Although we didn’t get a first look at Ubisoft’s VR take on Assassin’s Creed during Meta’s big Quest Gaming Showcase today, the studio says we should watch out next week for the full reveal.
Meanwhile, today’s announcement (of an announcement) confirmed for the first time that a previous leak was true, claiming the game would indeed be called ‘Nexus’, or rather Assassin’s Creed: Nexus VR.
The leak, which was from April 2022, included a host of unconfirmed information including a video of a mission menu and initial impressions of the work-in-progress game.
The leaked video included a number of mission-related texts which could point to the game being set in a smorgasbord of iconic eras visited across the franchise. Here’s some text pulled from the leaked video in question which talks about Ezio, the Florentine nobleman from Rennaissance-era Italy:
“Ezio makes a surprise return to the family estate at Monteriggioni at the behest of his sister (and fellow assassin) Claudia. Claudia, it seems, has been trying to rebuild the ruins of Monteriggioni, and things have been going very slowly. She’s got her suspicions as to why this is so, what isn’t read to act yet. Instead, Claudia suggest Ezio fins out what’s going on, then leaves him with word that she’s hidden a knickknack of his that he loved as a child somewhere in [illegible] that sports a puzzle.”
Ubisoft is set to release more info about Assassin’s Creed: Nexus VR at its annual Ubisoft Forward livestream on June 12th.
Will it feature the high-flying action the franchise is known for? We won’t know until the full reveal, which we’re hoping comes with a solid gameplay trailer and a release date for its target platforms, which include Quest 2 and Quest Pro.
During the Assassin's Creed 15th anniversary event, Ubisoft announced that the next entry in the RPG series would be revealed at an event this September.
Ubisoft is set to host a ‘Celebration Livestream‘ for the Assassin’s Creed series today.
Might we get our first glimpse of the long-awaited Assassin’s Creed VR?
The stream, which was surprise announced just yesterday, takes place at 9am PT/6pm CET. The company hasn’t said what exactly to expect from the stream, though based on the name it sounds like we’ll probably get a look back at the series’ history, hopefully with a look to the future included too.
Rumors are swirling around the next major console Assassin’s Creed game, Infinity, but we can’t help but wonder if this might be where we finally get a glimpse of Assassin’s Creed VR, the long-anticipated spin-off game. Assassin’s Creed VR was first announced at Oculus Connect in 2019 for Oculus platforms, but to this day we’ve only seen one piece of concept art for the game on an official basis. Ubisoft also announced a Splinter Cell VR game at the same time.
Back in April reports did spring up stating that Assassin’s Creed VR would be called Assassin’s Creed Nexus, and that it would release within the next 12 months. We even got a look at a supposed leaked menu for the game. According to these alleged leaks, the game will consist of multiple missions but won’t be truly open world, instead featuring large, open-ended environments that allow you to explore and backtrack.
Given how long it’s been since an official announcement, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a full reveal of Assassin’s Creed VR later today. What are you hoping to see from the game? Let us know in the comments below!
It appears Ubisoft’s long-awaited Assassin’s Creed VR title has suffered a pretty serious leak, as footage of the game’s starting menu seems to have found its way online along with a few player impressions.
According to information from Reddit user ‘Echiketto’, Ubisoft is calling its upcoming Quest 2 game Assassin’s Creed: Nexus. The name can be seen in a video of what appears to be a working prototype of its main menu and mission selection screen. You can view that video below, courtesy of Brad ‘SadleyItsBradley’ Lynch.
Echiketto on Reddit shared a title screen video for Assassin’s Creed: Nexus
In the video, we get a look at what appears to be a Quest 2 build. It starts with a calibration sequence that makes you do a ‘T’ pose, and then allows you to either start a new game or ‘Enter the Animus’, the franchise’s virtual reality machine developed by the antagonistic mega multinational, Abstergo Industries.
The video also shows up to the selection of the first mission, named ‘The Sword of Ezio’. The text box appears to be unfinished, as it’s labeled ‘Sample text – needs to be scrollable’.
Image courtesy Echiketto
The text reads: “Ezio makes a surprise return to the family estate at Monteriggioni at the behest of his sister (and fellow assassin) Claudia. Claudia, it seems, has been trying to rebuild the ruins of Monteriggioni, and things have been going very slowly. She’s got her suspicions as to why this is so, what isn’t read to act yet. Instead, Claudia suggest Ezio fins out what’s going on, then leaves him with word that she’s hidden a knickknack of his that he loved as a child somewhere in [illegible] that sports a puzzle.”
The anonymous leaker says they’ve already played a “fair bit of the game,” and maintains it will include many of the assassins from game’s past, although they allege the only thing that substantially changes from assassin to assassin is “the hand model and the way people address you.”
The leak, which we have not been able to verify independently, is said to include a number of the usual Assassin’s weapons such as a sword, hidden blade, throwing knife, smoke bombs, and crossbow. Combat is said to be timing-based, with Echiketto’s description sounding much like how melee is handled in Asgard’s Wrath (2019). “You have to wait until your enemy lowers his cover and strike fast,” the leaker says.
“Missions are linear, so no open world. The missions areas are fairly big. Backtracking is a thing,” Echiketto writes.
