There is a point somewhere between your room being lit up like Iron Man’s HUD as you set up The Animus/real-world nonsense and you start stabbing some Italian men as you swish around Ezio’s Yataghan sword that messes with my head. Bringing the world of Assassin’s Creed Nexus alive is the usual best hacker in the world (this side of Watch_Dogs) taking on someone or something mysteriously horrible by using the historical settings as set pieces, seeming unconnected initially. It seems reductive to just say “It’s another Assassin’s Creed,” especially given that in recent years, that definition has been expanded.

Nonetheless, playing as two of the best characters the series has had, you hop your way through memories swashbucklingly shouting “En Garde!” despite never being Spanish, in the quest to stop Morena Baccarin’s Dominika. Do you really need me to explain the concept of an Assassin’s Creed game to you? The gimmick of course this time being that you look mad to your neighbors as you prance around the living room, jumping on the furniture, flailing your arms, and swearing in Italian with the curtains drawn back. All with a magic box of colors and lights strapped to your face.

This time around you explore three separate worlds, time frames, or memories, all in a handful of missions with their own arching plots. I’ve said that it is a bit linear, and that’s true, but not entirely. For example, the first time you get breasts-on with my favorite lesbian of Lesvos, you get a large portion of a dock on Delos. In fact, it is so large you have an entire Parthenon-sized temple to scale to activate one of your eagle-vision vantage points. Within these smaller open worlds full of challenges, you’ll have objectives that actually progress the stories.

Some missions like the final one for Ezio in the tutorial are just a linear chase in the typical Assassin’s Creed story mission way. However, that is often preceded by a full-scale Monteriggioni or otherwise. These are all distanced a couple of years from their major story points. Ezio follows on from Brotherhood, Kassandra is 20 years following the battle of Amphipolis, and do you really care about Connor or are you motion sick? I don’t want to say “Yes, the team at Red Storm Entertainment has solved all the motion sickness problems of VR, praise the day!”

Truth is, the team behind two of the best Tom Clancy games (aided by Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Mumbai, and Reflections) have done a lot of work to limit that motion sickness that is easily found in such titles like Nexus. I have to draw a comparison to WarpFrog’s Blade and Sorcery, a game I played for all of 10-20 minutes and quickly felt sick. I have since returned and acclimatized to it, though I digress. Assassin’s Creed Nexus employs what Google Earth VR does to limit motion sickness, though with a lot of options to customize the experience and often with explanation videos.

Vignette is often a word used by those who play around with photomodes and pretentious people who like film, but it is a good way to solve this gliding along the ground with thumb-stick locomotion. There is an option for teleportation, though if you haven’t picked up that Assassin’s Creed is a stealth-focused title, you’ve come to the wrong place. The vignette effect purposefully creates a tunnel-vision view while in motion, which greatly helps to reduce the want to spread your 2023 vomit all over 17-whenever and 480 BCE. Appearing both in horizontal movement and vertical movement.

It is an Assassin’s Creed game after all, and Nexus tackles that fairly well. The jumping and walking around in stealth can sometimes cause me to say “Yeah, I’m not actually doing much here.” The former is done with a tap of the A button on your right controller and the latter makes you stand like a creepy old man. Anyone who’s played the fantastic Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, & Hand Grenades will be familiar with the locomotion and climbing. However, I must admit the more original aspects and the Meta Quest 2’s abilities limit that somewhat. Maybe the 3 is better equipped for it.

The biggest issues I’ve found are some oddities with climbing: Gripping takes hold (made up figure) 96%, and throwing yourself from a mantle like you are Lara Crofticus. It was so dark down under the Temple of Odysseus where you get the bow, that jumping while mantling in VR with your boundaries popping up to blind you made it really difficult to see where to cling onto. Moreover, it was so dark down there I couldn’t see the alternate paths that are meant for people who are crap like me. The wrist-flicking jump mechanic might work better elsewhere, but there it was a nightmare and imprecise.

Climbing isn’t the only thing I’ve had (or tracking has had) issues with. There is a sort of Skyrim-Like lock picking, but in 3D, that you have to fondle like a Greek statue’s breasts, which doesn’t always work. Sometimes the grip doesn’t take hold because I’m apparently half-standing on a doorstep and half-not, so I’m left with legs doing an intricate dance known as “WTF?” However, when you get into the mini-game, the controllers can sometimes be an issue too. Specifically, an issue where I’m flailing my hand about trying to find where it realizes I’ve moved.

With better tracking and understanding of your body movements, I think these issues could be solved easily. Though as things stand with the Meta Quest 2’s tracking, it can sometimes be a bit of an issue to complete some of those objectives. The assists available do help in several regards, but from time to time, that jumping/climbing mechanic or the lock-picking mini-game doesn’t always work as intended. When it does work, and you are leaping across rooftops getting away from Athenians in a chase, it is great and feels like you are actually in an Abstergo simulation.

I’d argue that Nexus is the most game that a VR game has gotten to. The two that I’ve mentioned thus far (and many others) are contained experiences more than narrative-based games: Playing with guns or arena fighters with magic and swords. Nexus is a lot more mission-based with open worlds to give you something to play around with, clear objectives, and a decent amount of gameplay as you sack off doing what the antagonist wants you to do.

You even have Danny Wallace (who sounds like Pascal Langdale, Legion’s Bagley) voicing one of your elite hacker mates, though he neither has the breasts of Angelina Jolie, the fun of being Matthew Lillard, or the death stare of Johnny Lee Miller. The cast and the writing aren’t outstanding. To say it is another Assassin’s Creed might be reductive, but Nexus feels like it goes through the motions of adding to our two heroes and Connor. It isn’t world-beating writing but it also isn’t dreadful.

Combat could be better. It is mostly flailing your arms around and hoping for the best when you are in a boss fight or fighting more than two people. You’re quicker desyncing and going back to the checkpoint. If anything, the combat is best when in stealth, simply because you can jump off of rooftops, flick your wrist to reveal your hidden blade, and make a man crumple into a mess. Much like Blade and Sorcery, I might have gone a bit psychotic with my ability to interfere with people.

I might have looked up a man or two’s toga in Delos like I was a video game exec, especially after I killed him and threw him on one of the many fire pits around town. In Boston, I would drown the English, which I’m sure is a phrase my editor won’t like me saying given the issues with Scotland and England. There is a sense of fun to the Stealth and beyond as you throw your throwing knives, fire your bow, jump off of rooftops, and generally do the Assassin’s Creed thing. I found it funny when I found I could throw Connor’s tomahawk from rooftops for a silent kill too, as the force returns it to you.

Ultimately, Assassin’s Creed Nexus is a fun example of translating the well-known property to the VR world with a so-so story and great stealth mechanics. The combat is mostly trying not to hit the TV in your mad “Templar debes mori” shouts. Nexus shouldn’t be considered the template to move forward with triple-A titles, but it makes a good case for fans of the series and those curious about it to take a chance at jumping off of buildings. Maybe a more substantial sequel that focuses on one character might fare better instead of spreading the tutorial out over three characters and many hours.

A Meta Quest review copy of Assassin’s Creed Nexus was provided by Ubisoft for this review.

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Assassin's Creed Nexus

$39.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Great stealth VR combat that's fun.
• The accessibility/comfort options limiting motion sickness.
• An okay story that does enough.

Cons

• High-action combat can be a bit crap.
• Performance while natively recording can be sickening.