‘Murderer’s Creed Nexus VR’ Makes the Case for Immersive Gaming—Lastly

I crouch unseen behind the bureau, the guard blocking the one exit from the room. Silently, I attain for a goblet, throwing it to the other aspect of the chamber. Because the guard steps towards the disturbance, I emerge, sneaking behind him. With a flick of my wrist, my hidden blade emerges. He’ll by no means take one other step once more. Additionally, his halberd begins fritzing on the ground earlier than fading out of existence, a reminder that that is all digital actuality—or moderately, VR inside VR, the metatextual framing of Ubisoft’s newest Murderer’s Creed recreation.

Ubisoft has had its fingers in VR for years now, from early efforts experimenting with the format—assume Eagle Flight, an aerial racing recreation with a literal hen’s-eye view that developed from a tech demo—to extra totally featured video games, such because the social deduction title Werewolves Within or co-op house journey Star Trek: Bridge Crew, each from its Pink Storm studio.

Murderer’s Creed Nexus VR is totally different. It’s greater, extra bold, leveraging the success of the writer’s largest IP. And whereas Pink Storm as soon as extra leads improvement, Ubisoft dedicated no fewer than eight studios to its creation. It is a push, one supposed to make the case that VR gaming has lastly, really arrived, that it’s eventually a format value bringing AAA properties to in significant methods, moderately than for gimmicky spinoffs.

It’s a prosecution Ubisoft makes alarmingly effectively. Taking part in Murderer’s Creed Nexus on the Meta Quest 3 has that uncommon distinction of shattering expectations and feeling higher than it ought to. In the event you’re a longtime VR participant, it brilliantly combines the most effective parts of immersive gameplay right into a cohesive entire, permitting you to maneuver, climb, conceal, and combat your manner round stunningly realized areas. For Murderer’s Creed followers drawn to VR for the primary time, it does an distinctive job of putting you within the function of an murderer, with all of the stealth and parkour mechanics you anticipate from the core video games translated virtually flawlessly to a first-person expertise.

That it’s a canon tour by way of Murderer’s Creed’s more and more huge lore doesn’t harm, both. The story’s present-day framing locations you within the function of a hacker, one infiltrating shady megacorp Abstergo’s newest try at manipulating the previous to manage the long run. Higher nonetheless? Gameplay that places you into the genetic reminiscences of three returning heroes—Murderer’s Creed II’s Ezio, AC III’s Connor, and Odyssey’s Kassandra.

For longtime followers of the sequence, it’s an absolute delight to revisit these stab-happy leads years after their debuts, and Nexus leans into their totally different play types, additional justifying the multi-character method. Ezio boasts two of the sequence’ signature hidden blades, emphasizing his extra shadowy nature, whereas Kassandra seems like extra of a fighter, befitting her mercenary nature in Odyssey. Even Connor, thought of one of many much less widespread of AC’s protagonists, will get a beneficiant showcase, together with his use of a tomahawk and a bow and arrow bringing a materially totally different really feel to each fight and stealth.