How does the new Blade & Sorcery: Nomad look and run on Quest 3(S)?
Blade & Sorcery: Nomad has finally hit full release. We tried the new progression mode on Quest 3.
For those who have been living under a rock and have never heard of Blade & Sorcery: The game is a physics-based combat sandbox and simulation built from the ground up for virtual reality. It is the ultimate VR power fantasy, where you fight realistic human opponents with all sorts of medieval weapons and magic.
The original Blade & Sorcery was developed for PC VR headsets. This summer, it received a final content update and came out of Early Access. The biggest new feature in the update was the Crystal Hunt progression mode, which integrates combat into a campaign and allows players to explore the lore of the fantasy world. Kevin tried the full PC VR release back in June.
Before yesterday, Blade & Sorcery: Nomad was a stripped down version of the PC VR version developed in parallel for Meta Quest and Pico. Yesterday's update brought Blade & Sorcery: Nomad up to the level of the PC VR version in terms of content and features. The update includes the new Crystal Hunt progression mode and much, much more.
Only optimized for Quest 2
I played Crystal Hunt for about an hour yesterday on my Quest 3 and want to give you my first impressions.
In the new game mode, you wake up on a picturesque beach and explore a surprisingly open and expansive coastal area with beautiful caves and greenery. You don't see that every day on standalone systems.
Unfortunately, it is obvious from the first minute that the game has been optimized for Quest 2. The rendering resolution is quite low, the image is blurry and shows strong aliasing, which considerably detracts from the overall impression of Quest 3.
I found that the system was significantly underutilized after I increased the resolution by 50 percent using the Quest Game Optimizer. The much sharper image makes Blade & Sorcery: Nomad shine, making it one of the more graphically impressive titles for Quest 3.
A promising introduction
During my brief test, I also noticed some visual artifacts and an enemy that seemed to be stuck in the environment, but this did not detract from the positive impression.
The physics-based climbing and exploration of the beautiful fantasy world was a lot of fun, and having only scratched the surface of what the game has to offer, I'm looking forward to discovering more areas of the game. A word of warning to the squeamish: if you're not comfortable with virtual violence, beware of Blade & Sorcery, as the combat feels quite realistic and brutal.
I hope that Warpfrog will release an update for Quest 3 and 3S that will at least increase the resolution. There's a lot of visual potential here. If that happens, I can recommend the game to Quest 3 users without reservation.
You can purchase Blade & Sorcery: Nomad in the Horizon Store and Pico Store.
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