY good.