Category: Asgard’s Wrath

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GDC 2019: Asgard’s Wrath’s Bloody Combat Made Me Feel Like A Badass Gladiator

GDC 2019: Asgard’s Wrath’s Bloody Combat Made Me Feel Like A Badass Gladiator

I think it’s when I realized I was smiling in the middle of decapitating my enemy, showering my virtual face in blood and eyeballs as his head floated by in slow-motion, that it really hit me how much of a revelation Asgard’s Wrath combat is going to be. I’ve played Skyrim VR to death, had plenty of fun in GORN, and faced off against my fair share of bloodthirsty warriors in Blade & Sorcery, but none of it compares to the sheer immediate intensity and visceral feeling of melee combat in Asgard’s Wrath.

Asgard’s Wrath is the next VR game from Sanzaru Games, developers of VR Sports Challenge, Ripcoil, and most recently, Marvel Powers United VR. It’s being described as a 30+ hour action-adventure VR game with RPG elements. The main unique feature is how it plays with scale by having you switch between a towering God form and an ensemble cast of normal-sized mortal hero characters.

For a game that was just announced a few weeks ago the demo at GDC 2019 this week was remarkably long clocking in at over 20 minutes and it was on the just-revealed Rift S headset. Talk about a double-whammy of new.

Fittingly, the demo began with a literal jaw-drop moment as I walked across the bifrost rainbow bridge that stretches across the Norse overworld. It was an incredible visual display, especially on the Rift S and its slight resolution upgrade to 1440p from the standard Rift’s 1080p display. The heavens stretched out before me and I craned my neck back to marvel at planets orbiting in the distance and the pulsating colors of the bridge at my feet. I can honestly say that it was the most spectacular display of visual fidelity I’ve seen in a VR game, ever.

If the whole game is near that level of production quality then I can hardly keep myself from salivating at the prospect.

Unfortunately, the very next scene was the least impressive of all. I took my giant Godly form and was suddenly standing in the middle of the ocean towering over ships as they were ravished by waves in a horrible storm. I spotted Loki in front of me engaged in a brutal battle with an enormous Kraken when suddenly Odin called him back to Asgard. At that moment he tossed me his sword and asked me to finish off the Kraken in an impromptu boss battle.

Everything about this encounter felt sloppy and unfinished to me. The scale was off so that instead of feeling like a giant God in an ocean I instead felt like a normal-sized person in a bathtub surrounded my toys. I’m not sure of the solution here, but the scale just seemed off.

Additionally, nothing in this encounter was really indicative of the game’s core melee-focused gameplay loop. I couldn’t move around the area and I couldn’t just go attack the beast, instead being forced to wait for it to throw boats at me or try and grab me with its tentacles. It just seemed a bit sloppy and like a poor introduction to the game.

Immediately following this I did two short training lessons and then I was tossed into a combat arena and let loose. This is when Asgard’s Wrath really began to shine.

I stood in the middle of a large icy enclosure with a weapon rack behind me and a floating heart in the middle of the arena. An iron-clad angelic figure literally descended from the heavens and stuck out her hand waiting on an offering. Before handing her the heart I did what any Norse hero would do: I poked stuff and played around. In doing so I figured out you can throw your weapons and get them stuck in the ground, shields and non-signature weapons can break after moderate use, and there was an assortment of potions scattered about to stock up on before the battle.

Asgard’s Wrath is split into three types of play: Comfort, which gets rid of artificial movement, the standard mode that resembles everything you see in the footage and has UI elements for health and enemy armor, and an “Immersive” mode that removes all HUD elements completely. I picked the middle ground since I’m not familiar enough with the game for immersive mode.

At this point I felt ready. So I snatched the heart out of the air and handed it to the floating angel warrior. She grasped it firmly and ascended back upwards, beckoning beasts to summon into the arena.

Things started easily enough with just a single dagger-wielding adversary, similar to the one missing a head in the image up above. When fighting in Asgard’s Wrath you’ve got to pay attention to your enemy to note whether or not they are shielded (a blue bar above their head) or if they just have a read bar for health. If it’s just a red bar you can get creative with attacks, blocking, parrying, dodging, and chipping away, but if they have a blue bar you need to be a little more tactical.

This shielded state makes them tough to damage. As a result, you need to focus on parrying their signature attacks (which are telegraphed by a blue aura) to open them up for counters. Parrying isn’t as easy as you’d think either. You can’t just wait for them to swing and hold your weapon there in anticipation (I know because I tried) but instead you need to time it and push their attack back — hard. It felt like I was actually trying to deflect and parry something and took a bit of getting used to.

It’s worth noting that Asgard’s Wrath does not feature a physics-based combat system like you see in Blade & Sorcery, but there are physics-based elements to it still. You can throw weapons at enemies, deflect attacks, and dismember arms and legs as well as decapitate in various ways. At first I thought it was just cutting at the neck, but you can actually slice heads diagonally as well and even see eyeballs dangling if you find just the right angle.

The benefit of not having a physics system is that instead they’ve got super polished animations that connect everything together. At the end of the day I kind of think I prefer this because of how streamlined it all looks.

Now what I’m waiting to see is how the game as a whole shapes up. I’ve seen the combat, I’ve seen the visuals, and I’ve heard the vision, but I don’t know how well it all flows yet. Does Asgard’s Wrath really have 30 hours of unique content, or is it lots of backtracking and replaying areas with new characters? Does the combat stay fun and engaging, or does it get stale after a while? Is the story engaging enough to keep you going, or does it devolve into a bunch of arena fights loosely connected by a basic plot?

