Blade & Sorcery: Nomad [Meta Quest 2]
Developed by Warpfrog, Blade & Sorcery: Nomad is a standalone release for the Quest 2, and a sister-title from the massively popular Steam VR title Blade & Sorcery. It’s a medieval fantasy sandbox game where you can go up against a bunch of enemies with melee combat as well as a variety of magical abilities. The brutality is often comedic, with ragdoll physics that have your foes crumbling into a heap or flopping away with a swiftly timed shield bash with plenty of blood, and the ability to decapitate enemies and have their heads impaled on the end of your sword just adds to comedic value. You’d think a game with so much barbarity would be very serious and intense, but instead it has a lot of humour, purely from the freedom you have, and the slight jankiness you’ll come across while playing.
There are different locations available for you to try out, accessible from the game map, and with it all being sandbox style, you’d got the freedom to take on as few or as many opponents as you like, with varied levels of difficulty and skill being available - as well as a range of enemy types. There’s a selection of weaponry in your arsenal, and you’ve even got magic at your disposal to utilise against your foes, and weapons can be imbued with your magic simply by gliding your magic-wielding hand over them. There’s also a dungeon styled map for if you’re looking for a bit more ‘purpose’ than what the sandbox styled levels will give you, where the objective is to make it through to the end, and this offers up a good level of challenge - plus it’s somewhat procedurally generated, which helps to prevent it from feeling too stale - which is something that the arenas can suffer from at times.
Enemies all have that basic sort of ‘I’ve just been randomly generated’ appearance, mashing together a hair colour, style and general dead-behind-the-eyes look, but who really cares when they’re all just lambs to the slaughter anyway!? Having them be a bit less clumsy would have been good though, as they do tend to kind of stagger towards you and drop to the floor quite easily, but as they grow in number, this is where things can become quite hazardous and they’ll overwhelm you with ease.
You can customise your character, although being that it’s a VR title, you’ll never see them aside from when you stand awkwardly in front of a mirror, in a weird out-of-body experience that has your brain struggling to comprehend your newfound appearance. There are also tonnes of adjustable options regarding movement, which was very much needed as I found myself to be getting a tad dizzy from all the jumping around at full speed. You’ve got tonnes of weapons available, and swinging them around feels oddly natural - although this is definitely a game to make sure you’ve got the wrist-straps attached for, as you can throw weapons to impale enemies from afar, and force-pull them back (a very satisfying inclusion!), so it could be all too easy to just let go of the controller!
Overall, we had fun with Blade & Sorcery: Nomad, and feel that it’s a game that is surely to get better over time. An alternate mode is set to become available at some point this year, shown within the main menu, which will allow for progression and unlockable loot. Available for £14.99 on the Quest 2, the sandbox gameplay is enough to keep things entertaining for now, but you’ll definitely get more bang for your buck when the extra content is added.
In the end, we decided to give Blade & Sorcery: Nomad the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Are you interested in Blade & Sorcery: Nomad? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Warpfrog for the Blade & Sorcery: Nomad Quest 2 review code!
