The virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) industries are wonderfully diverse when it comes to the job roles available, always looking to hire the best talent to work on exciting projects. Whether you’ve been an avid fan of the tech for a while or are already involved in some way, today’s VR Job Hub has plenty of new roles which can help you become more involved and shape VR/AR’s future.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
After a slow start, 2019 rounded out to be an undeniably strong year for consumer VR, setting up a springboard into a big 2020. Here’s an overview of the major happenings in VR over the last year, and a glimpse of what will come in 2020.
5 Major New Headsets and What They Mean for the Market
2019 started out slow as the industry waited with baited breath for the launch of the latest wave of headsets, but things started heating up once they finally hit the market. Here’s a look at the biggest headset launches of 2019 and what they’ve meant to the industry so far.
Oculus Quest
Image courtesy Oculus
Oculus Quest is surely the most important headset to launch in 2019. We called it the “first great standalone VR headset” in our review, thanks to a reasonable $400 price point, full 6DOF tracking (which allows it to play games functionally on par with high-end VR headsets) and no PC required.
As a standalone VR headset built on smartphone hardware, Quest can’t compete in the graphics department against high-end PC VR headsets, but there’s no question that it’s the class leader in ease-of-use (a place where tethered headsets are still struggling). And if you happen to have a gaming PC anyway, Quest also doubles as a PC VR headset.
On those fronts, Rift S seems to have largely succeeded; its $400 launch price was half of the launch price of the original Rift with Touch controllers, and we certainly haven’t been missing the external sensors of the original since getting our hands on Rift S. Thanks to the backing of a strong content library, Rift S packs a lot of value, making it easy to recommend as the best entry-level headset for PC VR.
Valve Index
Image courtesy Valve
After tons of speculation, Valve finally jumped into the VR headset space with its own first-party hardware in 2019. While the company had originally collaborated with HTC to create the Vive, this time around Valve opted to handle everything on their own.
In our review we called Index “the enthusiast’s choice” thanks to category-leading visuals, ergonomics, and audio, as well as solid controllers. And while it’s a lovely headset once you’re inside, there’s no denying the significant $1,000 price tag and sub-par ease-of-use due to external tracking sensors and last-gen boundary setup.
Still, Index is a hugely important headset because it acts as a high bar that future headsets can strive toward and demonstrates the continued existence of an enthusiast class of VR consumers who are willing to pay for a high-end VR experience. But it’s also made for an awkward relationship between Valve and HTC who are now positioned more as competitors than partners.
Vive Cosmos
Image courtesy HTC
In 2019 HTC launched Vive Cosmos, its first true successor to the original Vive headset. Like Facebook with Rift S, HTC opted to make its latest headset easier to use by ditching external tracking sensors for inside-out tracking.
In our review we called Cosmos “a decent headset up against stiff competition.” Indeed, worst-in-class tracking and iffy ergonomics has left Cosmos overshadowed by the considerably less expensive Rift S and the more expensive but higher-fidelity Index. And while HTC had positioned Cosmos as a move toward a more user-friendly headset, the device’s awkward reliance on Steam (despite a Viveport front-end) arguably takes it a step back in user-experience compared to the original Vive.
While Microsoft and its other VR partners seem to have largely abandoned the Windows VR platform, HP surprised us in 2019 with the launch of Reverb, its second VR headset. While it’s still stuck with Windows VR (and the worst-in-class controllers that come standard with such headsets), Reverb leads in pixel density, making it a compelling choice for simulator enthusiasts who tend to value resolution above other specs.
While Reverb’s launch in 2019 shows that HP is seriously committed to PC VR, it hasn’t done much to alleviate the feeling that Microsoft is knowingly allowing the Windows VR platform to wither away.
Big VR Game Launches and Growing Developer Success
Since the first consumer VR headsets hit the market in 2016, developers have been steadily honing in on what makes a great (and successful) VR game. While it’s been a painfully slow process for developers and consumers alike, 2019 saw the launch of games which have objectively moved the needle forward in VR game design and set new records for developer success. Here’s a look at the most important moments in VR gaming in 2019.
