Geek Review: Assassin’s Creed Nexus

The medium of video games has allowed players everywhere to live out their fantasies in a myriad of worlds, but inputting functions into a controller still has its limitations, which is where virtual reality gaming comes in. Nothing immerses the player quite like stepping into the literal shoes of their chosen protagonist, and in Assassin’s Creed Nexus, it is the closest anyone’s going to get to becoming a full-fledged member of the Brotherhood.

While we may not be entering the Animus like Michael Fassbender did in the 2016 film adaptation, players are going to utilise the Abstergo invention for a VR adventure that comes pretty close to the experience of working in the dark to serve the light. The elements of parkour and stealth are well realised by Ubisoft and Red Storm Entertainment in this exclusive Meta Quest title, helping to drive along a serviceable story. Just don’t look too closely at the textures or the combat.

The plot of Nexus sees players being caught between the villainous Abstergo and the Brotherhood of Assassins, tasked to retrieve artefacts that can have a significant impact on the freedom of the world. This is familiar fare, as are the many faces that will greet us along the way, such as Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings. Of course, the main highlights are the fact that we will be spending time as Ezio Auditore, Kassandra, and Connor Kenway.

Throughout the 12-15 hours spent in Assassin’s Creed Nexus, all would-be assassins can experience the action-adventure formula that has been made signature over the years. As Ezio, there’s always time to eliminate Templars while being part of the festivities at Carnevale, whereas Kassandra’s time deals with politics and war. Finally, as Connor, players will play a vital role in overthrowing the British.

For fans, this represents an excellent opportunity to revisit the various locales and periods of these heroes, albeit in a more intimate fashion. The very idea of stealthy movement is no longer just a concern of precise control of analog sticks, but of your entire body as well. The tension of eavesdropping and not trying to get caught is always exciting, and learning to make use of the environments to peek around corners or to hide behind objects physically makes this a unique adventure, distinct from the mainline series. 

Even the parkour takes on new meaning in virtual reality, elevating that sense of control and mastery whether you are running across rooftops or reaching out to grab surfaces and pulling yourself up. Taking a leap of faith into bales of hay never felt more intense, and that rush is hard to replicate outside of VR, which is most certainly a win for the team.

It is also worth noting that those with motion sickness should be able to enjoy Assassin’s Creed Nexus without major issues. And the extensive range of options that can up the comfort level is a huge plus, ensuring that everyone gets to be the assassin they always wanted to be without the fear of losing their balance or throwing up.

However, where the game falters is the combat, a key aspect of the latter Assassin’s Creed games. Although stealth combat works well, once enemies are aware of your presence, things take a turn for the worse. It would have been enjoyable if there was competent AI to test your swordplay and parrying skills, but the enemies are prone to shallow repetition with their telegraphed attacks.

Attacking only one at a time means players have all the time in the world to figure out their next move, not that it’s anything requiring much thought other than preparing to counter. It’s worse when the enemy decides to turtle up, which means plenty of waiting for a window of opportunity to eliminate them outright without the hassle of breaking their guard. Compared to the stealth and parkour action, such combat is a big letdown, which is a problem that plagues much of Kassandra’s time.

The issues also extend to some of the technical aspects of the game, both for performance and in terms of its visuals. The framerate can drop randomly, and crashes are never fun, especially when you are in the middle of a dangerous stealth situation. Loading screens are aplenty, and that can be a boring wait if you are in VR and have no other means of distractions

And while visual fidelity is never going to be on par with the more traditional platforms, the textures in Assassin’s Creed Nexus are still underwhelming to look at, and it’s not a case of sacrificing good looks to achieve better performance. How much of this is due to the fact that the game needs to run on the older Meta Quest 2 headset remains a mystery, but chances are, if it was only exclusive to the Quest 3 or even made its way to the PSVR 2 or PC VR, things could very well be better as a whole.

Taking the good and the bad, it is still quite a remarkable feat to transition a familiar gameplay formula into the realm of VR, and those moments of feeling like a true assassin make it worthwhile to give Assassin’s Creed Nexus a go. Try to stay hidden as much as possible to avoid those pesky combat encounters, and what you’ll find is virtual reality gaming at its finest, sending you to another universe just like the Animus.

Assassin’s Creed Nexus is available on the Meta Store for US$39.99.