Review | Assassin’s Creed Nexus

Assassin’s Creed Nexus takes the long-running series into VR.  You’ll run, jump, stab, and kill as Ezio, Kassandra, and Connor on a Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro.  The thought of parkour-style movement, long falls, and non-stop jumping VR title was a scary proposition. My stomach was turning at the thought of a dive from the top of a clock tower into a bale of hay.  Somehow Ubisoft has pulled it off, and while extended play sessions could eventually wear me down, my tummy held strong no matter how I moved. Let’s dive into everything else as we stab our way through time and see how Nexus turned out.

The Setup

You are “the hacker”.  Working for the Brotherhood you’ll infiltrate Abstergo’s latest operation, the Nexus.  Through the course of sixteen missions, you’ll relive the memories of Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2’s trilogy, Kassandra from Odyssey, and Connor from Assassin’s Creed III. Ezio and Kassandra are fantastic protagonists, and it was great to be back in their shoes.  Connor is a bit boring, but his timeframe of the American Revolution is still damned cool to visit.  Abstergo is looking for pieces of the Antikythera because for some reason Archimede’s device is all the rage in entertainment this year.

After sitting through some decently acted cutscenes you’ll head off into Ezio’s memories and immediately be hit with a lot of bad acting from the game’s various side and ancillary characters.  It’s the main thing that stuck out to me with Nexus.  In so many ways it feels like a proper Assassin’s Creed game, but a large number of NPC accents do not match the location and sound like something you’d heard in a bad school play.  It is at odds with everything else as on the new Meta Quest 3 the game looks fantastic.  I started out on the Quest 2 and it looked rough but ran flawlessly.  The generational leap between the two headsets is real, and sadly I did not have a Quest Pro to try either.

You’ll visit various areas in Italy, Ancient Greece, and Revolutionary America in a title that clocks in at a seventeen GB install.  NPC variety is low, and there are a lot of re-used assets to keep the game’s size footprint down.  I get it but it’s still jarring to see the same face on 10 npc’s in a small area at times.  While they did an admirable job on the Quest 2 there are major cutdowns in settings, with pop-in being extremely noticeable everywhere.  The Quest 3 and its improved passthrough cameras were a more pleasant experience overall though both headset’s basic headstraps are terrible.  The first thing I did when the Quest 3 arrived was buy a knock-off elite strap on Amazon for $30.

Back to the setup.  Before every mission, you’ll have a short cutscene, generally with Dominika who has hired you at Abstergo to help finish the Nexus.  It’s all done in the metaverse, and that meta setup is meta meta meta…. Meta!  Everything is VR here, the people you’re talking to, what you’re doing, and it works well enough. Sometimes instead of Dominika, you’ll talk with returning Brotherhood members Sean and Rebecca.  The puzzles you’ll need to complete to access their comms are basic but decently fun.  Nothing in the game is a brain-bender, it’s “fun first” and you’ll feel like a murdering god the entire time you play.

The Gameplay

Being a VR parkour fighting game I was worried about how sick I would feel after a play session.  If I hadn’t been chugging through quickly for the review I would have taken more time.  Short burst sessions of 30 minutes or so were fine with zero issues.  Pushing an hour (or 5) to hit embargo did leave me dead tired and a little dizzy.  A proper head strap is key to keeping the pain in your head down because this game is so fun to play that I didn’t want to stop.

The controls are simple and intuitive.  To pull out your hidden blade you’ll hold the trigger for either hand (only left for Kassandra) and flick your wrist forward.  As long as you hold the trigger down the blade is out and you can stab away.  A is your jump button and when your blade is out you can jump from above someone (even 30 feet or more) and get a beautifully smooth slow-motion decent as you stab them right in the f’ing head.  It is horrible and satisfying and my favorite part of the game.

Melee combat is passable, though not physics-based like the best VR brawlers.  It has a very specific setup for parrying, when to attack, and felt robotic at times.  They were trying to keep it from being spammable, as you will be pushed back by enemies when you swing at them like a crazed ape. The game’s ranged combat is far better feeling.  You’ll have a bow as Kassandra and Connor, and a crossbow as Ezio.  All three will get smoke bombs and throwing knives as well and the ranged attacks are unbelievably accurate.  Shooting a guard in the head from 100ft as I whip knives into 3 of his friends, picking up all of my used ammo off their corpses, and then flinging Connor’s Tomahawk into the last enemy’s face never got old.

Mixing this with the game’s solid movement, where pressing A as you run will have you jump toward anything you’re looking at made it my dream stealth game.  Your grip strength is never-ending, and you can climb up the corner of any building.  A focus on fun shines through and three available difficulties let you make things as tough or easy as you’d like.  The default is pretty darned forgiving so I turned things up about halfway through for a real challenge. 

Everything Else

Assassin’s Creed Nexus succeeds on every front except for its story, which is “fine”.  It’s never bad, with decent writing and mostly solid voice acting.  It feels a bit all over the place with the constant setting changes and the meta story ends on a disappointing note.  Again, it’s never bad but say what you want about how many AC games there are, they tend to have damned good stories.

The settings are all well realized, with just enough variety to where you go so that things never feel stale.  You can complete a series of challenges, find various items, and more to give you an incentive to go back through each level and get a 100% completion rate.  There are parkour challenges, shooting galleries, and various synchronization points.  The latter lets you see each level from a bird’s eye view, allowing you to tag enemies and spot hidden treasures.

While some of the voice acting and overall plot are subpar the music is excellent, as is typical for Assassin’s Creed games.  All three protagonist’s themes are mixed into their levels, with a main title song that feels fresh and still familiar.  I didn’t run into too many bugs, with most of them being me getting stuck in the environment for a second or two.  It wasn’t major but any time you’re in VR and you can’t freely move it is a recipe for feeling sick, quick.

Wrapping Things Up

Assassin’s Creed Nexus is a success in bringing the movement and combat stylings of the ever-popular series into the VR space.  While it is playable on a Quest 2 it’s downright gorgeous inside the 3.  It’s the first time in a while I’ve played a VR title that felt close to a Triple-A release.  There may be a hell of a lot of AC games, but after this solid entry, I hope there’s more to come in VR.

Assassin's Creed Nexus

Played on

Assassin's Creed Nexus

PROS

• Graphics
• Movement
• Stealth Kills
• Ranged Combat
• Being Ezio and Kassandra Again

CONS

• Melee Combat is Repetitive
• Weak Voiceover At Times
• Connor is Still Boring

8.4 out of 10

AWESOME

XboxEra Scoring Policy

Developer

Ubisoft

Released on

November 16, 2023

Publisher

Ubisoft

Rated

Mature 17+

Price

$39.99 (Meta Quest 2, 3, & Pro)

See on the Xbox Store