Beat Saber’s Full Release and Developer Acquisition by Facebook
Image courtesy Beat Games
It wasn’t long after Beat Saber’s early access launch in 2018 that it was a clear success for its small indie developer Beat Games. Later that year the game launched on PSVR where it remains one of the best rated games on the platform. In 2019, Beat Games added new music & features and brought feature-parity to all versions of the game, culminating in a full launch out of early access alongside the launch of Quest on May 21st, 2019.
Even before the game launched on Quest, it reached a huge milestone as the first VR title—as far as we know—to have sold 1 million copies. This staggering success caught the attention of Facebook, leading to the surprise acquisition of Beat Games. This was likely primarily a defensive move in order to keep platform competitors from getting their hands on what is surely Quest’s most important game. But there’s an offensive element too: Facebook seems keen to accelerate the game’s adoption of new Oculus platform technologies aimed at driving user engagement.
Asgard’s Wrath Delivers the First Great VR RPG
Image courtesy Oculus
Purportedly VR’s largest game production yet released, Asgard’s Wrath capitalized on the longstanding desire for a meaty VR-native RPG. Players were treated to some 30 hours of content and a game which has been called a “must buy” by many. We thought enough of the title that we gave it our 2019 Game of the Year Award for the Oculus Rift.
The Oculus Studios-backed title appears to have been a success, but it also sets a very high bar for third-party (and mostly indie) developers to follow.
Stormland’s Innovative Open World and Developer Acquisition by Sony
Image courtesy Insomniac Games
Developed by veteran game and VR studio Insomniac Games, Stormland raised the bar in VR open-world game design with an innovative take on locomotion which offers players a sense of large scale freedom rarely seen elsewhere in VR. The game successfully combines a handful of different locomotion schemes and integrates them with satisfying combat for a core gameplay loop that’s easy to love.
We expect VR game design concepts from Stormland to proliferate into VR titles in 2020 and beyond. For its contributions we gave the title our 2019 Design Award for Excellence in Locomotion.
While Facebook scooped up Beat Saber’s Beat Games, Sony acquired Stormland’s Insomniac Games in 2019. Though the company probably bought the studio primarily for its success in the non-VR space, it was a strategic blow to Oculus nonetheless.
Blood & Truth Proves PSVR is Still Going Strong
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
Blood & Truth was PSVR’s biggest game to launch in 2019 and managed to delight players with an action-packed narrative full of interesting moments. Blood & Truth is an impressively crafted experience that is not only expertly designed around the limitations of the aging PSVR, but even manages to raise the technical bar for character rendering and performances on any VR platform, even against much more powerful PC hardware.
By making nearly everything in the game physical and interactive, Boneworks delivers on player’s expectations of agency in a way that often goes far beyond its contemporaries. In the game, just about every object, enemy, and weapon is physically interactive, leading to moments where novel ideas—like, say, using a coffee mug as a melee weapon—actually work. While the heavy emphasis on physics can be frustrating and wonky at times, it’s hard not to feel a sense of added embodiment when your ideas about what’s possible in the game world are satisfied in a realistic fashion.
For its part, Boneworks is a flag in the ground which represents perhaps the most interactive physics sandbox seen in VR to date, and a proof point that glimpses the immersive benefits which come from more realistic virtual interactions—something we expect to see developers expand on into 2020 and beyond.
Star Wars: Vader Immortal Successfully Brings Big IP Into VR
Image courtesy ILMxLAB
While the number of great VR games is steadily growing, only a small handful of titles so far have been based on major franchises, and of those that are, even fewer still have actually been made from the ground-up for VR.
Star Wars: Vader Immortal is shining example of bringing a massively popular intellectual property into VR in a way that feels authentic and enjoyable. It’s key to have major franchises jumping into the VR landscape to pique the interest of mainstream consumers who may not be interested in VR as a technology unto itself; it’s even more important that the execution of big IP in VR is done well so that new users don’t get a bad taste from their first experience.
On that note, Vader Immortal—which was released in three parts over the course of 2019—hits all the right notes. It’s engaging and easy to play, thanks to a focus on narrative and immersion, rather than raw gameplay, making it a great first-time VR experience; it’s also one of the most visually impressive games available on Quest. So it’s no wonder why we gave the game our 2019 Game of the Year Award for Quest.
