Asgard’s Wrath is finally here. With a purported 30+ hours of content, what does the core gameplay actually look like? Cas & Chary are here with an inside look.
Cas and Chary VR is a YouTube channel hosted by Netherland-based duo Casandra Vuong and Chary Keijzer who have been documenting their VR journeys since 2016. In partnership with the channel, Road to VR shares a curated selection of their content.
Road to VR‘s full Asgard’s Wrath review is available here, but in this video we aim to give a look at the core gameplay so you have an idea of what you’re getting into before you spend tens of hours in this VR epic.
Asgard’s Wrath is set in a world brimming with mythical Nordic characters and locales. I love games in this style, so I looked forward to jumping in, and I am not disappointed.
The game does a lot right for me. The graphics, animations, and the NPC’s look stunning. They make good use of the power of VR with gameplay which spans two modes. One is the ‘god mode’, where you can view and manipulate the environment as a giant from above. In the other mode, you play as a human-scale mortal in first-person. The game is mostly played in this mode in which you’ll explore, scavenge, and fight.
Another thing I really like is that the game rewards exploration. You can upgrade your character, craft, or buy new equipment by exploring and finding the right loot as you go.
The combat is great because there are many ways to fight. You can block, parry, and hit with a sword—or use two swords or even two shields—it’s up to you. The enemies seem to have wide hitboxes, and they have various animations for the killing blows which adds to the immersion; sometimes you decapitate an enemy, or you cut them in half, and there are various ways to do that as well.
Now, there was something that surprised me. We’ve tried two demos of this game before its release, and neither showed off the ‘followers’ mechanic until now, which turns out to be a big part of the game. You can find an animal around you and transform it into a humanoid sidekick. You can then command them to do things for you, like attack enemies or help you solve a puzzle. It’s pretty cool because I feel less alone and the follower adds another way to fight. You can use them as a distraction, for example, and each has a special ability to use in combat.
The only negative points I have so far is that the inventory and other menus are very separate from the gameplay which can be immersion breaking at times. And I have found myself struggling to interact with some objects. For example, it took me a while to figure out how to make an animal my follower because you need to put your hands in a specific position.
I’ve have about two hours in the game so far, and it says I have completed only 3%! So I have much more to explore as I head toward the developer’s promise of 30+ hour adventure.