I’ve got no idea on those points but I’m hopeful. Everything I’ve seen seems to be positive, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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Hands-on: ‘Asgard’s Wrath’ Offers Deep Combat, But Not Without a Steep Learning Curve

At a special GDC Oculus media event this week we got a chance to go hands-on with Sanzaru Games’ upcoming Norse-themed action adventure game Asgard’s Wrath, presented on Oculus’ newly unveiled ‘Rift S’ headset. It’s beautiful, difficult, and will definitely require time to master, as enemies are both difficult and also require a specific style of interaction to slay—something that may not be entirely intuitive at first.

Unlike Marvel Powers United VR (2018), the studio’s latest title isn’t the result of another Marvel/Sanzaru partnership, although it’s clear they’ve borrowed more than a few design cues from Marvel source material. The starting point—a gilded, mechanical observatory at the base of the rainbow bridge, Bifröst—felt like it was ripped directly from the film Thor (2011), looking eerily similar to Heimdall’s preferred chillout spot from the movie. Once you’re in the game proper though it departs a bit from the Marvel cinematics and settles into something more Skyrim-ish in nature, focusing on the earthy and decidedly more dangerous world of Midgard.

Before I get into the meat of the demo, I just have to say this first: so far Asgard’s Wrath is a strikingly beautiful game, and features some fine polish that is clearly approaching the ‘AAA’ department in terms of visuals.

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

Before I started, I was told by Sanzaru that Asgard’s Wrath would feature 30+ hours of gameplay spread out over combat, puzzles, an overarching narrative, a cast of human avatars to embody & collect throughout the game, and wild animals to beguile and turn into allies. For the purposes of the demo though I was given an opportunity to play a quick taste of the beginning story, a few combat tutorials, and a wave-based combat sequence in a small arena—a total demo time of about 20 minutes.

Starting at the golden Bifröst observatory for a quick locomotion tutorial (the demo featured snap-turn and free motion), I was beckoned to walk down the rainbow road, which clanked into existence beneath my feet as I made my way to the portal to Midgard—the realm of humans and all sorts of nasty creatures. Transported to the world of mortals, I found none other than a horn-helmet-clad Loki entangled in an epic battle with a massive Kraken. As a giant, I was waist deep in a sea littered with tiny wrecked Viking ships, the scene of the battle where I would face off against the doubly massive octopus creature while consequently learning the ropes of the game’s melee combat system.

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

As the sea undulated around me, miniature wreckage bobbing up and down in the swell, the Kraken began to fight back by flinging ships at me to deter my mission of freeing Loki. Cutting the ships down mid-air with my single-handed sword, I was then assaulted by short serpent creatures which would latch on to my body if I didn’t slice them to bits first (or alternatively grab them with my bare hands pop them like blood-filled balloons). That last bit was a little unexpected, and I was pleased to see the world work in a way I intuitively understood. Positional audio alerted me to the worm’s location, as they locked onto me while making a high-pitched scream.

Worms properly slain, the Kraken then went through a few loops of picking me up by its tentacles and stabbing me in the chest with a barbed proboscis, then putting me back down so I could slash at face-to-face. Eventually defeating the Kraken after a few successive loops, my ‘lesser-god’ status ostensibly became Loki’s new pet project. That’s where the story bit ended for my demo, and where I would start my true combat tutorial so I could learn how to face off against some decidedly more human-shaped foes.

From there I was transferred to a combat arena, stepping into shoes of a human hero called the ‘Shield Maiden’.

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

To be clear, melee combat here isn’t purely physics-based; simply holding up your sword to block an incoming attack invariably results in the enemy landing a hard hit on you, knocking down a fair bit of your health points in the process. Enemy swords appear to clip through any weapon that doesn’t have enough force behind it; banging your sword and shield together elicits a weightless (and equally disappointing) clip-through. This, I find, is emblematic of the problem VR melee games face currently. Either they are entirely physics-based and risk resultant weirdness of incorrectly colliding with game geometry, or they require very specific movements from you to activate ‘parry’ or ‘slice’ and conversely don’t provide the immersion that physics-based weapons and enemies typically boast. Sanzaru is trying to find the right balance of each for Asgard’s Wrath.

Weapons essentially feel immaterial in Asgard’s Wrath. The game seems to be more centered around executing specific melee actions or gestures during key moments in the enemy’s animation, like parrying a sword attack, knocking a throwing dagger out of the air, or knocking back a baddie with your shield at key moments as they open up and telegraph specific attacks. That means you can’t swing willy-nilly, and that’s something I can appreciate without a doubt. Again, I only got 20 minutes with the game, so my impressions are more of a hot take than the end-all, be-all.

That said, all of this took a bit more practice to get right than I would have thought, especially because a failed parry or strike would leave the enemy entirely unphased. When I was confident I had parried correctly though, which lowered the baddie’s defenses, I was allowed the graceful, head-slicing execution I had been searching for.

Image courtesy Oculus, Sanzaru Games

At first, it wasn’t entirely apparent to me why I wasn’t able to hit/parry/disarm the baddie with confidence. It turns out each enemy has a specific animation that signals it’s ready to be attacked, but without a clear understanding of this (as someone playing a demo of the game) you’re basically hoping to catch him mid-strike and hope for the best. I imagine the game proper would give me more than ample time to figure this out, but it’s safe to say it’s not a title you can simply know how to play intuitively. That said, if Sanzaru plays their cards right and ultimately lands on a compelling combat system, it could form the basis of a norm going forward which will benefit players and games of the future.