While only a small handful of indie VR studios so far have found this sort of ongoing success, Superhot VR shows that, for projects of the right scope, there’s considerable (and growing) developer opportunity in VR.
Peering Into 2020
So, 2019 was a big year for VR in many ways, but what does 2020 hold? Here’s a few reason why we think 2020 will be VR’s biggest year yet.
Oculus Quest 2
Image courtesy Oculus
There’s no doubt that Facebook has been happy with the traction of its latest standalone VR headset, Oculus Quest. The company is moving quickly to build out the headset’s software features—like adding hand-tracking and PC support with Oculus Link—and it’s all but certain that Quest 2 is already in the works. The big question is when.
While Oculus’ history with the Rift would suggest that it would be several years from one headset to the next, VR as a market is much more defined today than it was back in 2016 when the first headsets hit the market. With the resources Facebook is pouring into Quest, we doubt there will be a similar three year span (like with Rift to Rift S) until the next Quest headset.
There’s reason to believe that Quest 2 will be announced in 2020. The biggest, perhaps, is that the current headset is based on a fairly old Snapdragon 835 processor which puts a pretty hard limit on what can be done with the headset by both Facebook and third-party developers. Moving to a more advanced hardware platform like, say, Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon XR2, would open the door to substantial improvements. Of course, that’ll only happen if the price is right; Quest’s reasonable $400 price point is a big part of its appeal.
And then there’s Oculus Rift 2. Facebook launched its second PC headset, Rift S in early 2019, but it was a bit of a side-grade and cost-down to the original Rift rather than a true successor. In 2019 Facebook showed some very impressive prototype VR headsets with major advances in optics and form-factor, but has yet to announce Rift 2.
The prototype tech seems like it will form the foundation of Rift 2, but there’s a bigger question on our mind: will Quest 2 and Rift 2 be the same headset? This would be an ambitious move, but there’s already some hints that it’s the direction Facebook is headed.
Along with cross-buy between many Quest and Rift apps, Facebook is trying to unify its VR userbase to make a broader audience for developers. If every customer that owned an Oculus headset could play both standalone Quest content and PC-powered Rift content, that’s a huge win for the ecosystem.
Alternatively, rather than combining Quest 2 and Rift 2, Oculus could keep Quest as its lower-end product line while positioning Rift 2 as a piercer but higher-fidelity headset to compete for against Valve’s Index in the VR enthusiast space.
All Eyes on Half-Life: Alyx
Image courtesy Valve
There’s no doubt that the Half-Life: Alyx, the upcoming made-for-VR game from legendary developer Valve, is the most anticipated VR title of 2020. And it will have ramifications beyond the existing VR market; many mainstream gaming and tech publications which rarely (or effectively never) cover VR will be picking up the requisite headsets and hardware to take a good close look at the game when it launches. Half-Life: Alyx will be the biggest opportunity to date for VR to show mainstream gamers why it’s worthy of their attention.
Big Oculus Games on the Horizon
Image courtesy Ready at Dawn
After a string of not-so-great titles from Oculus Studios, Facebook’s first-party VR publisher, between 2017 and mid-2019, Asgard’s Wrath and Stormland ended the year as wins for the Oculus content library.
Oculus Studios also has placed big bets on several highly anticipated games set to launch in 2020: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Lone Echo II, and Phantom: Covert Ops. It remains to be seen whether these games will become key additions to the Oculus content lineup or go down in history as flops, but the outcome is important because Facebook is effectively the only company in town that’s funding big VR titles from third-party studios.
Beyond games, Facebook is also set to launch its brand new social VR platform, Facebook Horizon in 2020. Despite being one of the world’s leading social media companies, Facebook’s social VR strategy has been chaotic at best, but it looks like the company is finally trying to consolidate its efforts into a platform that’s more universally available across its biggest headsets in 2020.
Facebook Horizon | Image courtesy Facebook
Facebook Horizon will be the only first-party social VR application of its kind, and it has the potential to seriously shake up the social VR space which is currently dominated by third-party VR apps.
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What were your personal ‘most important moments’ in VR for 2019 and what are you looking forward to most in 2020? Drop us a line below!
