Asgard's Wrath

Asgard's Wrath
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Sanzaru Games
Publisher	Oculus Studios
Platform	Oculus Rift
Device	Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest 2 (via Oculus Link)
Operating System	Windows
Type	Game
Genre	Action role-playing
Input Device	Oculus Touch tracked motion controllers
Play Area	Standing, seated, Room-scale
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	October 10, 2019
Price	US $39.99
App Store	Oculus Store
Website	https://www.meta.com/experiences/asgards-wrath/1180401875303371/

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See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Asgard's Wrath is a 2019 action role-playing game developed by Sanzaru Games and published by Oculus Studios for Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets. Set in a world drawn from Norse mythology, it casts the player as a fledgling god who guides several mortal heroes through a campaign that the developer described as offering more than 30 hours of content. It launched on October 10, 2019, as an Oculus Rift exclusive and was positioned as a full-length, story-driven title at a time when most VR games were shorter experiences.

The game received generally favourable reviews, holding a Metacritic score of 88 from 15 critic reviews. UploadVR named it the overall Best VR Game of 2019, and Road to VR gave it that outlet's 2019 Oculus Rift Game of the Year award. Its developer, Sanzaru Games, was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) in February 2020. A sequel, Asgard's Wrath 2, was released for Meta Quest headsets in December 2023.

Gameplay

Asgard's Wrath is played from a first-person perspective and is built around two scales of play. As a newly created god, the player can shrink down to inhabit a mortal hero and fight at ground level, or zoom out to a god-sized view to manipulate the environment, solve puzzles, and interact with the world from above. The UploadVR reviewer described the god view as looking down on the world "like a toy box spilled over."

The campaign is divided into chapters called sagas, framed by the trickster god Loki, and follows five playable mortal heroes, each with its own play style and special abilities. Combat centres on melee weapons and a parry-and-block system: enemies have health bars and Runic Armor shields that must be broken before they take normal damage. Weapons carry status effects such as lightning and poison, and they can be thrown and magically recalled to the hand. Outside of fighting, the game includes dungeon exploration, side quests, treasure hunting, crafting, and consuming food to restore health.

A central mechanic is the recruitment and transformation of animal followers. The player can bond with roughly a dozen animals and transform them into humanoid companions that assist in combat and puzzle-solving. Examples include a turtle that provides a protective shell, an owl with sonic abilities, and a shark suited to aggressive melee fighting.

Development

Sanzaru Games, a studio founded in 2006 and based in Foster City, California, began work on Asgard's Wrath in 2016. It was the studio's fourth virtual reality title for the Oculus platform, following Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge, and Marvel Powers United VR, and Sanzaru was the first developer to partner with the Oculus Studios team, in 2016. An early version of the concept was compared to Lemmings, with the player commanding human characters as a god; the design later grew into a first-person action RPG built on a custom version of Epic Games' Unreal Engine. A team of around 90 developers worked on the project. Mat Kraemer was Sanzaru's senior creative director on the game, and Mike Doran was an executive producer at Oculus Studios.

Oculus and Sanzaru announced the game on February 5, 2019, and confirmed a release date of October 10, 2019, during the Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) keynote.

Release

At launch Asgard's Wrath was a PC VR title sold through the Oculus Store for US $39.99, playable on the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S with Oculus Touch controllers. It was not a native standalone game for the Oculus Quest; Quest owners could play it only by connecting the headset to a VR-ready PC over Oculus Link. From late 2020 into early 2021, Oculus offered the game free to new Oculus Quest 2 owners who connected their headset to a PC via Oculus Link.

Date	Platform / event	Notes
February 5, 2019	Announcement	Revealed by Oculus Studios and Sanzaru Games
October 10, 2019	Oculus Rift / Oculus Rift S (PC VR)	Full release via the Oculus Store, US $39.99
November 2020 - January 2021	Oculus Quest 2 promotion	Offered free to new Quest 2 owners playing via Oculus Link
December 15, 2023	Asgard's Wrath 2 (Meta Quest)	Standalone sequel released on Quest 2, Quest Pro, and Quest 3

Reception

Asgard's Wrath received generally favourable reviews. On the review aggregator Metacritic it holds a score of 88 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews, with a user score of 7.9. Critics highlighted its ambition and its length compared with other VR games of the period.

IGN scored the game 9.4 out of 10, and the French site Jeuxvideo.com gave it 18 out of 20. Road to VR rated it 8.8 out of 10 and named it the outlet's 2019 Oculus Rift Game of the Year. UploadVR awarded it 5 out of 5 stars, with its reviewer calling it "the best VR game I have played to date," and the publication later named it the overall Best VR Game of 2019 as well as Best PC VR Game/Experience.

The game was nominated for Best VR/AR Game at The Game Awards 2019, where it lost to Beat Saber, and for Immersive Reality Game of the Year at the 23rd D.I.C.E. Awards, where it lost to Pistol Whip. It was also a finalist at the Game Critics Awards, the New York Game Awards, the NAVGTR Awards, and the Game Developers Choice Awards.