After two combat tutorials, I then headed into the wave-based arena where I could apply everything I learned. As the Shield Maiden, I had a few holstered weapons at my disposal. My character, which I was told was one of many heroes to embody and collect throughout the game, had a one-handed sword, a magical throwing axe, and (of course) a shield.

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While the battle axe does much less damage than a solid strike of the sword, it was probably the most satisfying to wield thanks to some aggressive aim assist to make me feel like I was throwing it correctly most of the time. Flicking my wrist would retract the axe back to my hand, letting me tactically toss it and get double the damage by recalling it straight through the backs of the ghoulish, hulking enemies. Destructible shields, health potions and a few other weapons were also scattered about.

Consumables like health potions are kept in a separate quick inventory that you can call up by depressing the left analogue stick. I have stupid hands, but it bears mentioning that I would often bring up the menu by mistake as I mashed down on the left stick for translational movement, instantly putting a stop to my awkward slashing as the game would pause thinking I wanted to fiddle with my inventory.

Image courtesy Oculus, Sanzaru Games

Even with my new found weapon skills and a handful of potions, enemies were surprisingly difficult. The pallid man-monsters eventually started showing up with more and more strike-resistant armor which I would have to break first before getting a clean blow on the fleshy bits of the six foot-tall beasts. I only got through five baddies before eventually running out of health potions and falling to my inevitable death—proof enough that I wasn’t entirely useless at the game’s combat system, but had a long path to mastery.

Upon death I was awarded a treasure chest, which—depending on how well I fought—contained more valuable loot such as animal pelts and larger amounts of gold, the latter of which could be used to buy stuff like potions and better gear.

In the end, I still really don’t know what to think about Asgard’s Wrath. I’m allured by the promise of “30+ hours of gameplay” and the well-realized graphics, but I still want to know how well the game’s non-combat moments will weave together combat sections and story. It’s still way too early to tell at this point however, as Sanzaru has only stated that Asgard’s Wrath will be due out sometime in 2019. As we understand it, there’s still plenty left to see before we get a clearer picture of exactly what Asgard’s Wrath is all about.

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Asgard’s Wrath: New Details On Creature Companions, Combat, And Story

Asgard’s Wrath: New Details On Creature Companions, Combat, And Story

Asgard’s Wrath is coming soon from Sanzaru Games as an Oculus Rift exclusive and we’ve seen new combat footage and found out more about the game’s details. We still haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with the title just yet, but we will be playing it in just a few days at the press-only pre-GDC event Oculus is hosting on Monday in San Francisco, CA.

Other than the announcement trailer (linked below), the original reveal, and some brief gameplay footage, we didn’t know very much about the game at all. Now, some new gameplay footage spotted by RoadtoVR on the official Sanzaru Discord server and a big exclusive hands-on report from Game Informer have revealed lots of new details.

To recap: Asgard’s Wrath is a first-person action-adventure VR game with RPG elements in which you are a God with the power to take control of certain select mortal characters. Each of the characters you can control will feature unique abilities and playstyles and you can switch between the ground hero and your God form while playing.

While reading the four-page exclusive hands-on in the latest issue of Game Informer this month, a lot of new details jumped out at me — specifically with regard to the animal companion system. You can see near the end of the debut trailer above that when in God form you can do things like pluck a bird from the sky and turn it into a powerful bird-soldier-thing to fight with you or even take over creatures like to put them by your side.

According to Game Informer, this is a pretty robust system that goes beyond just simply possessing creatures. You’ll be able to establish bonds with the animals and creatures you control through fighting together, giving high fives, and generally spending time with them by your side while playing. The stronger your bond, the greater the benefit they provide in and out of battle. We saw a bit of the interactivity here.

Since each companion will have different abilities, you’ll need to experiment throughout the game with various buddies to see which areas they can be used to unlock at different spots. It’s got a bit of a Metroidvania feel to it all in this regard it sounds like.

Then there’s the amazing-looking combat. While it doesn’t appear to be a physics-based system like Blade & Sorcery, the fluidity of animations and effects is pretty remarkable. If it looks this nice visually in GIFs and videos on a flat monitor screen, I can’t wait to see what it looks like in fully immersive 3D from inside of a VR headset.

In the series of GIFs down below you can see it in all of its visceral, gory action. Things like boomerang battle axes, sword parries, dismemberment, and more are all on display and it looks fantastic.

We still don’t know too much about the story in Asgard’s Wrath, but it does sound like something fishy is going on. Supposedly, you’re in service of Loki and are tasked with helping out humanity in return for a magical essence that Loki is collecting. You’re not told for what purpose at first, which certainly leaves me skeptical someone known as the Trickster God isn’t up to something diabolical.

Thor, Loki’s brother, is in fact in the game — but these are not the Marvel characters. They’re purely based on the Norse Gods and aren’t the superhero versions from the MCU or comics. Naturally, Thor is also skeptical of Loki and (as a result) you.

There will be multiple plot threads and side quests to pursue with large, open areas to explore. Originally we reported that Asgard’s Wrath would be 30+ hours in length and now Game Informer is saying it’s closer to 40 hours to complete all content, find all hidden areas, and finish everything in the game. That’s a very healthy length.

On your back you’ve got four different equipment slots to keep handy, but there’s also a full inventory selection mechanic of some kind as well for storing various items from weapons and gold to quest-related objects.