The road toUploadVR’s Best of 2019 awards starts here! Every weekday until later this month we’ll be revealing one of the ten nominees for our Overall VR Game/Experience of the Year, counting down to the reveal of our full list of categories and nominees later in December. Pick up your sword and shield because Asgard’s Wrath is a must-play epic VR RPG adventure.
When Oculus announced Asgard’s Wrath (read our review) it sounded too good to be true. Over 30 hours of content spread across multiple large zones, several playable characters, and an intense combat system all surrounded by a rich, Norse mythology-focused narrative? And it’s exclusive to VR, not a port of an existing non-VR AAA game? Pinch me please; I must be dreaming.
And then it absolutely delivered and I’m still in shock it was as good as it was two months ago.
In Asgard’s Wrath you take on the role of a new god in the Norse pantheon that rules over animals. You have the ability to possess and take control of mortals while also transforming everyday animals like turtles and birds into humanoid companions that fight by your side. The majority of the game is spent solving puzzles, exploring dungeons, and fighting off swarms of enemies using a mixture of ranged and visceral melee combat. Truly, it’s a full-scale action-adventure RPG built from the ground up for VR.
It’s difficult to overstate just how impressive Asgard’s Wrath is. The download file alone was over 100GB in size and it clearly showed. Visually it’s staggering masterpiece with some of the most intricately detailed environments I’ve seen in any VR game. The team at Sanzaru Games achieved something truly remarkable here marrying elements of Zelda, Metroid, and Castlevania into one massive package with a bow on top.
It took me over 25 hours to pick my way through the main campaign and that’s without stopping for any side content except for maybe once or twice. There is easily around 40 hours of content here. Once I was done my save file only said I’d seen about 30% of what the game had to offer. That’s dumbfounding.
All of the characters are a blast to play as with their own unique fighting styles and upgrade paths. Like most great games, it does an excellent job of keeping you hooked with satisfying rewards, a real sense of gradual progression, and an innovative God-meets-mortals mechanic that feels truly unique.
Unless you just outright hate RPGs or action-adventure games, this is absolutely a must-play VR game that should be experienced to fully appreciate.
Asgard’s Wrath is available exclusively on the Oculus Home Store for Rift for $39.99, but does also work via Oculus Link for Quest and ReVive for non-Oculus headsets from what we’ve tried.
Oculus Studios’ Executive Producer on Asgard’s Wrath, Mike Doran, announced that Sanzaru Games are working on adding subtitles to their VR RPG action-adventure game Asgard’s Wrath after hearing community feedback.
Doran confirmed on Reddit that subtitles for multiple languages will be added into the game. However, the process is “just starting” and so he also warned that it will likely be a number of months before they become available in the game. “It’s many weeks [sic] worth of work and QA to verify text across the entire game.”
The exact list of supported languages has not been decided, but Doran promised to share the list as soon as they can. He prompted readers to spread the information across non-English forums as well, so that users waiting on subtitle support for their language are aware that the feature is being worked on.
Doran is also working as a producer on other Oculus Studios titles such as Medal of Honor and Vader Immortal, and said that the team wants to be more consistent overall when in comes to adding subtitles in their games. This is great news from an accessibility standpoint, ensuring that all of these fantastic games are available to as many people as possible.
Asgard’s Wrath launched earlier this month and David was suitably impressed in his review, naming it “VR’s best and most ambitious game yet.” We also invited the Creative Director of Asgard’s Wrath, Mat Kraemer, onto Episode 3 of our podcast, The VR Download, last week. Unlike traditional podcasts, The VR Download is broadcast from a virtual reality studio – you can check out the episode with Mat here.
Episode 3 of UploadVR’s weekly podcast, The VR Download, was live today.
Unlike regular video podcasts, The VR Download is broadcast from a virtual reality studio! Our team are together in a virtual space, giving us many of the benefits of a studio even though we live on different continents.
Our special guest this week was Mat Kraemer, Creative Director at Sanzaru Games, the studio which just released the norse-themed AAA VR RPG Asgard’s Wrath, which we called “VR’s best and most ambitious game yet” in our review, giving the game 5 stars.
The show is normally hosted by our Operations Manager, Kyle Riesenbeck, however Kyle is on vacation this week so this episode was hosted by our Senior Games Editor David Jagneaux.
