It appears Ubisoft’s long-awaited Assassin’s Creed VR title has suffered a pretty serious leak, as footage of the game’s starting menu seems to have found its way online along with a few player impressions.
According to information from Reddit user ‘Echiketto’, Ubisoft is calling its upcoming Quest 2 game Assassin’s Creed: Nexus. The name can be seen in a video of what appears to be a working prototype of its main menu and mission selection screen. You can view that video below, courtesy of Brad ‘SadleyItsBradley’ Lynch.
In the video, we get a look at what appears to be a Quest 2 build. It starts with a calibration sequence that makes you do a ‘T’ pose, and then allows you to either start a new game or ‘Enter the Animus’, the franchise’s virtual reality machine developed by the antagonistic mega multinational, Abstergo Industries.
The video also shows up to the selection of the first mission, named ‘The Sword of Ezio’. The text box appears to be unfinished, as it’s labeled ‘Sample text – needs to be scrollable’.
The text reads: “Ezio makes a surprise return to the family estate at Monteriggioni at the behest of his sister (and fellow assassin) Claudia. Claudia, it seems, has been trying to rebuild the ruins of Monteriggioni, and things have been going very slowly. She’s got her suspicions as to why this is so, what isn’t read to act yet. Instead, Claudia suggest Ezio fins out what’s going on, then leaves him with word that she’s hidden a knickknack of his that he loved as a child somewhere in [illegible] that sports a puzzle.”
The anonymous leaker says they’ve already played a “fair bit of the game,” and maintains it will include many of the assassins from game’s past, although they allege the only thing that substantially changes from assassin to assassin is “the hand model and the way people address you.”
The leak, which we have not been able to verify independently, is said to include a number of the usual Assassin’s weapons such as a sword, hidden blade, throwing knife, smoke bombs, and crossbow. Combat is said to be timing-based, with Echiketto’s description sounding much like how melee is handled in Asgard’s Wrath (2019). “You have to wait until your enemy lowers his cover and strike fast,” the leaker says.
“Missions are linear, so no open world. The missions areas are fairly big. Backtracking is a thing,” Echiketto writes.
Additionally, the leaker says jumping—typically an important feature of the series—works by holding the “A” Button and walking towards bespoke areas to initiate a jump. From that description, it sounds very much like a concession to keep the game comfortable and more linear in how the player approaches the world.
A separate leak, reported by Exputer, maintains Nexus includes things such as “stealth movement, pickpocketing, lock picking, combat, climbing, and even the leap of faith.”
Exputer says Nexus features 16 missions, which you can play in either smooth locomotion via the controller analog sticks, or via teleportation. Ostensibly evening the playing field between the two locomotion styles, it’s said teleportation comes with a sound bar that indicates how much noise you’re making to nearby enemies.
“Overall, Assassin’s Creed Nexus seems like it’s going to be a really cool and immersive VR experience, and it’s not hard to see how the previously announced Splinter Cell VR game will also play due to both games similarities,” says Exputer.
On the other hand, Echiketto seems pretty unimpressed with the game, saying it “looked like a cash grab to me. Nothing new.”
We’re still waiting to hear more about Ubisoft’s other title, Splinter Cell VR, both of which were announced back at Connect 2020. Neither game was mentioned in this year’s Quest Gaming Showcase, which featured games slated to arrive sometime in 2022, which suggests we may see those games release in 2023.