Other random tidbits of information gleaned from the game’s Discord server and developer comments:

  • Weapons can break, but they can also be repaired,
  • Most enemies will drop weapons you can immediately use after you kill them and you can store weapons in your inventory,
  • There will be an immersive mode that turns off the HUD, damage numbers, and other UI elements so you can purely immerse yourself in the game,
  • Some weapons you find in the game world will have elemental effects already imbued on them, such as ice effects that freeze enemies,
  • Dismemberment is not automatic. You can lop off heads and arms and other specified body parts but you need to follow-through fully on your swing,
  • Some enemies will be shielded (as shown in the GIFs above) with a blue bar above their green health bar. The best way to get rid of their shield is to parry one of their powerful “signature” attacks,
  • Parrying signature attacks must be done with a weapon, not a shield,
  • Higher level enemies will have more variety in attacks and animations.

And that’s about it! We should have a lot more information to share next week after we go hands-on with Asgard’s Wrath, Stormland, and multiple Quest titles at GDC 2019. Let us know what you think so far down in the comments below!

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Oculus Shows Off Brutal ‘Asgard’s Wrath’ Combat, Dismemberment

On the build up to a larger reveal at GDC next week, Oculus has been teasing some of the combat mechanics in Asgard’s Wrath, the latest upcoming Oculus Studios title. The game’s physics-based combat will include the ability to finish opponents with brutal dismembering kills.

Asgard’s Wrath, an upcoming Rift exclusive in development by Sanzaru Games to be published by Oculus Studios, was announced last month as a Norse-inspired melee combat adventure game. And while the announcement trailer was filled with lots of fighting, the team behind the title says that the combat has a layer of depth that goes beyond what you might see at first glance.

Following some teases about the non-combat aspects of the game, the team recently posted a handful of teasers to the official Sanzaru Games community Discord server, and offered some details about how the game’s combat system will work.

Bows are confirmed to be in the game, but a bulk of the fighting appears to be melee-based. Mike Doran, Executive Producer on Asgard’s Wrath at Oculus Studios says that while the game isn’t a top-down physics simulation, the combat is being tuned with physics in mind to prevent players from doing unrealistic things like wiggling their swords rapidly to land lots of hits. Players will need to block, parry, and make broad swings in order to deal damage to opponents.

While some VR fighting games rely on a deeper physical simulation with regards to how fast players can swing their weapons (like Blade & Sorcery), Doran confirms that Asgard’s Wrath’s combat won’t use that sort of raw simulation.

“We don’t do [simulated] weapon delay. It feels bad. [I] can’t stand it. Like trying to fight underwater. We do however have lots of checks in place to stop exploits,” Doran said. “You can’t waggle your wrist and get free hits, for example. Forcing you to move to block effectively is another one. We want this to be all about your skill as much as possible. We use physics simulations to enhance the combat—not to define it.”

Killing blows, it seems, can come in the form of a brutal dismemberment with a burst of slow-motion so that you can appreciate your victory. It isn’t 100% clear at this point, but it certainly appears that dismembering slices through the enemy trace a very close line to the player’s actual swing, meaning that you may be able to cut enemies apart in arbitrary directions, rather than being restricted to pre-defined separations (like at limb joints). This would certainly notch up the satisfaction-factor, and pair nicely with the precise control that players have over their swings thanks to motion tracked VR controllers.

Doran also notes that managing weapon durability will be key, as every weapon and item (shields included, it seems) will be able to break if subject to enough damage.

“So, you can use your shield all day long, but it’ll break apart and you’ll eventually be shieldless, until you find a new one,” said Doran. “Shields are much more effective at blocking thrown enemy weapons than trying to dodge them. If you’re really good you can bat some thrown enemy weapons out of the air with a perfectly timed swing. Also, if you block an enemy strike with your weapon without moving the weapon toward the enemy, your weapon will get knocked away to simulate the physical properties of those two objects.”

Players will be able to repair their gear if it breaks, and use weapons found from enemies and the environment in a pinch, but (from the gif above) it seems that some weapons may be weaker and break sooner than others. Doran has mentioned “blacksmiths” on several occasions, and we’d venture to guess that players may be able to visit blacksmiths to upgrade and strengthen their weapons.

On weapon variety, Doran says that each of the ‘hero’ characters that the player will control have at least one unique “signature” weapon which will be upgradeable and have unique abilities. One of those signature weapons is a one-handed axe which can be thrown and magically recalled, a mechanic which seems very closely related to Thor’s hammer in Marvel Powers United VR (which Sanzaru also developed). Unlike Thor’s hammer in that game though, the magic axe in Asgard’s Wrath will apparently be able to lodge itself in an enemy’s head, and rip it clean off when recalled. So the game has that going for it… which is nice.

Doran also notes that “there are combat rules in play to prevent spamming [the axe].”

The game won’t feature two-handed weapons in order to avoid the complexities of trying to simulated a ‘connected grip’ when player’s hands are actually not connected, Doran says.

Two-hands may be out of the question, but players can expect to battle two enemies (or more) at a time, and they’ll need to carefully parry “signature attacks” (telegraphed when the enemies have red eyes and flames coming from their head) which will otherwise disarm them in the midst of combat:

Enemy difficulty can be tuned with a variety of parameters, Doran says, including how much damage they deal, how fast they attack, how varied their attacks are, and how much health they have. The number to the left of each enemy health bar is the enemy’s ‘level’, and will help players understand how challenging that enemy will be.