Show Structure
[Section 1] The News Discussion: our thoughts on the biggest VR news of the past week, one article at a time. You’ll hear our in depth behind the scenes thoughts on what’s happening in the virtual reality industry.
[Section 2] Release of the Week: the team talks about the VR games they’ve been playing this week and try to come to a consensus as to what is the most significant.
[Section 3] The Hot Topic: an in depth discussion of one big (sometimes controversial) industry trend, topic, or idea per week.
[Section 4] Special Guest Interview: a 1-1 interview with a significant developer, executive, or personality from the VR industry.
Asgard’s Wrath is one of the medium’s richest action RPGs to date (read our review here), and as such, it is positively teeming with secrets and hidden quests to find.
That said, the biggest and best side quests in Asgard’s Wrath are stored away in optional dungeons, called Labyrinths. While many treasures and points of interest are hidden in plain sight, Labyrinths tend to hide away from the world for you to go out and find.
Meanwhile, for those who want to battle their hearts out, some of the toughest (and most rewarding) combat challenges in Asgard’s Wrath are served up in Arenas, where mortal challengers are invited to step up and take on Valkyrie Challenges for prizes and glory.
It isn’t immediately obvious where to look for any of these when you’re first starting out, so here’s our guide on how to find and gain access to some of the earliest major side locations in Asgard’s Wrath. Note that entering a Labyrinth for the first time usually consumes a Midgard Key. Likewise, entering a Valkyrie Challenge always costs a Hogni’s Heart, which you can replenish from the blacksmith at Aegir’s Hall.
Labyrinths
Labyrinths are massive dungeons that span entire zones in Asgard’s Wrath, much like the main zones featured throughout the main quest arc. While some Labyrinths in later sagas are part of the main quest itself, each of the biggest Labyrinths found in the early sagas spanning across Midgard are entirely optional and tend to reward plenty of loot and unique (unbreakable) Hero equipment.
Unmarked Tomb
Zone: Stormborn Beach
Quest: A Restless Soul
Required Hero: Ingrid
Required Followers: Astrid, Hulda
Rewards: Ingrid’s Hero shield.
How to get inside: From the Tomb of Thorketill the Patient on Stormborn Beach, immediately head up the stairs and travel through the passageway. Use Astrid’s Wind Gust ability on the windmill to open the door, and travel inside to begin the quest.
Abandoned Dungeon
Zone: Borgarholt Fort
Quest: A “King’s” Ransom
Required Hero: Any
Required Followers: Astrid, Hulda
How to get inside: After you gain access to the Borgarholt Ravine, travel past the God Altar and underneath the bridge until you find a tight corridor leading off the main path and into a well-lit enclosure. Head down the stairway towards the locked door and the side quest should initiate.
The Virgin’s Labyrinth
Zone: Midgard Highlands
Quest: The Lady in the Labyrinth
Required Hero: Any
Required Followers: N/A
How to get inside: At the God Altar, enter god-mode and look at the large statue with two yellow eyes and a closed doorway for a mouth. Poke both yellow eyes at once and the previously closed door will now be open, initiating the quest. Head on through the now-open corridor and head up the stairs to the gate.
Forgotten Sanctum
Zone: Great Belfry
Quest: Mysteries of Midgard: Parts I & II
Required Hero: Frodi
Required Followers: N/A
Rewards: Frodi’s Hero shield.
How to get inside: As soon as you make your way to the large round Grand Chamber door, which is on the platform directly below the zone’s God Altar (you can’t miss it), turn left down the stairs into a cylindrical room that leads down a corridor. Follow the corridor to a door, and you’ll find yourself inside of the Forgotten Sanctum.
Arenas
Valkyrie Challenges that take place in Arenas where you face off against wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies. Each session is timed, and the timer runs indefinitely until you finally die. The rewards you receive at the end are determined by your rank.
Ranks:
Thrall (2x kills)
Farmer (4x kills)
Skald (6x kills)
Raider (8x kills)
Berserker (14x kills)
Drengr (18x kills)
Godly (???)
Seaside Stronghold
Quest: Arena I: Seaside Stronghold
How to get inside: A fast travel point appears in the Stormlands after completion of the second saga.
