The power fantasy of being an assassin and the simple pleasures of virtual tourism might not seem like ideas that would go hand-in-hand, but the Assassin’s Creed series has managed to mash them together for 16 years and counting. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR brings these gameplay prerogatives to virtual reality for the first time, taking familiar systems that developer Ubisoft has been playing with across the course of the franchise and faithfully reimagining them from a fresh perspective. In some ways, the VR experience feels like the perfect fit, although not every aspect of the series translates without any hiccups.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR revisits three past protagonists — Ezio, Connor, and Kassandra — tying several discrete stories up in a metaplot of playing double agent with the modern day Assassins and Templars. 16 missions rotate between the various settings and focus on time-honored Assassin duties, from tailing enemies for information to deploying the hidden blade to strike the final blow. The overall structure is less open-ended than the series standard, but there’s plenty of room to shirk objectives in favor of running across rooftops and seeking out collectibles.
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For something that aims to capture as wide of an audience as an Assassin’s Creed title, VR accessibility can be a nightmarish tightrope act. Tipping the scales too far in either a realistic or arcade-y direction runs the risk of alienating potential fans, to say nothing of managing the odds of motion sickness and consideration of unique needs. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR mostly lifts its attempt at a sweet spot from the surprisingly apt balance of the franchise’s traditional console games, with parkour that can automatically handle jumps and simplistic parry-oriented combat representing the major points of handholding among more complex systems.
The best part of Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR parkour lies in the enormous verticality that it provides, making nearly every environment into a playground where going up is just as valuable as going forward. Manually grabbing out for handholds is more engaging than Assassin’s Creed climbing has ever been before, and it adds a certain thrill to the fear of a fall. The appeal of auto-jumping from platform to platform (achieved by holding a button) will likely come down to personal taste, but it does make finding the perfect paths to fly across areas at top speeds seamless.
2023-11-16 20:00:05
Source from screenrant.com
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