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Asgard’s Wrath is planned to launch at some point in 2019 (though a more specific release date hasn’t been confirmed), and the creators say it’ll offer some 30 hours of gameplay between combat, exploration, and story. Next week at GDC we expect to get our hands on a demo build of the game to experience the combat mechanics for ourselves, stay tuned!

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5 Upcoming Oculus Exclusives That Could Carry Rift S

Stormland Asgard's Wrath

Facebook is launching a replacement for the Oculus Rift this Spring called Rift S.

Every Oculus VR headset launch so far has been accompanied with a collection of new games. These five major Oculus exclusives launching this year could be Rift S’s big hitters.

All five games are fully funded by Oculus Studios, Facebook’s VR content division. All will work with the current Oculus Rift headset. Rift S is a refresh, fully backwards compatible.

Stormland

Insomniac Games

Stormland is a AAA open world co-op adventure from Insomniac Games.

The game features a vast open world that is part procedural and part hand-crafted. It also features mechanics like crafting, gliding, and climbing. The graphics look incredible from what we’ve seen when we went hands-on with it. This honestly may be the best looking made-for-VR open world title yet.

When we tried it at PAX West last year we were blown away, concluding that it could be something truly special.

Insomniac’s previous VR titles were the 3rd-person Lovecraftian adventure Edge of Nowhere [9/10], a lackluster top-down view brawler Feral Rites [5/10], and 1vs1 wizard dueling game The Unspoken [9/10]. Outside VR they’ve developed hit titles like Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, Sunset Overdrive, and the Resistance series. More recently they developed Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Asgard’s Wrath

Sanzaru Games

Asgard’s Wrath is a AAA Norse-inspired action RPG.

In Asgard’s Wrath you take on the role of a Norse God with the power to inhabit the bodies of mortals. Throughout the 30+ hour adventure you’ll frequently swap back and forth between the perspectives of a towering God with an epic sense of scale and the perspective of on-the-ground mortal warriors to take advantage of the game’s brutal melee combat.

Sanzaru Games’ previous VR titles were Touch launch titles VR Sports Challenge [8.5/10] and Ripcoil [6.5/10], as well as 2018’s blockbuster Marvel Powers United VR [6.5/10].

Lone Echo 2

Ready at Dawn

Lone Echo 2 is the sequel to the hit 2017 voice acted story from Ready at Dawn.

We loved the original Lone Echo, giving it 8.5/10 in our review, stating that it was a “landmark achievement” in locomotion, UI, and interaction, and that the character-driven storytelling creates “a compelling sense of presence that few VR games could hope to match”. Our biggest complaint was that it simply felt incomplete, making us hungry for a full-fledged sequel.

Not much is known about Lone Echo II yet, but if it’s anything like the original, it’s sure to be a title to look out for.

Defector

Twisted Pixel Games

Defector is an action packed spy game that turns you into Jason Bourne (or James Bond, if you prefer). Originally slated for 2018, the game was delayed to some time this year.

We’ve tried this game a few times now — most recently at Oculus Connect 5. Each time we tried it we had a blast. This game probably won’t make you think a whole lot other than deciding how to smooth talk your way out of trouble, but its exhilarating over the top action sequences are downright fun.

Twisted Pixel previously developed Wilson’s Heart [9/10], an incredible VR black & white mystery thriller reminiscent of The Twilight Zone.

Untitled FPS

Respawn Entertainment

At Oculus Connect 4 in 2017 it was announced that the developer of Titanfall is working on an Oculus Rift exclusive for launch in 2019.

No details have been given so far, other than it is definitely not a Titanfall VR spinoff, but given Respawn’s impressive catalog with Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends all outside of VR we’re expecting big things from this shooter.

What do you think will be the big games poised to carry Rift S (and for that matter, Rift itself) this yea? Let us know down in the comments below!

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[Update]: Asgard’s Wrath: Neue Informationen zum kommenden VR-Abenteuer auf der GDC 2019 veröffentlicht

[Update]:

Auf der GDC 2019 wurden neue Einblicke in den kommenden VR-Titel Asgard’s Wrath veröffentlicht. So geben die Entwickler nach und nach neue Features bekannt und präsentieren stückchenweise das Gameplay des vielversprechenden VR-Abenteuers.

In einem Gameplay-Footage mit der neuen Oculus Rift S wird der Kampf gegen ein gigantisches Krakenmonster vorgeführt, indem der Held zunächst anfliegende, blutrünstige Fische sowie Schiffe abwehren muss, um dem riesigen Widersacher letztlich mit seinem Schwert den Garaus zu machen:

In einer Demo wird zudem ein Dungeon vorgeführt, in welcher man mit diversen Objekten interagieren und Rätsel lösen muss, um voranzuschreiten. Mit einer Armbrust, magischen Wurfaxt sowie Schwert und Schild bewaffnet stürzt sich der Spieler zudem in den Kampf gegen die feindlichen Kreaturen.

(Quellen: Road to VR | Videos: Oculus Youtube | Road to VR YouTube)

[Originalartikel vom 20. Februar 2019]:

Entwicklerstudio Sanzaru Games veröffentlichte neue Informationen zum kommenden VR-Abenteuer Asgard’s Wrath für Oculus Rift. So geben die Entwickler bekannt, wie der asynchrone Multiplayer-Modus funktioniert, und stellen neue Einblicke zu Waffen, Helden und Begleittiere vor.

