European game publishing giant Ubisoft has revealed a new Assassin’s Creed (AC) game that’s specifically made for VR. Called Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, the title’s charm will be spearheaded by none other than the legendary Ezio Auditore da Firenze (AC II), and partnering him in this would be Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, along with Connor Kenway from Assassin’s Creed III.
Genre
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR is an upcoming single-player action-adventure VR-only game.
Developers
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR is co-developed by Ubisoft’s Red Storm, Düsseldorf, Reflections, Mumbai, Pune, Montreal, Belgrade, and Berlin studios.
First-Person Play For The First Time Ever!
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR will tell a brand-new story set in the franchise’s universe. It is the first game in the franchise that allows you to play through a first-person perspective.
Locations
The game offers big, open maps with 360-degree navigation that are set in Ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, and Colonial America for you to explore. Needless to say, you can employ your athletic skills of parkour and free climbing. Some of the cities the action is set in include Athens, Venice, and Colonial Boston.
The Primary Antagonist
You will go up against Abstergo Industries, an organization that is nursing a plan to manipulate the beliefs of people by profiling them and using their memories. To be able to do that, Abstergo’s on the lookout for lost artifacts belonging to a time period before the rise of humanity.
Action, Combat, and Opponents
In this VR-exclusive game, you will use “real-world motions” to stab and jab with blades, throw axes, shoot with your bow, etc. With your hands, you can block, parry, counterattack, and engage in duels. You can also air-assassinate someone. Thrilling, isn’t it?
Stealth
Stealth is the action credo of classic Assassin’s Creed adventures, and Nexus VR is no exception. Blend in with the environment and crowds, hide in the shadows, and be silent and deadly. You can also fling objects to distract enemies. The game will throw a variety of enemies down your path.
Weapons
Some of the weapons available to you will be the Hidden Blade, swords, crossbows, bow and arrows, tomahawks, throwing knives, and smoke bombs.
Putting Your Social Skills to Use
In the game, you can interact with civilians and historical figures, similar to other games in the franchise. Some will be friends; others will be foes. It’s up to you to understand who is which!
Exclusively Designed for the Meta Quest 2
As per Ubisoft, the game is exclusively designed for the Meta Quest 2 but will support the Quest 3 and Pro headsets too. You’ll control a full-bodied game avatar who carries a set of holstered weapons. All these weapons can be used via hand tracking. The game features large, explorable maps that can be fully climbed. The people and enemies in the game will react to the VR actions.
Comfort Settings
The game allows you to turn on various comfort settings like Dynamic Peripheral Vision Blocking, Teleportation, and others to counter nausea, vertigo, and fear of heights.
Platforms and Availability
The game will be made available on VR, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro. It will launch sometime this year itself. However, since this is a first-person Assassin’s Creed game (which we’ve been craving for about a decade now), we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s slightly delayed. According to Ubisoft, the game will release during the Holiday period of 2023.
What We Think
The Assassin’s Creed video game franchise is a long-running one, and developers have even tried to deviate from its stealth-based combat by adopting full-fledged combat styles in more modern AC games like Odyssey and Valhalla. With Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, Ubisoft is clearly going back to the game’s roots of stealth-based adventures, which would be comforting to old-timers. Perhaps AC Nexus VR will bring back the magic of the popular AC titles of yore. And in any case, a first-person Assassin’s Creed game will be something fans of the franchise would certainly want to try out.
Haven’t caught up with Ubisoft Forward 2023 yet? Check out their reveal of Star Wars Outlaws!