Whisperwind Point
Quest: Arena II: Whisperwind Point
How to get inside: A fast travel point appears in the Highlands after completion of the third saga.
If there’s a good metric for finding out whether virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality companies are doing well then just look at their job vacancies. If VRFocus’ weekly VR Job Hub is anything to go by then the industry can’t be doing too bad, especially when factoring in those featured below.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Sanzaru Games has been working closely with Oculus Studios since the early days of the Oculus Rift. And while the studio has three other VR games to its name, none of them come close to the scale of Asgard’s Wrath—in fact, Oculus believes that the game is the largest VR production to date. In speaking to Sanzaru’s Grace Morales Lingad and Oculus Studios’ Mike Doran, we learned of the surprising twists and turns the project took on its way to becoming the VR epic that it is today, and get a glimpse at the artwork that inspired and guided the game’s impressive visuals.
Editor’s Note: The big, beautiful pictures and exclusive artwork in this article are best viewed on a desktop browser with a large screen or in landscape orientation on your phone. All images courtesy Sanzaru Games and Oculus Studios.
A Toybox and a Sketch
Though it launched just this week, Asgard’s Wrath can trace its roots back to even before the Oculus Touch controllers had launched. Oculus revealed Touch way back in 2015 alongside a demo built to show off the controllers called Toybox. In the demo players, used the controllers to play with doll-sized toys. Especially at that time, when 6DOF hand controllers were quite novel, there was a certain novelty to playing with these little toys and watching them move around on a table in front of you as if you were a god towering over the likes of little minions. It was this contrast of scales which was the first inspiration for what would—more than four years later—become Asgard’s Wrath, said Mike Doran, Executive Producer at Oculus Studios.
“As Sanzaru was wrapping development on VR Sports [a 2016 Oculus Touch launch title], we approached them with the idea of doing a game set in the perspective of Toybox: manipulating smaller objects in a larger ‘god’ form.” Following those conversations, Sanzaru Games Creative Director Mat Kraemer drew a quick sketch which, according to an Oculus spokesperson, “effectively gave birth to the game.”
I can’t help but laugh at the scrawled text in the sketch as I know now what Kraemer and his team at the time didn’t—that “puzzle crap,” and the other hastily written notes, were fated to turn into 30+ hours of gameplay in one of VR’s biggest productions to date, a task which wouldn’t come to fruition for another four years.
Becoming the Hero
The form that Asgard’s Wrath would eventually take was not clear right off the bat, Doran explained.
“Before we landed on Action/Adventure RPG, Asgard’s Wrath went through many identities. It was even a tower defense game at one point. There are elements of that old design in a few of the more cinematic battles as well as our entire UI for inventory. That shelf based system came directly from an early interface that was created to manage setting up defenses.”
Doran recalled that Sanzaru built a prototype based on the ‘god-scale’ concept which ultimately paved the way for another huge part of the game’s concept.
“Early on, you were only in this god form; you’d manipulate objects in the world and defeat monsters to help an AI human-scale character complete goals and advance through the environment. One of the [prototypes] had the AI you were protecting run into a series of caves, emerging with a sword and shield,” Doran said, “Every person that played this had similar feedback: ‘this is cool, but I want to see what’s inside the cave.’ Sanzaru put together a prototype [where you could switch] between human and god scale, and it was instant magic.”
Once it was clear that the player would play as both a god-like overseer and as the mortal hero themselves, Sanzaru realized they’d need to build a melee combat system with the depth to sustain hours of play. Doran said the team “spent a good nine or so months just expanding and building out the combat.”
Sanzaru’s Grace Morales Lingad, Lead Designer on Asgard’s Wrath, recalled some of the challenges faced therein.
“One-to-one melee combat is arguably the ‘holy grail’ of gesture-based gaming, and for Asgard’s Wrath […] we foolishly decided to take a stab at it! That ambition was rife with challenges: figuring out the spacing between enemies and the player; addressing exploits inherent to a combat system based on players moving their bodies instead of pressing controller buttons; testing and tuning to accommodate different player behaviors; the list is endless,” said Lingad. “We experimented with incorporating more physics-based gameplay in the melee combat, but ultimately we opted to go in another direction because we wanted to prioritize clarity rather than pure simulation. For instance, we wanted to minimize disruption of the player’s one-to-one (hand-to-weapon) interactions, so we don’t slow the player’s hand and weapon down when cutting through enemies.”
