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Please bear in mind that the following first impressions of Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR are based on my experiences with the early ‘Ezio’ chapters of the game and as such are not a review of the full game.
People often ask me which VR headset is my favourite to use and, up until very recently, I probably would have said the PSVR2. I still love it, sure, mainly because it does a lot of cool things that other headsets simply cannot. But, after playing Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR on the Meta Quest 3, I think I may have finally found have a new contender for the coveted top spot on my list.
While games running natively on the Quest 2 were fine in theory, visually they always looked soft and basic compared to the games that I could play on it when linked to a PC. Plus they always felt like smaller, bite-sized offerings compared to what was on available on other, wired VR platforms. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR running natively on the Quest 3 however feels like a true generational leap (of faith) and, as you’ll see in this week’s episode of VR Corner, the quality of some of the visuals left me absolutely amazed!
Near the start of this week’s VR Corner I say something about the fact that I’ve played PC VR games that look worse than Nexus VR running natively on Quest 3, and I wasn’t joking. I’ve always judged the visuals in native Quest games rather harshly, but there’s a quality here that I’ve never experienced before and it took my breath away. Everything from great lighting effects and highly detailed textures to the large amount of NPCs roaming around brought life and believabilty to the world. While it’s still no Half-Life Alyx, visually this feels like the current gold standard of native, wire-free gaming. Until perhaps Asguard’s Wrath 2 releases in a few weeks time.
The story places you in the role of a hacker and it kicks off with a wonderfully unexpected spot of mixed-reality gaming which overlays the UI of the Animus on top of your actual real-life living space. It’s like a scene from Minority Report, which features a simple hacking puzzle and a fair amount of ‘being talked at’, but it’s an impressive use of the Quest 3’s passthrough feature nonetheless.
From there you’re soon put into the stealthy shoes of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and sent on your first mission which is to reclaim his stolen sword from the attic of a huge mansion. These early missions are peppered with tutorials that cover everything from parkour to stealth kills, enemy distraction techniques and sword combat, but they’re evenly spaced out and so not as annoying as they could be.
Hardcore Assassin’s Creed fans will also get a huge kick out of inhabiting virtual worlds that they’ve previously only ever experienced in flat-screen gaming. The second Ezio mission for example takes you to a full recreation of his home town, Monteriggioni, which you can then wander around at your leisure whilst exploring for collectibles or doing mini parkour challenges.
Nexus isn’t without it’s issues though. Controls-wise there’s a lot to get your head around and, while there are a huge amount of comfort and accessibility options available, it does feel like the game was made with Standing play in mind. People who prefer Seated VR gaming or, like me have a lot of wires attached to their heads for video capture purposes, might have a bit more trouble with mantling, for instance, as grabbing and pulling yourself upwards from a seated position seems to be less responsive than I would have liked.
The biggest issue I have though is in the parkour itself. In theory it’s simple – hold down the A button on the right controller and just run towards edges to automatically hop, skip and jump across them. When this works the free-flowing movement across rooftops and beams and other obstacles feels wonderful but, if you can’t physically turn and need to rely on stick-turning, you’ll need to stop pressing the A button so you can then reorient yourself with the thumbstick. Doing this basically stops you dead in your tracks and so the only way to beat checkpoint races and the like is to adopt a kind of ‘crab-parkour’ where you attempt to replace turning with side-stepping as you crane your neck to work out where you’re meant to be headed.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR is out today on Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro and, while I’ve not been able to test it on the Quest 2, I suspect that it won’t be as much of a looker as it is on the other two headsets due to the difference in processing power. I’m sure it’s perfectly good on the Quest 2 however but, if you recently bought a Quest 3 and want to experience a glimpse of what the future of wire-free VR gaming can look like, this one feels like an Animus-t buy!
