This year's Meta Quest Gaming Showcase revealed dozens of upcoming releases along with the announcement of the Quest 3 headset, but Meta saved the best for last when it closed out the show with an extended reveal of Asgard's Wrath 2. The sequel to Sanzaru Games' 2019 virtual reality RPG is extremely ambitious, and there's a lot to unpack from the showcase's presentation. It's worth noting that gamers who pre-order Asgard's Wrath 2 will also receive a copy of the original for PC, though it's not necessary to play the first game to follow along.

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Asgard's Wrath 2 Is The Biggest Made-for-VR RPG Yet

Although virtual reality has come a long way in recent years, the platform is still lacking when it comes to larger, more open, content-rich games. Currently, some of the best options for players seeking larger immersive worlds are VR ports of earlier games, such as Skyrim V R, Fallout 4 VR, and Elite Dangerous. Most VR games are much more focused experiences, particularly when it comes to VR games for Meta's Quest headsets. Asgard's Wrath 2, on the other hand, is positively massive in scope. The game promises a 60-hour campaign, which is several times the length of big titles like Half-Life: Alyx.

The game features tons of activities normally found in flat-screen AAA RPGs, and it's not hard to believe that players can rack up several dozen hours going through the available content. Rather than taking place in a single world, players will travel to a variety of large free-roam environments such as ancient Egypt or Norse realms like the Land of Fire. Exploration is nonlinear, and players can opt to either follow the main story or embark on side quests and other activities. There are caves and ruins to explore, puzzles to solve, and lots of other activities such as a fishing mini-game, cooking, and crafting.

Asgard's Wrath 2 Has A Hint of Dark Souls-Like Multiplayer

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asgards wrath screenshot

Beyond the campaign, Asgard's Wrath 2 also features an endlessly replayable rogue-lite dungeon-crawling mode called The Uncharted Rift. Players will progress through procedurally generated dungeons that involve a variety of enemies as well as some puzzle-solving, with the overall goal of surviving as long as possible to collect loot that can be brought back into the main campaign. A procedural rogue-lite VR dungeon crawler is practically an entire game in itself, so players should be able to kill plenty of time trying to beat their survival records.

However, one of the most interesting aspects of The Uncharted Rift is the asynchronous multiplayer aspect. When players finally die during their run, they'll have the option to send their character off as either a Divine Soul or a Dread Soul into other players' Uncharted Rifts to either help or hinder them during their runs. This is reminiscent of games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring where players can either invade or assist other players, although in this case, they'll be sending an NPC version of themselves instead. Still, it's a welcome addition to the rogue-lite mode and it will be interesting to see how many players opt to help or harm their fellow players.

Asgard's Wrath 2 is set to release in Winter 2023 for Meta Quest.

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