Asgard's Wrath

Asgard's Wrath is an expansive action RPG set in Norse mythology, in which the player plays as a deity guiding a mortal hero, while at key moments being able to take direct control and fight with their own hands against mythological creatures and gods. This two-tier structure – guiding the hero from a deity's perspective while also personally taking part in combat – gives the game an unusually large scope both in environmental scale and in the intensity of the action, and allows for smoothly switching between the roles of strategist and fighter.

The game offers an expansive world full of puzzles, weapon-and-shield combat, and branching story lines, which at the time of release made it one of the longest and most content-rich VR games on the market. Both visually and audibly it is crafted with great attention to detail, featuring large boss fights against enormous creatures that use VR scale to heighten the sense of size and threat. Melee and shield combat was critically praised for its precision and physical sense of resistance, while guiding the hero from the deity's perspective feels more like a classic action adventure with puzzle elements.

Asgard's Wrath was, after release, described as one of the most ambitious and complex VR games of its generation, often compared to classic action RPGs on consoles and PC. Its length and depth of story exceeded the expectations of many players, who at the time associated VR mainly with shorter experiences, and the game thus significantly pushed the boundaries of what virtual reality is expected to offer. Subsequently released standalone expansions further extended the game's lifespan and expanded its story world. The combination of deep, character-development-based gameplay in the style of a classic action RPG with everything VR enables in direct combat made it one of the most frequently cited examples of what a truly expansive RPG built specifically for virtual reality can look like.

Why play it: For players who expected only short experiences from VR – an expansive action RPG comparable to console and PC classics shows how deep and long a virtual world can be.