Preview of Assassin’s Creed Nexus: Like Stepping Inside an Actual Animus Machine
Last week I got hands-on with Assassin’s Creed Nexus for VR platform Meta Quest and experienced its exciting thrills of climbing buildings and assassinating baddies using my movements alone.
Experiences like these feel similar to donning an actual Animus helmet that creates an entirely novel way of playing Assassin’s Creed.
My experience playing this game included both a tutorial and full-length level that put me into Ezio Auditore da Firenze’s shoes; though Connor Kenway and Kassandra will appear as playable characters later.
If you have ever played VR before, the controls should be intuitive: triggers act as your fingers allowing you to pick up, hold and drop/throw objects around the room. As time progresses and weapons and gadgets become attached to you – sheathing your sword at your side or pulling out smoke bombs – they must also be put back into their respective places as part of gameplay – this becomes especially relevant when dealing with weapons such as swords.
However, what sets it apart is its unique climbing mechanic. While other Assassin’s Creed titles feature characters who master parkour techniques like parkour master Connor MacGinty in other titles, climbing like an assassin requires mastery as you play through levels – it takes practice! And at first you might stumble awkwardly up walls searching for bricks to use to hoist yourself upward. But once mastered it’s an unforgettable feeling; scaling multistory buildings effortlessly felt amazing knowing my movements and quick thinking had enabled it all myself!
However, VR sets don’t track your feet like traditional videogame consoles do and even if they did it wouldn’t make for good gameplay. Instead it takes advantage of what has long been utilized by Assassin’s Creed games by employing its signature mechanic of holding down one button to cause your character to automatically leap and bound across rooftops automatically while at the same time being controlled via where they look when leaping forwards or backwards. No need to fear however as all leaping will depend on where your eyes are looking when looking.
As you run, you may decide to jump onto a nearby pole which you can grab and swing from to maintain your forward momentum. Or if necessary, clear large gaps by jumping off them, landing safely before falling, then quickly hoisting yourself back up again before setting off again. For quick but safe descent back onto ground level using hooks is also available as another method of travel.
Venice level I played was also completely open environment and provided me with an ideal playground to experiment with different parkour moves – particularly one as daunting in VR as Leap Of Faith.
I was very pleased to find comfort options that allowed for customization both visually and controlling, such as switching teleportation for fluid movement or altering peripheral vision settings; there was even an anti-vertigo option which provided more clarity of what lay before you.
Moving along, although parkour may be the foundation of Assassin’s Creed, its stealth/action elements make up its rich texture – something Nexus does exceptionally well.
Starting off stealth was very different to playing an Assassin’s Creed game due to being in control of my own movements instead of controlling another character. Enemies patrol areas they shouldn’t be in and in order to avoid conflict you must pay close attention to what they are doing or where their attention lies.
As one solution for sneaking past unnoticed, distraction is one effective means. A distraction could include gathering any objects nearby and tossing them across the room until someone notices. Or you could easily draw their attention with whistle calls by positioning your hand into an “OK” sign and holding it near your mouth/bottom of headset.
Once an enemy has become sufficiently curious about you, either fade away like shadow at dawn, or go for the kill. Doing this requires holding down a trigger and flicking your wrist in order to reveal an assassin’s most potent weapon: Hidden Blade. All it takes to end whoever it is you want killed is giving one good stab – your job is complete. Additionally, throwing knives from distance may also work effectively, or air assassinations at press of a button can even take place depending on their position within seconds if there.
As in other games of Assassin’s Creed series, all the stealth mechanics from previous titles can also be seen here, from hiding behind bushes or piles of hay for unnoticed positioning to standing among crowds of people to tail a target without getting noticed.
However, stealth could be challenging to master; especially if something went amiss when throwing or moving too quickly past an enemy. Once caught by them however, your options would either include fleeing quickly or unsheathing your sword for combat if needed.
Combat is actually quite manageable as long as you’re fighting an individual or small group; simply block strikes and counter with counter strikes of your own to counter them back. A charge move was especially useful against enemies standing near ledges. If outnumbered, throw smoke bombs to give yourself time to retreat quickly before going full throttle to take down as many as you can before retreating again or going all-out and trying to take down as many as you can before they become dazed and helpless again.
Once everything comes together, we had one of the most immersive Assassin’s Creed experiences we’ve ever encountered; Ubisoft developers managed to incorporate many iconic AC mechanics while making them fun to use and easily accessible via VR format.
No matter where you stand with Assassin’s Creed, or have just discovered it for the first time, Nexus promises to provide an exciting example of VR’s potential while giving beloved series an entirely different dimension.
On 16 November, Assassin’s Creed Nexus will make its debut for VR headsets and Meta Quest 2, 3, 4 and Pro consoles.
