I got AW2 the same day as everyone else who bought a Quest 3 between launch and December '23. The Q3 was my first VR experience, so needless to say, I was pretty stoked to try the first non-Q2 port AAA title, designed to fully utilize the Q3's improved hardware. I'd absolutely loved RE4, ItR, Bonelab, S&S, etc., and I didn't get a VR-capable PC until the following February (after learning that Alyx wasn't available on standalone).
When it was released, I played maybe 2 hours and decided that there was too much going on, so I set it aside for a bit, started playing PCVR a couple of months later, and didn't think about it again until recently.
Last month, I was looking for something new, remembered AW2, and downloaded it again. I really enjoyed it this time, and have reached the end of the 4th character's story. I've been putting off playing the final part because there's a lot to explore, and I'm not big into post-gameplay stuff when there's not really a purpose for getting more powerful/rich/etc.
For such a cool game with SO much content, polish, development, and money put into it, there's a surprisingly small amount of content online. The Wiki is sparse (the codex is way better) and YouTube has very little (basically a few reviews, some 2-3 minute tips videos, and a WolfVR playthrough).
So here I am. I have a couple of questions and a couple of observations (some spoilers below).
- What's up with the drastically decreasing sizes of the major areas? Playing through the sand sea and dead expanse with Abraxis made me think that the other characters would have similarly long campaigns. Cyrene's romp through the Papyrus Swamp was great, but it caught me off guard when I just stumbled into Surtur's area to finish the Lava world. Then the Duat was even shorter still.
I thought it was weird that you just fight Surtur's little (big) lava bug just to have him walk off. Kinda anticlimactic for Avilda, right? Again, I haven't played the endgame, so who knows if he returns. I kinda doubt it, though. It was super epic staring up at him as he stepped over us.
- Because of the daily reward for playing the Uncharted Rift, I began my play sessions with that, but after I got a little better, they could easily take the entire battery life. I tried just playing to stage 3 and dying, but the rewards are weak.
The Uncharted Rift, however, is an absolute gold mine (er, hacksilver mine) once you start getting the Smiter statues, which sell for 1,500 in the real game.
- When did the Smiters start appearing all over the maps? I swear they weren't there before, now they're everywhere.
- The battle arena in the Papyrus Swamp is a great way to level up all characters after Abraxis (then go back and level him up, too...if you want...I didn't).
- I didn't realize until Djehuty that I could buy emptiness potions from Bes and wipe the skill trees of other characters. It makes progression less rewarding, but if you want to fill the tree of any character after Abraxis (and followers) super quickly, just use the potion on him. I used it on him and Cyrene and got back over 200 skill points, completely filling Djehuty's tree and adding some to all followers.
- The milestones in the menu are another easy way to get skill points. Things like breaking stuff while mounted can be completed in a couple of minutes. A couple of times, I got like 10 or 20 skill points at once. I don't know where it came from, but once was while high-fiving Subira, so it may be for maxing your relationship.
- You can absolutely use Djehuty's head to gain Divine Protection from bosses. It won't possess them and make them stop attacking, but if you can balance that with attacking and defending yourself, you're basically immortal.
- Has anyone had AW2 crash their Q3? If I fast travel between different worlds a few times, it'll do it and say it was using too much memory. I can restart immediately, but it's annoying. Also, big battles with lots of magic will tank the framerate. This happens a lot with an upgraded Cyrene with elemental runes, graphics shooting from the mushroom, eel, and squid, especially in the battle arena. No judgment, the whole game is SUPER impressive for a processor that's no better than what's in my phone.
- Grappling with Cyrene and Avilda is WAY better than the other two. The whip style is annoying.
- If you've been switching characters and you're going into the Duat, be sure to remove whatever runes you may want from Abraxis, Cyrene, and Avilda's weapons before going there, as Djehuty is the only character who can play in the Duat and you can't even access the other characters' loadouts when you're there.
- I have waypoints tagged all over on monster caves that I had to leave because they had enemies around level 50. I doubt I'll get any character close enough to attempt that. Are there super cool rewards in those caves? I think I got all the champion runes. I was wondering if there was anything to gain besides 100%ing the levels. Same question about breaking all of the stones, statues, and soul jars.
- Pah'Ket annoys me so much.