Asgard’s Wrath – Neue Informationen zum kommenden asynchronen Multiplayer-Feature enthüllt

Asgard’s Wrath versetzt euch in ein Fantasy-Setting rund um Götter und Heldentaten aus der nordischen Mythologie. Dabei schreitet ihr in Egoperspektive durch die Welt und schlüpft in die Rolle eines Junggottes, der diversen Helden des Landes dabei hilft, ihre Aufgaben zu erfüllen.

Ein ausgeprägtes und realistisches Kampfsystem mit realistischer Physik-Engine und Gore-Elementen, das Wechseln zwischen verschiedenen Charakteren und Beschwören von Begleitern gehören währenddessen ebenso zum Gameplay, wie das Looten von Gegenständen und die Interaktion mit eurer Umgebung. Neben fordernden Kämpfen werdet ihr zudem während der 30 bis 40 Stunden Spielzeit mit diversen Rätseln konfrontiert.

Asgard's-Wrath-Oculus-Rift-Sanzaru-Games

Image courtesy: Sanzaru Games

Nun gibt es neue Informationen zu den Spielinhalten von den Verantwortlichen. So verkündete Mike Doran, Executive Producer von Oculus Studios, auf dem eigenen Discord-Server, dass das angekündigte asynchrone Multiplayer-Feature keinen klassischen Koop-Modus beinhaltet, aber dennoch Interaktionen zwischen Spielern bereitstellt:

“Das asynchrone Multiplayer-Feature in Asgard’s Wrath basiert nicht auf Highscores oder Herausforderungen. Stattdessen wollten wir etwas integrieren, was mehr in die Geschichte eingebunden ist. Wenn die Spieler durch das Land ziehen, werden sie unausweichlich irgendwann vor einem Game-Over-Screen stehen. Wenn dies passiert, wird eine automatische Markierung an der ungefähren Todesstelle gesetzt (es wird einige Stellen geben, an denen das nicht passiert, aber grundsätzlich ist dies das Prinzip).

Das Besondere ist, dass diese Markierung auch in den Spielen anderer Spieler erscheint. Diese haben daraufhin die Wahl, die Herausforderung anzunehmen und gegen den tödlichen Feind anzutreten, um die Seele eines anderen gefallenen Spielers nach Walhalla zu befördern. Zur Belohnung winken Punkte für ein einzigartiges Fortschrittssystem. Die dadurch erhältlichen Gegenstände sind nur durch solche Aktionen verfügbar.”

Entsprechend erwarten die Spieler in ihrer Singleplayer-Kampagne besondere Kampfherausforderungen durch besonders schwierige Gegner, an denen andere Junggötter gescheitert sind. Ein innovatives System.

 

Asgard’s Wrath – Spielbare Helden, Begleiter und Fernkampfwaffen

Weitere Neuigkeiten gibt es zu den spielbaren Helden und Begleittieren:

“Dabei handelt es sich nicht um eine Art Klassenauswahl zu Beginn des Spiels. Stattdessen schalten die Spieler die jeweiligen Charaktere frei und können daraufhin nach Belieben zwischen den gesammelten Helden wechseln. Wie bereits im Trailer vorgeführt, besitzt jeder von ihnen eine besondere Mechanik. Allerdings wurden noch nicht alle spielbaren Helden im Video vorgeführt.”

 

Auch die Begleittiere, welche durch Magie erzeugt werden können, wurden weiter beleuchtet. So wurden im Trailer drei verschiedene Tierchen vorgestellt, doch es sollen wesentlich mehr Varianten im Spiel verfügbar sein. Zudem können die Spieler mit ihren Begleitern interagieren, beispielsweise mit einem Ball spielen oder sich gegenseitig High-Fives geben.

Asgard's-Wrath-Oculus-Rift-Sanzaru-Games

Image courtesy: Sanzaru Games

 

 

Für den Kampf sollen neben Nahkampfoptionen außerdem Bogenwaffen zur Verfügung stehen. Um diese etwas abzuschwächen, sollen stärkere Gegner allerdings in der Lage sein, Pfeile abzublocken. Derzeit arbeiten die Devs noch am richtigen Balancing zur Einführung der Schusswaffen.

Weitere Einblicke zur Physik-Engine und dem Kampfsystem werden auf der kommenden GDC 2019 im März vorgeführt. Asgard’s Wrath soll noch 2019 exklusiv für Oculus Rift erscheinen.

(Quelle: Road to VR | Video: Oculus YouTube)

Der Beitrag [Update]: Asgard’s Wrath: Neue Informationen zum kommenden VR-Abenteuer auf der GDC 2019 veröffentlicht zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Oculus Teases ‘Asgard’s Wrath’ Asynchronous Multiplayer, Heroes, & More

We’re steadily learning more about the upcoming Rift exclusive Asgard’s Wrath, a Norse-inspired VR action adventure game being developed by Sanzaru Games and published by Oculus Studios. The company has shared the first details about how the game’s “asynchronous multiplayer” feature will work, and offered additional teases on weapons, playable heroes, and the array of animal companions that will aid the player along their quest.

Set for release later this year, Asgard’s Wrath promises a 30-ish hour adventure where the player controls a god-like being alongside several “mortal heroes” which will have unique weapons and abilities. The game is said to feature a heavy emphasis on physics-based melee combat that favors skill over flailing, but Oculus says it won’t just be a series of arenas; we saw recently that moments in between combat will include looting, puzzle solving, and interactions with characters and the environment.

