Asgard’s Wrath 2 is a full-fledged VR open-world action RPG that I have been dying to play. I am a huge VR fanatic and recently got my Quest 3 alongside Asgard’s Wrath 2 for free (the signature Quest 3 game). This game is made by Sanzaru Games and hosts about 60 hours of gameplay to finish the narrative. Throughout this journey, you will face fun combat encounters and engage in an exciting narrative embedded in Egyptian Mythology; however, one of the most fun parts of this game in my opinion is the puzzle aspect of it (might be surprising, but let me explain). Puzzles are a way to break up the loop of combat and naturally forward the plot, by having people critically think about the puzzle at hand (which relates to the plot) and solve it. These are a clever way of pushing the narrative forward in a way that makes the user actively engage with the story. By using Asgard’s Wrath 2 as my primary example, I will talk about how the mechanics of the puzzles involved in the game influence the experience of the game by pushing forward the narrative in a more engaging way compared to other methods such as dialogue options or non-diegetic puzzles.
In Asgard’s Wrath, the puzzles are diegetic. This means that they blend directly into the environment and narrative. For example, you will encounter certain buttons/switches that you must throw your weapon (an axe) at to activate them. This feels very natural because you flick your arm as if you are throwing an axe and it flies towards the spot you need to hit. When you do so, a certain timed event will occur (figure 1). Occasionally, you will also have to hit multiple of them within a certain order or a certain time. This leads to players having to scout beforehand in an open world space to find all the buttons they need to press and what the results will occur with each button press. This is only the first type of puzzle, and it allows people to engage in it by physically having to throw their axe (one of the weapons they use to fight) to hit the button and move forward by either entering the next stage of the narrative of enter a secret room holding a secret chest. This is by far more engaging compared to linearly going through a story without any sidequest adventures or anything to do in order to move forward to the next level/destination.
The next mechanic I want to talk about is the “God Form” (figure 1). The premise of the game is that the player themselves are actually a God that is inhibiting a mortal’s body to perform actions in Egypt to secure stones in order to beat Loki (from Norse Mythology based on Asgard’s Wrath 1). Because the players know of this within the first few minutes of the game, once they activate their God Form (which is only done during the major puzzle parts), then they can do multiple different things mechanically that relate to the story and by completing these tasks, they can advance the plot forward. For instance, the player is as massive as the divine being, which allows them to move objects, allowing their mortal body to get to areas not accessible without the God Form. Then, also, the God Form can suck the souls of the live animals, allowing you to use these souls to move specific objects or activate specific events.
This form is one of the most fun parts of the game because these are the puzzles that are the most challenging. When I played, I ran across numerous puzzles, that I could not figure out for 30+ minutes. I had to look up a guide on YouTube (shoutout to A Wolf in VR for his Asgard’s Wrath playthrough) to figure out the puzzle and how to move on. In addition, when I joined the Discord for Asgard’s Wrath I saw that there were a lot of people asking for help on certain puzzles and the community is actively engaging in helping the players figure out these puzzles. It was great news to see that the developers are actively working on the game (even helping people out on Discord), and the community is actively helping out other players as well!
However, to summarize the mechanics and how they play together to influence the game, we can see that every puzzle element in Asgard’s Wrath 2 is diegetic, allowing a very seamless integration with the story and narrative. From using your own mortal’s weapon to figure out specific puzzles, or using your God Form to manipulate objects and complete tasks, the player is much more engaged and more likely to enjoy the game and narrative because of how diegetic these puzzles are integrated into the overall game. If we compare this game to others where the puzzles aren’t integrated into the game, but rather completely separate and don’t feel natural, then we can see how Asgard’s Wrath 2 succeeds in making a fun puzzle game. For instance, if we take Spider-Man 2, where a lot of the puzzles break away from the immersion and players typically tend to feel hatred or redundancy in these puzzles because they break the flow of the narrative due to the mechanics of how the puzzles are done (such as rotating objects or matching objects on a 2d screen when playing a 3d game), then we can see that this diegetic inclusion of puzzles by having everything appear in the actual 3D environment makes for a more engaging playthrough and narrative. These puzzles aren’t just things that players must do to 100% the game. Instead, they are mandatory and push forward the narrative to new heights, engaging the players by having them critically think and engage with the game and narrative, making it much more enjoyable overall. Therefore, Asgard’s Wrath 2 is a stellar example of how the mechanics of the game should relate to the story by having the players complete tasks that feels natural to the player they are playing as, which creates a more engaging narrative and experience.
Figure 1: Throwing Axe Puzzle
Figure 2: “God Form”