We’ve now finished our full video review of Asgard’s Wrath to complement the written version! It took longer than usual because of the length, but if you’d like to see and hear our review instead of just reading it, here you go!
Become the next great Asgardian god in Asgard’s Wrath as you immerse yourself in the legendary world of Norse mythology. Sharpen your swordplay and bring your own fighting style into the fray with next-level combat. Possess different classes of mortal heroes, solve larger-than-life puzzles, and transform animals into warrior companions that you lead into battle.
The day has finally arrived: Asgard’s Wrath, the massive new action-adventure VR RPG from Sanzaru Games and Oculus Studios is officially released for Oculus Rift. We’ve already played it and published our full review so this guide will specifically focus on tips and strategies to help new players get started.
Asgard’s Wrath is an incredibly dense game. It took me around 25 hours to finish the main story and that’s without venturing off the main path very often. Across the entire adventure it spans six different sagas, or chapters, and lets you take control of five different mortal heroes each with their own unique playstyle, gear, and special abilities.
We’ll assume that you’re jumping into the game pretty fresh at this point and run down everything you need to know, especially things we wish we had known, to get started.
Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment
Each hero will have a handful of “Hero Gear” items in Asgard’s Wrath that always return to them and are indestructible, such as Ingrid’s sword or Frodi’s staff. While these weapons are great to rely on, don’t be afraid to experiment. Sometimes the weapon that an enemy drops, although not indestructible, is still very powerful and good to use to make quick work of enemies. Later on in the game many of these dropped weapons will have status properties that do lightning, fire, poison, or some other type of extra damage.
It’s also just lots of fun to lop off someone’s head, grab their sword, then chop off another enemy’s arm all without skipping a beat. Definite badass material.
Parrying Is Crucial
If you’re playing on either medium or hard difficulty then you’re gonna need to master parrying very quickly. Enemies are generally classified in four different ways in Asgard’s Wrath: standard enemies with just a health bar, Runic Armor enemies that have extra shield bars, boss enemies that are large and pack devastating attacks, and full boss encounters (there are only three of these in the whole game.)
Standard enemies you just need to hit them to lower their health until they’re dead. That’s it. Parrying is handy to deflect attacks but not needed. The other class of enemies, the ones with Runic Armor (blue bars above the green health bar) are where things get tricky. You’ll need to parry, block, or dodge standard and heavy (red glowing) attacks to build up the enemy’s rage meter (thin red bar beneath the green health bar) to then trigger a Signature Attack (their eyes glow red and there’s a blue glow around the weapon) which must be parried to stun the enemy. Once stunned you can attack to remove the Runic Armor bar and start dealing normal damage.
If you’re playing on Easy however, you don’t need to parry but it will help speed up some encounters if you don’t want to chip away at health bars.
Pay Attention To Status Effects
Some status effects in Asgard’s Wrath like being frozen or on fire are tough to ignore, but I found the combat so intense and active that it was easy to miss the slow damage-over-time effect. If you look down with your eyes you’ll see your health at the bottom of the HUD and if you’re taking damage the number is, obviously, going down.
But on the flip side, you can use these against enemies too. Even if you haven’t broken their Runic Armor you can use status effects like poison and lightning damage to hurt their health beneath the armor directly. Some followers are particularly good at this, such as the owl, who can shoot crossbow bolts from a distance for a steady barrage.
Bond With Followers
You should always stay friendly with your followers. Keep them happy by regularly feeding them, making sure they don’t die, and giving a thumbs up, high-five, or fist bump — just typical stuff you do with any animal.
The benefit here is that if they’re happy they will discover random items in the environment for you and the stronger the bond, the better the items.
Gather Absolutely Everything
Leave no barrel unbusted, crate unbroken, or pot unsmashed. They almost always have crafting resources inside and every treasure chest has something useful. When you go back to the tavern just sell everything you don’t need (like body parts or weapons you don’t like) and store the rest in your stash.