Additionally, the leaker says jumping—typically an important feature of the series—works by holding the “A” Button and walking towards bespoke areas to initiate a jump. From that description, it sounds very much like a concession to keep the game comfortable and more linear in how the player approaches the world.
A separate leak, reported by Exputer, maintains Nexus includes things such as “stealth movement, pickpocketing, lock picking, combat, climbing, and even the leap of faith.”
Exputer says Nexus features 16 missions, which you can play in either smooth locomotion via the controller analog sticks, or via teleportation. Ostensibly evening the playing field between the two locomotion styles, it’s said teleportation comes with a sound bar that indicates how much noise you’re making to nearby enemies.
“Overall, Assassin’s Creed Nexus seems like it’s going to be a really cool and immersive VR experience, and it’s not hard to see how the previously announced Splinter Cell VR game will also play due to both games similarities,” says Exputer.
On the other hand, Echiketto seems pretty unimpressed with the game, saying it “looked like a cash grab to me. Nothing new.”
We’re still waiting to hear more about Ubisoft’s other title, Splinter Cell VR, both of which were announced back at Connect 2020. Neither game was mentioned in this year’s Quest Gaming Showcase, which featured games slated to arrive sometime in 2022, which suggests we may see those games release in 2023.
Supposed leaks may give us new information about the Assassin’s Creed VR game, apparently called Assassin’s Creed: Nexus.
Two posts surfaced online this weekend, both citing the Nexus name for the Meta-exclusive project. Take note that these reports could easily turn out to be false. Update: An Ubisoft spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company does not comment on rumors and speculation.
The first report was from a site called Exputer, which reported that the game will let you play as Assassins from across the entire series including fan-favorite, Ezio. According to the report, Nexus will focus on the core tenants of the main series, including stealth gameplay, combat and climbing.
Movement will apparently allow for either smooth locomotion or teleporting, with a sound meter used to keep you from simply jumping around undetected. The report also says you can hold a button and flick a wrist to reveal the iconic assassin blades.
Interestingly, though, the article also mentions that Nexus will be made up of 16 individual missions, which suggests it won’t be truly open-world like other games in the series. The second report from a Reddit user backs this up, saying missions are pretty large and allow for backtracking, but the game itself is not open world.
The second source from Reddit also claims to have played “a fair bit of the game” and has posted footage of what they claim is the menu for Nexus, which you can see above. The menu resembles the clean white aesthetic used in the Animus system in the main games, with the player loading into a level called ‘The Sword of Ezio’. There’s no actual gameplay and it’s much easier to mock up a menu than it is in-game content so, again, take this with a big pinch of salt for now.
The Exputer report also claims the game aims to release in the next 12 months. Last week Meta hosted its second annual Quest Gaming Showcase which focused on games releasing within the next year, but Assassin’s Creed was missing from the line-up.
We first heard that Meta had signed deals for Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell VR games in 2019 before the company made them official in late 2020. Since then Ubisoft has been heavily recruiting for both projects, but neither has been officially revealed in any form.
Yesterday’s Meta Quest Gaming Showcase delivered the goods with some big VR game reveals, but there was plenty left on the table.
The short, sharp showcase played host to the announcement of Bonelab, Ghostbusters VR, Espire 2 and Red Matter 2, and specifically had a focus on games to come in 2022. But some of the biggest games and developers that Meta has partnered with in recent years were absent, leaving us wondering when and where we might see them. Here’s a handful of projects we were surprised not to see at yesterday’s event.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR
We had assumed that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was a lock for this week’s showcase. The VR port was announced back at Connect in late 2021 and seemed like it was being primed for a 2022 reveal with a release hopefully later this year. But there wasn’t even a mention of the game at yesterday’s presentation, which casts real doubt on if we’ll even see the game in action this year, let alone play it.
Assassin’s Creed/Splinter Cell VR
It’s now been a year and a half since Meta confirmed a partnership with Ubisoft to bring Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell to VR, and nearly three years since that deal was first reported on. But, with Ubisoft still hiring for the projects — Assassin’s Creed is still looking for even a Lead Game Designer — it seems like any hope of seeing them soon has been quashed.
Onward 2
Mark Zuckerberg accidentally confirmed Onward 2’s existence just under a year ago now. Since then we’ve waited patiently for a proper announcement and had reasonable hopes for a showing at this week’s event. That said, with Onward 1 still in early access on Steam, developer Downpour might want to wrap up work on its first multiplayer shooter before it starts talking about the next.
Oculus Studios Projects
In fact, we haven’t heard so much as a peep about any new games from Meta-owned studios since its acquisition spree began. The company bought Beat Saber maker Beat Games in November 2019, Asgard’s Wrath developer Sanzaru in February 2020, Lone Echo studio Ready at Dawn in June 2020, Downpour in April 2021 and Population: One developer BigBox VR in June 2021. Nearly three years since the acquisitions began and none of these studios have released or announced a truly new Quest project to date. Granted each has existing projects to maintain and game development is a long and complicated process, but surely we must hear about what’s next from one or two of these studios in the near future?
Which games did you think were missing from this week’s showcase? Let us know in the comments below!
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