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

Continuing the teasing over at the Sanzaru community Discord server, Mike Doran, an executive producer at Oculus Studios, offered the first hints about how the game’s asynchronous multiplayer will work. “Asynchronous” of course means that Asgard’s Wrath isn’t going to have traditional co-op, but there will be some interaction that can happen between players. Doran explains:

The async multiplayer feature in Asgard’s Wrath is not high score/challenge based. We wanted to do something a little more tied to the narrative. As you journey throughout the lands in the game, you will inevitably die and see the dreaded Game Over screen. When this happens, you automatically place a marker approximately where you went down in the world (there are a few spots where it might not be available, but by and large it works throughout the game.)

The difference is, this marker appears in other player’s games. Players have the choice to fight to redeem another player’s fallen soul and allow it passage to Valhalla. So, as you’re playing you’ll see a marker where someone went down. If you choose to take on that combat challenge and are successful, you’ll get progress towards unique rewards that are only available via this feature.

It’s an interesting idea; from Doran’s explanation it sounds a bit like you’ll be fighting to reclaim the honor of your fallen friends. Hopefully these “combat challenges” will be uniquely meaningful and not just feel like any other encounter in the game—they could do something neat like highlight the specific enemy that delivered the killing blow to your friend so that you can make sure the foe sees just punishment (which the game’s dismemberment system ought to make especially satisfying):

Doran also talked more about the “mortal heroes” that players will inhabit throughout the course of the game.

“It’s not like a class selection at the beginning of the game or anything like that,” he said. “Once you’ve unlocked one you can switch between the ones that you’ve collected. They all have unique mechanics, which you saw some hints of in the trailer.”

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

Indeed, in the trailer we saw a warrior-like character wielding a sword and shield, a mage-like character with a magic staff, and an elf character with a weapon that looked like a cross between swords and nunchucks. However, Doran teased that “the trailer did not show off all of the mortal heroes,” so we can expect an even wider variety of playable characters in the full game.

He also talked about the animal companions that will assist the player in unique ways. These companions are not playable characters, but it appears that the player will be able to use their god-form to transform animals from around the environment into humanoid helpers. In the trailer we see a bull that turns into a brutish melee warrior and a hawk that turns into a flying archer. The gameplay glimpse we saw last week also confirmed a frog companion which can help the player retrieve items.

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

In consideration of those three confirmed animal helpers however, Doran said that there are “many more than three [animal companions];” from the trailer it appears it’ll be up to the player to find them in the environment and put them to good use. Apparently your animal friends will also have a few interesting ways of interacting with you, like playing catch or giving high fives.

While the trailer didn’t show any bow combat from the player, Doran confirmed player-wieldable bows will be part of the game but said that they’re still being “heavily tuned” and that the final implementation isn’t yet locked in.

“[For bows] we will probably lean towards fun and usability over a punishing simulation,” he explained. “That being said the harder enemies can and will swat your arrows out of the air before they rush you […],” or they could just block arrows with their shields.

Image courtesy Sanzaru Games

And finally, Doran talked a bit about the game’s combat mechanics which are described as “physics based,” but not completely simulated.

“Physics are an important element of our combat, but it’s not 100% physics based. There are rules to the gameplay that go beyond physics. There have to be. Sandbox-style physics driven combat experiences have suffered from a lack of that.” He promised that onlookers will see “a lot more of our combat in the GDC demo.”

GDC will be held in late March, and Road to VR will be there to see the Asgard’s Wrath demo first hand.

The post Oculus Teases ‘Asgard’s Wrath’ Asynchronous Multiplayer, Heroes, & More appeared first on Road to VR.

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Oculus To Host Pre-GDC Event Featuring ‘Not-Yet-Announced’ Quest Demos

Oculus To Host Pre-GDC Event Featuring ‘Not-Yet-Announced’ Quest Demos

The GDC machine is in full force. We’re about a month away from the show at this point and things are starting to heat up in my inbox. Yesterday, Oculus reached out to UploadVR with details about a pre-GDC press-only demo event in which they will feature a number of new Rift and Oculus Quest demos. We were granted permission to share the following details.

Specifically, the email indicates many of the demos will be for “not-yet-announced” games, in addition to a brand new demo for Stormland and the first-ever hands-on opportunity with Asgard’s Wrath.

We already knew Quest would have a big presence at GDC this year. Back at OC5 Facebook confirmed the standalone headset is due out in Spring, which means it must be releasing in just a few short months. At that same event Mark Zuckerberg said it would launch with 50+ games and we only know about maybe 10 of them so far and have only tried four. That leaves a lot of question marks — but we have some ideas.

Hopefully we get confirmation of popular existing titles like Rec Room and Beat Saber coming to Quest, as those would surely help sell headsets, but more than anything what we’d like to see are actual brand-new experiences made for Quest rather than just ports. That’s where the real quality is going to come from.

The pre-GDC event is happening on Monday, March 18th and is embargoed for that following Wednesday, March 20th so you’ll have to wait until then to see what we think of the demos. We will also have the chance to conduct updated interviews with Jason Rubin, VP of AR/VR Content and Partnerships and Nate Mitchell, Head of VR Product.

Let us know your thoughts on the details of this event and if you have any questions that we should keep in mind leading up to the show down in the comments below!

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The post Oculus To Host Pre-GDC Event Featuring ‘Not-Yet-Announced’ Quest Demos appeared first on UploadVR.

