Bird’s eye spew?

I’m in a weird place with the Meta Quest.

It’s really its own platform these days, with its own specs and increasingly divergent library of games.

The player clasps a ledge in Assassin’s Creed Nexus

At the same time, the Meta’s standalone headsets are by far the most popular PCVR devices.

Therefore, most PCVR gamers will also have access to the Quest’s handful of VR exclusives.

Generally, this column sticks to covering games you might play with any PCVR headset, Quest or no.

The player jumps across ship masts in Assassin’s Creed Nexus

Also, I’ll admit, a VR Assassin’s Creed game intrigues me.

The idea of cavorting across historical rooftops and shanking templars in the sternum sounds brilliant.

It also sounds like barf city.

The player clashes with a Roman fighter in Assassin’s Creed Nexus

However, this also means it brings over many of the series' foibles.

Some of these are forgivable.

Others, less so.

The player fires a bow in midair in Assassin’s Creed Nexus

Aside from being in VR, Nexus differs from the mainline series in two ways.

First, it isn’t anopen world game.

Second, it doesn’t introduce a new historical era.

The player readies a tomahawk in Assassin’s Creed Nexus

Typically, there’s a modern-day plot threading all these together, but it is searingly hot nonsense.

Up close, though, everything looks a bit Xbox 360.

Building textures are flat, while those NPCs have a distinct mannequin-like quality.

The player prepares to fight a bunch of guards in Assassin’s Creed Nexus

This matters far less once you get moving, however.

This makes traversal slightly less swift, but more interactively satisfying.

But it’s an occasional problem rather than a constant nuisance.

Nexus also does well in VR-ifying many of Assassin’s Creed’s underlying systems.

you might also perform the game’s iconic leaps of faith from high places.

Where Nexus arguably surprises most is as astealth game.

Sneaking around the game’s set pieces is not only possible, but intuitive and entertaining.

Both are fun to use.

Admittedly, the game does most of the aiming work for you.

But given the number of VR movements you better master, I don’t mind this too much.

It certainly makes sense with the throwing knives.

Flicking one from your wrist feels cool as fuck, and it encourages you to use them.

it’s possible for you to also retrieve arrows and knives from bodies, which is similarly neat.

Using them to shank people is not as reliable as I’d like, however.

In this way, Nexus is a better assassination game than a lot of the actual mainline games.

There’s no sugar-coating it.

The combat in Nexus honks.

It derives heavily from the pre-Origins games, where enemies are basically invincible until you counter their attacks.

Unfortunately, none of this feels good.

There’s no sense of connection whatsoever.

It’s as if the game is worried about being too violent, which I kind of understand.

Then again, the game is called Assassin’s Creed.

There are other problems, too.

The voice-acting in Nexus is surprisingly poor.

Connor’s VO is painfully wooden (which admittedly isn’t that surprising).

It means a lot of time hanging around in VR before you jump in playing.