Every time you visit the blacksmith or merchant to craft something Asgard’s Wrath will automatically pull from your stash as well as your inventory for all ingredients.
Craft Upgrades Early And Often
Speaking of which, you should stop by the blacksmith often. Don’t just wait until the end of a hero’s saga because at that point you don’t really need to play that hero again unless you want to do side content as them. But if you upgrade during the saga at every other checkpoint or so then you’ll steadily improve over the course of all of their quests.
Always Have Meads And Potions Handy
In a lot of RPGs I stockpile items until the end and just never use them. I encourage you not to do that in Asgard’s Wrath. Health does not recover for your followers or you, at all, other than by eating food and drinking potions. You can craft potions back at the tavern, but can only hold 10 at a time. I’d recommend saving those and if you hit your limit give extras to followers to keep them topped off.
Generally speaking I’d recommend crafting potions and meads as a first-priority every time you visit the tavern. Especially Frenzy Meads. When using these your follower activates their Frenzied state which enables their special ability. Hulda the turtle, for example, taunts all enemies towards her while raising her shield while the shark can do a corkscrew attack to shred through Runic Armor easily — this one’s great for boss fights.
Understand Inventory Navigation
There are three main inventory sections: consumables, weapons, and materials. They all have their own pages and own storage capacities. The other icons at the top are Hero Gear, key items, followers, and heroes. Hero Gear, as explained earlier, are the iconic and persistent weapons unique to each hero that you unlock. Key items are things like keys for chests, handles for levers, or various dragon horns that you can craft to bypass large creatures blocking paths — among other things.
Usually you don’t need to actually look through the inventory to use a key item, most of the time Asgard’s Wrath just understands what you need and lets you pick it out of the air to use in the moment it’s needed.
Always Solve Gnome Riddles (If You Can) To Upgrade Inventory Space
These little gnome fellas will pop up at various stages throughout the game with a riddle. If you can decipher it (usually the answer is a consumable or material found in that region) and you give it to him then you’ll get some cash and a golden needle. You can exchange golden needles for inventory space upgrades at the merchant back at the tavern.
Venture Off The Beaten Path
Asgard’s Wrath is a game just as much about exploration as it is defeating powerful god-like enemies. The main quest took me around 24 hours to finish, but I couldn’t help but venture off the main path every now and then. If you do so often you’ll find lots of valuable crafting materials for upgrades, tons of side quests and puzzles, and in some cases large, separate dungeons that are entirely optional with their own storylines and special high-profile rewards.
Since this is also heavily inspired by Metroidvania-style games, there is big incentive to re-explore areas after you get further in the game because new paths will become accessible as well as new content you didn’t see the first time through.
Avenge Fallen Players Every Chance You Get In Asgard’s Wrath
One of my favorite entirely optional bits of Asgard’s Wrath is the fallen hero system. When a real-life player dies in Asgard’s Wrath the game logs that location and stores it with a chance for other players to come across it in their game. When this happens a ghostly purple apparition appears, along with the player’s actual Oculus ID, issuing a challenge to avenge them.
If you complete the combat challenge you’re awarded Yggdrasil seeds which can be used to sprout faerie blessings back at Yggdrasil (the giant tree) that grant you permanent buffs. Some of them are super helpful like offering a chance to replenish potions when drinking one or lowering the relationship penalty for a follower’s death.
Read The Codex At Aegir’s Tavern
Back at the tavern there is a giant floating book hovering over the fire. If you flip through it then you can not only find out about some classical Norse mythology not specifically covered in the game’s narrative, but you’ll also find out new details like intel on enemies as well as what each of your follower’s like best as their favorite food. All followers will eat any food but feeding them their favorite heals for more health per item.
Reconstruct Totems In God Form At Altar Locations
Finally, each time you unlock a new God alter in a region and convert a new animal follower, spend some time in God form exploring. You might notice some things you otherwise couldn’t have seen from the hero’s perspective.
Specifically, you’ll spot broken wooden totems. There will be a base located somewhere near the altar with two broken, missing pieces within reach of your God form. Put those back together and then locate three animals skulls to adorn the top and voila, it’s reconstructed. This will net you extremely valuable crafting materials that are crucial for upgrading hero gear back at the blacksmith.