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Asgard’s Wrath: Erste Gameplay-Szenen veröffentlicht

Entwicklerstudio Sanzaru Games veröffentlichte kürzlich erste Gameplay-Szenen des kommenden VR-Abenteuers Asgard’s Wrath für Oculus Rift. Darin präsentieren die Devs Kampfszenen, einen froschartigen Begleiter und die Nutzung seiner Zusatzfunktionen, die Interaktion mit der Umwelt sowie das Aufsammeln von Gegenständen.

Asgard’s Wrath – Erste Gameplay-Szenen geben Einblick in kommendes Action-Adventure

Asgard’s Wrath ist ein First-Person-Action-Adventure mit RPG-Elementen in einem Fantasy-Setting rund um die nordische Mythologie. In der Rolle eines Junggottes zieht ihr durch das chaotische Land der Arsen und helft diversen Helden des Reiches dabei, ihr Schicksal zu erfüllen. So erledigt ihr verschiedene Quests und Aufgaben, indem ihr zwischen eurer Götterform und eurem Begleiter wechselt, dadurch Kämpfe erlebt und Rätsel sowie Herausforderungen löst.
Nun gibt es erste Einblicke in das Gameplay des kommenden VR-Titels, welches in Form eines knapp zwei-minütigen Videos von den verantwortlichen Devs bereitgestellt wurde:

Darin wird neben der visuellen Gestaltung zunächst das Kampfsystem in den Vordergrund gerückt. So kämpft der Spieler mit Schwert und Schild gegen einige Zombies, die er mit gezielten Hieben niederstreckt. Laut verantwortlichen Devs soll das Spiel auf ein realistisches Kampfsystem mit dazugehöriger Physik-Engine setzen, wodurch verschiedene Waffen ihr ganz eigenes Handling besitzen. Entsprechend muss im Gegensatz zu anderen RPG-Spielen ein Schwert auch richtig geschwungen werden, um Schaden auszuteilen. Oculus kündigte bereits zur erstmaligen Präsentation Gore-Elemente an, die durch Verstümmelung der Gegner umgesetzt werden. Dies wird hier in Form von Enthauptungen aufgezeigt.

Ebenso wird die Interaktion mit der Umwelt sowie das Looten von Gegenständen präsentiert. Truhen und Türen werden durch realistische Handgriffe geöffnet, Geldsäcke und Gegenstände in die eigenen Taschen gesteckt und Lebenspunkte werden durch das Essen von Nahrungsmitteln regeneriert. Das kurzzeitige Aufheben und Streicheln einer Ratte ist zum Zeitvertreib ebenso möglich.

Ein erstes Minirätsel wird durch das Aufnehmen eines Schlüssels zum Öffnen einer verschlossenen Tür vorgeführt. So ist der begehrte Gegenstand durch eine Wand mit Metallstangen unerreichbar, doch zur Lösung kommt ein froschartiger Gefährte zur Hilfe. Dieser wird per Kommando gerufen, um mit seiner Zunge den Schlüssel heranzuziehen. Eine der Spielmechaniken ist es, Wildtiere durch magische Götterfähigkeiten in Kampfgefährten zu verwandeln, damit diese an der Seite eurer Helden stehen.

Insgesamt 30 bis 40 Stunden Spielzeit soll die Spieler im kommenden VR-Abenteuer erwarten. Asgard’s Wrath soll noch 2019 exklusiv für Oculus Rift erscheinen. Ein genaues Veröffentlichungsdatum ist bisher noch nicht bekannt. Dafür soll das Spiel auf der GDC 2019 im März offiziell vorgeführt werden.

(Quellen: Upload VR | Video: Mike Doran Vimeo)

Der Beitrag Asgard’s Wrath: Erste Gameplay-Szenen veröffentlicht zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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New Asgard’s Wrath Gameplay Emerges for Oculus Rift

Last week Sanzaru Games and Oculus Studios announced their latest collaboration, the epic looking Asgard’s Wrath. At the time several screenshots were released as well as a short trailer for the experience showcasing some gameplay. Over the weekend Oculus Studios Executive Producer Mike Doran released a pure gameplay video, highlighting even more of the experience.

Asgard's Wrath

Looking very much in the fantasy role-playing game (RPG) genre like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, the short video shows a little combat as well as item and artefact collection. It looks like the warrior character in action using a sword and shield combination. Then, later on, you get to see a frog looking companion jump out of nowhere who can then reach places that are inaccessible.

While it can be difficult to tell via screenshots, Asgard’s Wrath certainly looks the part with an awesome amount of detail and some beautiful looking lighting. The ruins are nice and dark and gloomy with the rain glistening off of the floor. It’s already a pretty impressive looking title without showing massive landscapes.

A large 30+ hour VR adventure based on Norse mythology, Asgard’s Wrath revolves around players being a fledgeling god who is set several challenges by Loki. What this means is you get to not only fight as a mere mortal, but you also get to use those godly powers to give yourself the edge in battle. There are different character classes to choose from, Mage, Rogue, Warrior for example with the studio having spent particular time on the melee combat, fine-tuning the physics to provide as real an experience as possible.

Asgard's Wrath

You’ll be able to switch between both mortal and god modes depending on the situation, either going hand to hand, chopping off limbs with swords, or becoming a massive overseer, not only solving puzzles but also changing the local wildlife into champions to help your mortal self.

Sanzaru Games hasn’t said when during 2019 Asgard’s Wrath will arrive for Oculus Rift, but don’t expect it before the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2019 in June, as Oculus will be returning to the event to demo the videogame there. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.